I understand there is zero evidence he did anything criminal. I take issue with him writing a piece that disparages those interested in the Epstein files yet as a journalist did not mention to what extent he knew him. This is a man who writes books and gives sermons at the pulpit about morals. So let him condemn the moral failings of the powerful people who hung out with and overlooked the crimes and reputation of Epstein rather than criticize those who want to hold them to account.
Can we also talk about how these sex predator journalists treat women? Brooks: Hillary isn’t popular because she’s no fun! Matt layer giving Trump a tongue bath while refusing to let Hillary finish her sentence. Despicable.
Not a Brooks guy but are we really so lacking in critical thinking that we can't understand that a lot of these 'headlines' are people who attended events with a guy who was an insanely well connected billionaire and it has no implication they were complicit in his horrific web of sex trafficking?
My god, people. He's not on the plane with him lol.
Apparently,Brooks has been saying how the Epstein thing was a sideshow and we should forget it and turn our attention to other things. Seems like an extreme lack of transparency and honesty around it.
Yes it's obviously not a great look but I genuinely can believe someone not remembering some random guy at a dinner they were at many years ago who they very well could have never interacted with lol.
Jk you are right in that this isn't proof of pedophilia but there is no way that David Motherfuckin brooks was unaware of who Epstein was. The issue is that there is a systemic whitewashing of epsteins crimes supported by powerful people like this douchebag. At the very wast he and people like him serve to legitimize the fucker when they rake photos with him- even if the don't think of it that way.
Fair. But he also didn’t take photos with him, which is the whole problem with everyone jut seeing some individual photo of him in the files and letting it be considered being complicit lol it’s such easy bait by the GOP.
He was one of the most well connected individuals in the country. He was a far cry from being "some random guy". People knew who he was and they knew the rumors.
He's just a random guy that has personal relationships with multiple presidents and billionaires who run the world's largest companies. How could anyone be expected to remember him???
Okay now you are really overdoing it and bad faith argument is raising it's ugly head. Everyone sees what Brooks did wrong here. You can't just wave it away.
That photo of Brooks is 2011 after Epstein’s first conviction in 2008. Anyone who knew, knew that about Epstein then. Hell, I don’t even run in those circles and I knew the name Epstein and what it meant in 2011.
He’s right though. People have been obsessing over this case for years, and making absurd claims about how this proves that international Jewry controls the world. It’s bs.
It's the combination of attending events with Epstein, writing in the country's top paper that Epstein is a distraction, and leaving his wife for a 23-years-younger former employee. Critical thinking puts these observations together and suggests Brooks, in the most charitable reading, is not credible on this issue.
Exactly. The really frustrating thing about the Epstein stuff is that he was a monster and a sex trafficker who also did legitimate philanthropy work, arguably as a way to launder his money / operations. Now a lot of innocent people get caught up in it, probably by design.
I can’t stand David Brooks and have no idea what — if anything — he was guilty of besides being kind of insufferable, but it pisses me off that the Trump administration is finding a way to weaponize this while simultaneously distracting from the very clear web of connections (and awareness of the worst of Epstein’s actions) that he himself clearly has.
Even if he was, apparently offering plane rides was one of the big perks Epstein had which he used to develop connections. So likely a lot of people who were on the plane with him were there for benign reasons.
Apparently same with the island, at least to some extent.
Now...there are apparently photos of Bill Clinton in a jacuzzi with one of the victims.
The offense here is that Brooks used his column to try to tamp down public interest in the release of the files knowing that he was in them. Whether he actually participated in raping children is not relevant to that issue.
lol it’s not lizard brained to be concerned and freaked out by the fact that a serial pedophile seems to be connected to every powerful person in our country to some extent.
Fact is he wrote it was a conspiracy and there were bigger fish to fry cause he claimed to know these people, know how they are. He is either wrong or lying.
At best it’s the same lazy access journalism that sold us the wmd theory. At worst it’s beyond fucked.
Its lizards brain because people soooooo want it all to be a black and white decision.....but almost nothing works that way. The guy sees a picture of people basically on vacation and says lock em up. Similarly we had people saying the same thing about Hilary Clinton because she opposed trump in an election.
The fact that you can't seem to see this only proves my point.
