It has been a long time since we paid much attention to Paul Krugman, the far-left columnist at the New York Times. Years ago, I caught him in a number of lies, some of which are itemized here. When his retirement from the Times was announced recently, I commented on it here. I thought we were done with “poor, dumb Paul Krugman,” as I referred to him here.
But now Krugman has resurfaced. He has a Substack page–they will take anyone–and has gone on the attack against his former employer:
An embittered Krugman, who was heavily criticized for touting President Joe Biden’s economic policies despite rampant inflation, complained that Times editors were “exerting a very heavy hand on what went out under my name.”
Krugman told Columbia Journalism Review that he “approached Mondays and Thursdays (when his columns appeared) with dread” and that he “often spent the afternoon in rage” after publication.
Based on his columns, I would say that Krugman was in a state of rage at all times, not just when dealing with NYT editors.
Krugman, who has gone on to launch his own independent newsletter on the Substack platform, pointed the finger at Patrick Healy, who was his deputy opinion editor.
“Patrick often — not always — rewrote crucial passages,” Krugman told CJR last week.
“I would then do a rewrite of his rewrite to restore the original sense, and felt that I was putting more work — certainly more emotional energy — into repairing the damage from his editing than I put into writing the original draft.”
Krugman conceded that while “nothing was published without my approval,” he grew exasperated from the “back-and-forth” which “to my eye, both made my life hell and left the columns flat and colorless.”
Having an editor made Krugman’s life Hell. Well, he was always pretty touchy.
This is revealing:
“It was very much toning down of my voice, toning down of the feel, and a lot of pressure for what I considered false equivalence.”
So Krugman’s columns would have been even more strident and hysterical if his editor hadn’t turned down the temperature. And the “false equivalence” is between the Republican sins alleged by Krugman and the blatantly obvious Democratic sins that he omitted to mention.
Apparently the Times was trying to ease Krugman out the door:
The final straw for Krugman was when he was informed by Healy this past September that his workload — two columns per week and a weekly newsletter — would be reduced.
According to Krugman, Healy told him that the newsletter was being canceled.
If this is true–the paper denies it–it is welcome news, since it has appeared that being an opinion columnist at the New York Times is akin to being, say, the Duke of York–a lifetime appointment that it is virtually impossible to lose, no matter how little relevance or impact one’s columns might have.
So, Paul, rage on at Substack! You have no editor, no filter, you can give free rein to your unquenchable inner rage. But no one will read it.
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