Here are five reasons why the NY Times rejected publishing Judge Goldstone’s about-face.
5. The paper’s new motto is “All the news that’s fit to punt.”
4. Pinch Sulzberger knows that people shelling out $15.00 a month for NYT content prefer Ahmed Yousef over a retired South African Jew.
3. Bad luck: Annie Lennox was guest editor that day.
2. After comparing word clouds of the Goldstone report and the mea culpa, the editorial staff decided the op-ed didn’t sufficiently bash Israel.
1. Goldstone’s reference to Hamas “terrorism” violated NY Times policy on the word’s usage.
UPDATE April 5: Ben Smith of Politico got this comment from the NYT:
Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy emails, “We did in fact receive an Op-Ed submission from Richard Goldstone on March 22, but that piece bears no resemblance to the one that was published in the Washington Post on Sunday.”