Before Donald Trump became president, most newspaper op-ed pages sought to present a spectrum of politically significant opinion and argument, which they could largely do while walling off extremist propaganda and incitement. The Trump presidency has undermined that model, because there’s generally no way to defend the administration without being either bigoted or dishonest.

NEW YORK (AP) — In an embarrassing about-face, The New York Times said Thursday that an opinion piece it ran by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton advocating the use of federal troops to quell nationwide protests about police mistreatment of black Americans did not meet its standards.

Cotton’s op-ed, titled “Send in the Troops” and first posted online late Wednesday, caused a revolt among Times journalists, with some saying it endangered black employees. Some staff members called in sick Thursday in protest.

This week, The New York Times ran an op-ed by United States Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) urging that the military be used to quell the fires, looting and violence gripping the nation’s cities.

A Morning Consult poll from this week found that 58 percent of registered voters agreed with that idea. But apparently it’s an opinion forbidden in the Times.

Black staffers at the paper said the column made them feel unsafe. The day after it ran, the paper folded like, well, The New York Times, and apologized for it.