Our society has just become one giant fallacy of simple minded mobs.
Epstein was super bad. But that does not equal everyone he interacted with or even everything he did being bad. Thats not how reality works.
As much as I love being called a rube, I have to say, if you think for maybe this one particular subject a mob mentality isn’t a good thing, idk what the fuck we are talking about. Especially seeing as every sign points to this being a fairly large coverup.
We are talking about the methodical trafficking and rapes of teenage girls(by the very people David brooks writes to protect frequently)If he didn’t want scrutiny he shouldn’t have written an article literally called “the Epstein story, count me out” less than a month ago.
I’d love a nuanced conversation with detailed facts to comb through but that’s just not even on the same planet as where we are at.
Really defending this like you have a beloved academic or something involved.
Btw accusations on society as a whole can usually be admissions. Ppl are freaking out bc a lot of currently powerful & wealthy ppl are connected to a guy who ran a pedo ring & he had a very untimely impossible death in jail. It's not crazy, ppl aren't freaking out, just give them a minute, ppl getting dragged through the mud on this is okay with me as most are boomers & we need youthful energy in government anyway (Federalist Papers no. 1 talks about energetic executives for a reason).
The event was literally funded by Epstein, according to something I read. It was thrown by an organization but he funded it, apparently to get access to billionaires. It was billed as a "billionaire's dinner."
There is a problem with people conflating any contact with Epstein as being part of some mask wearing cult of elite pedophiles that eat children and rig the Oscars.
Exactly. I’m definitely not excusing the real monsters, but it will be hard for those tarred by the Epstein brush who genuinely didn’t know to clear their names. Whether Brooks is one or the other I don’t know.
He knew for sure. You’re not someone of Brooks’ stature and connections without knowing what’s going on. Come on now. He wants to be part of the club and have access to it. It pays to ignore.
And the deflection to “nobody would want to talk to me at a party”… the self deprecation seems telling and that alone made me think he would be the type to be involved
Body language, when it is studied, isn't really a reliable indicator of anything though. There are tendencies, sure, but there are zillions of confounds in whatever "data" you gather.
Apparently, part of the files contain a story (possibly written by Michael Wolff) that Epstein became buds with Punch Sulzberger while teaching at Dalton (where Carol Sulzberger went to school) and visited their country estate at least once.
There’s no apparently when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. He wasn’t apparently there. He was there. You knew he would be there and you’re lying to us when we know better. You see him at a party you get the fuck out and you say something. You don’t hide behind your column and call this whole thing a distraction.
I’m sorry, a few of the responses above are really stretching credulity. I don’t think the accusation is that Brooks is a pedophile or that he was somehow involved in the crimes. He clearly had a monumental lack of judgment then to hobnob with him and his ilk, and a disqualifying lack of candor when he wrote an article dismissing the importance of the story.
All the Zionists hate the Epstein story. Brooks, Maher, Harris etc Even if they weren't personally involved with him they know it makes the community look bad and it's brought down some of the most powerful members Black, Wexner, Summers etc
This man left his wife to marry his assistant who’s 30 years younger younger than him. He’s 100% a PDF. And he definitely knows Epstein. What a liar. Also, just read his articles in the NYT and you’ll know what kind of person he is. Truly vile
Nice try less than a month ago you tried to downplay Epstein in a nyt opinion piece
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Uh, not indicted because they’re rich, famous, and/or politically powerful?
They weren’t indicted because they’re the world’s most powerful people’
Exactly. This isn't complicated.
Liar you work for the nyt - he just wrote an article last month calling the articles a distraction. I hate these people
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He sounds nervous as hell
I understand there is zero evidence he did anything criminal. I take issue with him writing a piece that disparages those interested in the Epstein files yet as a journalist did not mention to what extent he knew him. This is a man who writes books and gives sermons at the pulpit about morals. So let him condemn the moral failings of the powerful people who hung out with and overlooked the crimes and reputation of Epstein rather than criticize those who want to hold them to account.
I believe the kids call such 'liar liar pants on fire'
Can we also talk about how these sex predator journalists treat women? Brooks: Hillary isn’t popular because she’s no fun! Matt layer giving Trump a tongue bath while refusing to let Hillary finish her sentence. Despicable.
