Rick Perlstein recently wrote in the New York Times magazine that he doesn’t understand conservatives. Today, the Times today confirmed that to be true. There is now an editor’s note attached to Perlstein’s April 11 article, “I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong”:
Editors’ Note: An earlier version of this essay cited National Review’s Jonah Goldberg as an example of a conservative intellectual who had embraced Donald Trump following the election. That was a mischaracterization of the views of Mr. Goldberg, who has continued to be critical of Mr. Trump.
In the piece, Perlstein heavily implied that National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg had “embraced” President Donald Trump after the election, and that he was therefore a hypocrite. Goldberg replied to Perlstein’s piece in a column on NRO, highlighting several of many columns in which he remained critical of Trump even after the Republican nominee defeated Hillary Clinton in November. In response, the Times has admitted its mistake. Better late than never.