What If Question of the Week

For John, BLUF:  If this was fake news it would be a big dose of fake news.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the Althouse Blog, from Professor Ann Althouse, 6 September 2018.

If I didn't maintain rudimentary trust in the basic integrity of The New York Times...

... I would think that there is no real person behind the famous anonymous op-ed.  I'd think it was a concocted composite based on the Woodward book and motivated by the Woodward book.  Look how that little thrown together collection of paragraphs is now drawing more attention than the book Woodward labored over, which dominated headlines on Tuesday.  Wednesday, this column comes out.  What is in the column that couldn't have been extracted from the book and worked up into an op-ed purporting to be from a senior official in the White House?

That's just a conspiracy theory.  I couldn't help thinking it, but I don't believe it's true, because I think the NYT has too much of a stake in at least the appearance of journalistic integrity.  I do think that the real senior official who wrote the op-ed felt stimulated by the Woodward book, maybe thinks it's a good idea to add momentum to the various stop-Trump efforts, and is perhaps close to resigning and hoping to depart into the open arms of the Trump-hating elite.

Based on Walter Duranty, I wouldn't put it past The Old Gray Lady to make this up out of whole cloth.

Regards  —  Cliff