Yesterday Marty Peretz at the New Republic offered his readers a scoop regarding Roger Cohen's NYT column (which gives Peretz high blood pressure). Headlined "The New York Times Downgrades Roger Cohen," the report was surmise:
"[T]he troubled Times no longer parades Roger Cohen around in the print editions as one of its featured op-ed columnists. For a while he was published regularly in its
hands-on paper. No longer. If you want to read him you have to burrow
in the on-line blogs."
In fairness to Peretz, I admit I'm confused about where Cohen's column (which lowers my blood pressure) runs. I asked Cohen whether Peretz is right. Cohen:
No, he's inaccurate.
I've never had a permanent place in NYT
paper. My deal is in IHT (paper) and online; in NYT online with same
display as other columnists; and in NYT paper intermittently when
schedules permit. For example, I filled in for [Nicholas] Kristof when he was on
book leave in late 2007 and early 2008, and have been writing some this
year for the Monday slot vacated by [Bill] Kristol
and to be filled by [Russ] Douthat. I remain a Times and IHT columnist writing
Monday and Thursday on above basis. Nothing has changed of late, but
Peretz has developed an obsession with me that seems to hold no bounds.
