New York Times (Opinion)
Important Note: AllSides provides a separate media bias rating for the The New York Times news pages.
This page refers to The New York Times opinion page, including op-ed writers and the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board’s bias is weighted, and affects this bias rating by roughly 60%. Not all columnists for the New York Times display a left bias; we rate many individual writers separately (see end of this page). While there are some right-leaning opinion writers at the Times, overall the opinion page and Editorial Board has a strong Left bias. Our media bias rating takes into account both the overall bias of the source’s editorial board and the paper’s individual opinion page writers.
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Payback and projection have long been two of President Trump’s touchstones. He settles scores in return for every perceived slight and accuses his targets of what he has done himself. In his second term, that approach has bled into the law, with perilous consequences.
More than most other areas of presidential authority, the Justice Department gives Mr. Trump a way to settle scores — and to help friends. Of course, no one can be convicted without a guilty verdict, but simply by launching an investigation, the federal government can impose ruinous reputational and financial costs.
At the same time, the Trump administration has essentially unlimited discretion to look away from criminality by allies: to halt ongoing D.O.J. investigations, end existing prosecutions and even overturn settled cases. And the Constitution imposes no limit on the president’s power to pardon anyone at any time.