The New York Times quietly deleted an embarrassing comment by President Obama

The New York Times headquarters in New York.

(Image credit: Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)

published 18 December 2015

On Thursday, The New York Times published a profile piece on President Obama's reactions to terrorism that included this sentence: "In his meeting with the columnists, Mr. Obama indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments."

The comment — apparently indicating that the president struggled to comprehend why Americans were fearful following these recent attacks — quickly drew attention. Then, just as quickly, it disappeared.

The Times updated its story four hours after publication without a correction notice. The deleted portion was replaced with two new paragraphs about Obama's war on terror strategy.

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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.