A Trump-Sulzberger Deal?

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The New York Sun

A deal between President-elect Trump and the chairman of the New York Times in respect of nepotism is being proposed by the Web site Smartertimes.com, which covers the Gray Lady. The Web-site’s proposal was triggered by the Times editorial alleging that Mr. Trump is violating federal anti-nepotism law in hiring as senior adviser his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. That’s pretty rich, Smartertimes.com reckons, coming from a newspaper that keeps handing its top executive assignments to members of the Ochs-Sulzberger dynasty.

There are those who will rush to point out that there is no law against nepotism in private companies, in contrast to the federal government. Yet it’s not so clear that the White House is one of the agencies covered by the anti-nepotism statute or that it was meant to exclude the kind of close senior adviser that Mr. Kushner will be. Were the law to cover those whom the President wants for counsel, the law would strike us as an unconstitutional breach by the Congress of the doctrine of separated powers. It’s just not hard, in any event, to see, given the outcome of the recent campaign, why Mr. Trump is so eager to have Mr. Kushner’s advice.

The pact Smartertimes.com proposes would be a letter agreement between Mr. Trump and the Times chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., saying: “Dear Arthur: I’ll agree not to hire any of my relatives the minute you agree to fire all of yours. Sincerely, Donald Trump.” It strikes us as a wonderful demarche, even if it would be folly for Mr. Sulzberger to accept it. He was, after all, raised up to publisher by his father, and he just hired his son as deputy publisher of the Times. The executive ranks of the Times also include cousins. Editorial differences aside, the family has done a heroic job.

Nepotism, it could be argued, has served the newspaper industry well for most of its existence. It’s not just the Sulzbergers but also the Chandlers in Los Angeles, the Binghams in Kentucky, the Coxes in Atlanta, Medill’s heirs in Chicago, the Graham family in Washington, the Taylors in Boston, and the Murdochs. No doubt there have been family feuds here and there, but it would be hard to blame family ownership (or nepotism) for the heaviness of the seas the industry is in these days. Given the success of nepotism at newspapers, it’s just odd to see the Times riding out against the one family member Mr. Trump has proposed to place in his White House inner circle.


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