Sure, Nicholas Kristof can run for office. But can he be a journalist again?
Once you've pointed to a public office and said, "I want that," your relation to power has changed.


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
One of the highest compliments people will muster when you are an opinion journalist is telling you to run for office. Many of my conversations about politics and my work — usually with friends and family who feel an obligation to vote but don't like their options — have concluded with some variation of: "Well, I'd vote for you."
New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof's friends apparently pay him the same compliment, and he's decided to take them up on the offer. The Oregon native is exploring a run for governor in his home state, telling a local paper he has "friends trying to convince me that here in Oregon, we need new leadership from outside the broken political system." Perhaps that new leadership will be Kristof himself, who is now on leave from the Times to determine whether he'll proceed with the campaign.
If I had Kristof's ear, I'd advise him not to do it — but also that the damage may already be done.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
My advice isn't so much about his political chances, though my instinct is to say they're not great. I don't know much about Oregon politics, but it sounds like this will be a crowded race. Beyond the details of this campaign, though, the tricky thing for opinion journalists running in the internet era is that, frankly, we have too many opinions, and we have aired them in detail and at length on easily accessible parts of the internet. Winning involves not actively repulsing a majority of voters. The more opinions you've shared, the more likely it is you've said something somewhere, sometime to repulse just about everyone.
Yet beyond that strategic consideration are the ethics of the thing. Seeking political office is fundamentally different from journalism, and this is true whether you win or lose. Once you've pointed to a public office and said, "I want that," your relation to the office has changed. Your relationship to power has changed. If you try to return to journalism after that shift, there are open questions that may never entirely fade: Is he just saying that because he wants to run again? Is this journalism or campaigning? Is he writing this criticism because it helps an ally or because it needs to be said?
I don't mean to suggest the Fourth Estate is a consistently valiant skeptic of the government — that I'm blindly faithful to my industry's self-mythology. We fail often enough. But a free press, one not under sway of state control or politicians' aspirations, is the modern ideal for good reason.
A 2018 study in Italy found journalist-candidates produced a populist backlash, as citizens were "attached to the idea that journalists should strive to remain independent from politicians rather than aim to become politicians themselves." They were basically right to be thus attached. There's room for debate about how buddy-buddy members of press and state can be before the ethics get weird, but running for office strikes me as a line that grows ever brighter in proportion to the power of the desired office. Journalists can try campaigning if they like, but they can't go back to journalism afterwards in quite the same way.
Comparing journalists in politics to two other professions might shed a bit more light here. One useful comparison is pastors (and maybe other faith leaders, but I'll limit myself to the faith I know). Just as there's an inherent delineation between the roles of press and state, so there is one between church and state, not least that the church is commanded to love her enemies while the state wields the sword. Even for Christians who want a lot less distance between the two institutions than I do, it remains the case that a pastor's duty to her congregation differs from a politician's duty to her constituents and political allies. These roles don't lend themselves to combination, particularly in a bitterly partisan time like ours, and the pastoral duties will tend to suffer if the two are mashed together.
By contrast, I see no counterindication in an entertainer running for political office — not for the entertainment side of things, that is. That includes political entertainers like the much-rumored-but-still-denying-it 2024 presidential contender, Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He could run into the same strategic obstacle of having too many public opinions, but candidate Carlson wouldn't have a journalist's ethical dilemmas. After all, as his network's lawyers infamously argued while defending Carlson in a defamation suit, the "general tenor" of his show is such that viewers should realize their host is engaging in "exaggeration" and "non-literal commentary" rather than "stating actual facts." In other words, it's primarily entertainment. Making politics an entertainment venue is awful for politics, but the professional conflict of interests for the entertainer aren't the same as for the journalist.
As for me, the compliments from friends are very kind, but I don't think I'd ever follow Kristof into a run for office. If I did, it would be at most a municipal race, and if my ambitions ever wander higher, I welcome oppo researchers to dig up this very piece. Put on your best growly voice and record a commercial: "Bonnie Kristian said she'd never run for office. Now she's doing exactly that. If she's lying here, where else is she lying to you?" I'd like to stay a journalist, so go ahead and shut down my whole campaign.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
The Swift-Kelce effect: a 'dream pairing' for the NFL
Why everyone's talking about Taylor Swift's appearance at the Chiefs vs. Bears game to see Travis Kelce added millions of TV viewers
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
When will your favorite show be back now that the writers strike is over?
The Explainer Here's when to expect new episodes of the late-night shows, 'SNL,' and more
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
Artworks stolen by Nazis returned to heirs of cabaret performer
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries chosen to succeed Pelosi as leader of House Democrats
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's bid for House speaker may really be in peril
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Are China's protests a real threat for Beijing?
opinion The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
By Harold Maass Published
-
Who is Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who dined with Trump and Kanye?
Speed Read From Charlottesville to Mar-a-Lago in just five years
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Jury convicts Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy in landmark Jan. 6 verdict
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
A look at the White House's festive and homey holiday decor
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
Bob Iger addresses 'Don't Say Gay' bill, says inclusion is part of Disney's values
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published