Times of the Times

The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed this week in its opinion section. Yes, anonymous. If you have never seen an anonymous oped published, join the club. We haven’t either. You won’t see one in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. If someone has something to say in writing for the world to see, he should have the courage to identify himself.

We require identification of letter writers, too. Also their names, hometowns and even phone numbers for confirmation purposes. We think it helps credibility for the entire opinion section.

But, but, but . . . this very editorial is unsigned!

Yes, but there’s a difference between the unsigned, and traditional, editorial that speaks as the voice of a newspaper and anonymous letters, columns and opinion pieces. If you want to know the names of the folks responsible for what you’re reading right now, see the box below. It’s printed. Every. Single. Day. The names of the publisher and the editorial page editor here are no secret. Neither are the names of those who put together other sections among the opinion pages, such as the Voices page and Perspective section.

Besides, unsigned editorials have a long tradition in this country. The best ones have their own voices and regional dialects. Y’all understand. You can buy a loaded potato skin burger with bacon bits and sour cream at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium and beef pho at Seattle Seahawks’ home games. So why should editorials in different parts of the country sound the same? The people don’t.

Some newspapers, for some oh-so-mod reason, have begun signing editorials, or at least initialing them. Must be the latest craze. But if an editorial is signed, isn’t that just … a personal column in the wrong spot? A newspaper’s editorial may be or may not written by one person on a given day, but it purpose is to deliver the perspective of the newspaper’s leadership.

So if you want to read anonymous op-eds, apparently you can look in The New York Times. That paper carries them. Also, for really abusive, defamatory and anonymous opprobrium, see the various social media. It’s too bad The Times, the so-called paper of record, has gone down a similar path.