6 December 2017

(Public) Editor

The New York Times

620 Eighth Avenue

New York, NY, 10018

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

The New York Times recently published an op-ed from John Yoo, the author of the George W. Bush administration’s interrogation memos while an official in Bush’s Justice Department. Yoo -- who should have stood trial for war crimes -- was given a platform on October 31, 2017 NYT op-ed page (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/opinion/trump-pardon-manafort.html?_r=0) to opine whether or not to fire Robert Mueller.

We believe that the NYT's endorsement of Yoo as an opinion leader was politically and ethically inappropriate, identifying him in the bio at the end of the column not as the author of the repugnant Justice Department memos that justified waterboarding and other illegal methods of interrogation, but benignly as a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and an authority on power.  This biased and amnesiac identification is a misapplication of the public trust and is why your paper still needs a Public Editor.

We further believe that the NYT displays a moral blindness about corrupted functionaries like Yoo. David Talbot notes, “War criminals like Yoo, along with other warmongers from the Bush and Obama eras, dominate newspaper op-ed pages and TV news channels and even public radio stations. They are held up as the sane alternative” to Trump and his people.

We attest that it is critically important for healthy democracy to remind its media gatekeepers like the NYT: there is nothing "distinguished" or “civilized” about John Yoo. His opinions about politics and ethics -- even when given a place in the New York Times – disguise a history that is corrupted and coarsening.  The taint of corruption adheres to the Times when its editorial forum suggests not only respectability of Yoo, but also commits to an ongoing publicity of depraved gravitas. Our nation's use of torture has degraded victims, perpetrators, and policy makers, and has damaged the integrity of our nation.  Men like Yoo do not merit a place in the pages of the New York Times so long as their operations inside our republic continue bearing rotten fruit.

Respectfully yours,

Rev. Douglas Olds,  et al

Anti-Torture Team

First Presbyterian Church

72 Kensington Road

San Anselmo, CA 94960