A.G. Sulzberger, current publisher and scion of the New York Times, writes that a free people need a free press.

The role of a free and independent press in a healthy democracy is under direct attack, with increasingly aggressive efforts to curtail and punish independent journalism. I don’t believe it’s an overstatement to say that this anti-press campaign threatens the special formula that has made the American model so successful for nearly 250 years.

A free people need a free press.

Could any reasonable person disagree? Of course not, which is why Dash, as Sulzberger is called, is full of shit and needs to own up to it. Where was he when editorial page editor James Bennet was sacrificed to the woke?

After the “news” fiasco at the New York Times over the publication of the Tom Cotton op-ed, with staff complaining that “Running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger,” an assertion that apparently makes sense in the twisted minds of indoctrinated children, the Times capitulated to the angry whims of their dumbest people. James Bennett’s big score was turned on its head, no matter how many clicks the op-ed got.

Not only did he acquiesce in, if not cause, Bennet’s unceremonious “resignation,” but he saw no problem with the fact that his “reporters,” the folks upon whom the public relied to learn the news, felt that an op-ed by Tom Cotton put their lives in danger. Did he do anything about it? Did he write an editorial about free speech? Did he not see what was glaringly obvious, that the New York Times was captive to the social justice warriors whose reporting was colored by their “moral clarity” of presenting information only to the extent it supported their ideology?

And then there was Bari Weiss. Regardless of how one feels about her Free Press venture subsequent to leaving the Times, she was canceled for a twit that offended Times’ staff’s sensibilities by praising an Olympic skater by saying “Immigrants: They get the job done,” when the skater was not an immigrant, but the child of immigrants. Burn the witch.

Remember Bari Weiss’ op-ed about the Chicago Dyke March, where she was critical of the intersectionalism that forced Jewish lesbians out for making others feel unsafe? Or her op-ed about Aziz Ansari not being a mind reader? This was the twit that broke the camel’s back. No matter how hard Weiss tried to be a woke but rational feminist, she couldn’t thread that needle.

And yet, Dash has no qualms about holding himself out as the paragon of free press virtue, like the champions of free speech of the past.

Behind their support was a bipartisan recognition that the press plays a crucial role in our success as a nation. Three roles, actually, each of which also maps precisely to current challenges undermining the nation’s civic health:

● As a historic surge of misinformation erodes our shared reality, the press ensures the flow of trustworthy news and information the public needs to make decisions, whether about elections, the economy or their lives.

● As polarization and tribalism strain our societal bonds, the press fosters the mutual understanding that allows a diverse, divided nation to come together with common purpose.

● As rising inequality and impunity undermine confidence in the American promise, the press asks the tough questions and exposes the hidden truths that enable the public to hold powerful interests accountable.

All over the world, we have seen escalating pressure on the ability of the press to play these roles.

He notes that journalism no longer holds the respect of the public it once did, without asking why that is so and taking a damn hard look at the contributions of his own Gray Lady, the paper of record, to this state of affairs.

Some cheer this state of affairs. I’m all too aware that mine isn’t the most popular profession. Too much of modern media is devoted to entertaining rather than informing, to stirring up anger and fear rather than advancing understanding, to amplifying whatever is trending rather than focusing on what really matters. In a country with too many pundits and too few reporters, it’s not a coincidence that trust in the media has plummeted.

Dash admits the Times isn’t always perfect, but again fails to take a hard look at why that’s so.

Even the best news organizations — the ones with the highest standards, the most rigorous processes, the best track record of putting the public interest first — don’t always get it right. At The Times we run a daily corrections section for good reason. And in our long history, you’ll find we’ve made our share of bigger mistakes, as well.

After all, admitting error a day or more after the damage has been done is the same thing as getting it right in the first place? And yet, the daily corrections are about details, a wrong date or misspelled name, and not about a story that was so flagrantly biased as to ignore any inconvenient facts that undermined its basic premise.

As a daily reader of the New York Times, and someone who strongly believes that the lack of a shared factual reality is a fundamental problem plaguing America, I fully agree that a free people need a free press. And an honest press. And a press that presents the facts, whether good, bad or ugly. A free people need a press they can trust to tell the truth, even when the truth conflicts with the feelings of its “journalists” who consider themselves society’s moral arbiters.

We’re not the resistance. We are nobody’s opposition. We’re also nobody’s cheerleader. Our loyalty is to the truth and to a public that deserves to know it. That is the distinct role that independent news organizations like The Times play in our democracy.

No, Dash. You don’t get to say that without admitting that you were very much the resistance, the opposition, the Democrats cheerleader. Only then do you get to claim that your loyalty is to the truth.