Politics & Power Quote by Daniel Okrent

"But I think it's undeniable" is the tell: Okrent isn’t making a partisan confession so much as trying to end a ritualized argument about what everyone already suspects. The hedged opener ("I think") paired with the absolutist closer ("undeniable") does a classic editor’s two-step: it signals personal judgment while claiming the authority of plain fact. That tension is the point. He’s not just labeling the New York Times; he’s managing a credibility problem.

Context matters because Okrent is an editor talking about an institution that sells itself on impartiality while operating inside a distinct cultural ecosystem - metropolitan, credentialed, secular, generally cosmopolitan. Calling it "a liberal paper" is less about endorsing a party line than acknowledging an editorial weather system: which stories feel urgent, which voices sound "serious", which assumptions go unchallenged. Liberalism here is as much about class and worldview as it is about policy.

The subtext is defensive candor. By granting critics the premise, Okrent tries to strip it of sting and reframe it as honesty rather than bias. It’s a preemptive correction to the idea that objectivity requires ideological blankness. At the same time, "undeniable" quietly dares dissenters to look unserious, pushing the conversation away from whether the Times leans left (it does) and toward the harder question: can a paper own its gravitational pull without letting it dictate what it sees?