Not a Brooks guy but are we really so lacking in critical thinking that we can't understand that a lot of these 'headlines' are people who attended events with a guy who was an insanely well connected billionaire and it has no implication they were complicit in his horrific web of sex trafficking?
My god, people. He's not on the plane with him lol.
What’s wrong with asking people questions of the people in the file, especially from someone who basically said we shouldn’t bother?
Apparently,Brooks has been saying how the Epstein thing was a sideshow and we should forget it and turn our attention to other things. Seems like an extreme lack of transparency and honesty around it.
Yes it's obviously not a great look but I genuinely can believe someone not remembering some random guy at a dinner they were at many years ago who they very well could have never interacted with lol.
We can fucking walk and chew gum, people.
David? Is that you?
Jk you are right in that this isn't proof of pedophilia but there is no way that David Motherfuckin brooks was unaware of who Epstein was. The issue is that there is a systemic whitewashing of epsteins crimes supported by powerful people like this douchebag. At the very wast he and people like him serve to legitimize the fucker when they rake photos with him- even if the don't think of it that way.
Fair. But he also didn’t take photos with him, which is the whole problem with everyone jut seeing some individual photo of him in the files and letting it be considered being complicit lol it’s such easy bait by the GOP.
He was one of the most well connected individuals in the country. He was a far cry from being "some random guy". People knew who he was and they knew the rumors.
He's just a random guy that has personal relationships with multiple presidents and billionaires who run the world's largest companies. How could anyone be expected to remember him???
lol “random guy”. Come on man.
Okay now you are really overdoing it and bad faith argument is raising it's ugly head. Everyone sees what Brooks did wrong here. You can't just wave it away.
What did he do wrong besides having a bad take in a column lol. Something he’s done plenty of times before.
That photo of Brooks is 2011 after Epstein’s first conviction in 2008. Anyone who knew, knew that about Epstein then. Hell, I don’t even run in those circles and I knew the name Epstein and what it meant in 2011.
He’s right though. People have been obsessing over this case for years, and making absurd claims about how this proves that international Jewry controls the world. It’s bs.
It's the combination of attending events with Epstein, writing in the country's top paper that Epstein is a distraction, and leaving his wife for a 23-years-younger former employee. Critical thinking puts these observations together and suggests Brooks, in the most charitable reading, is not credible on this issue.
You can think he sucks without thinking he’s a pedophile
You can also think he sucks and that he's a pedophile
No one is stating he’s a pedophile. What I’m stating is that he’s covering up for a pedophile.
He’s not a pedophile, he just runs cover for pedophiles. No big deal, right?
Exactly. The really frustrating thing about the Epstein stuff is that he was a monster and a sex trafficker who also did legitimate philanthropy work, arguably as a way to launder his money / operations. Now a lot of innocent people get caught up in it, probably by design.
I can’t stand David Brooks and have no idea what — if anything — he was guilty of besides being kind of insufferable, but it pisses me off that the Trump administration is finding a way to weaponize this while simultaneously distracting from the very clear web of connections (and awareness of the worst of Epstein’s actions) that he himself clearly has.
He's not on the plane with him---that's what they said about Chomsky.
WSJ had Chomsky admitting he was on a plane with him in 2023.
Is this supposed to be a good point you're making here lol.
Even if he was, apparently offering plane rides was one of the big perks Epstein had which he used to develop connections. So likely a lot of people who were on the plane with him were there for benign reasons.
Apparently same with the island, at least to some extent.
Now...there are apparently photos of Bill Clinton in a jacuzzi with one of the victims.
That is definitely worth investigating further.
The offense here is that Brooks used his column to try to tamp down public interest in the release of the files knowing that he was in them. Whether he actually participated in raping children is not relevant to that issue.
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Many people associated with JE even after knowing what he did to children. If you were doing ANY business with that known felon, it’s on you.
lol it’s not lizard brained to be concerned and freaked out by the fact that a serial pedophile seems to be connected to every powerful person in our country to some extent.
Fact is he wrote it was a conspiracy and there were bigger fish to fry cause he claimed to know these people, know how they are. He is either wrong or lying.
At best it’s the same lazy access journalism that sold us the wmd theory. At worst it’s beyond fucked.
No. Sorry but two things can happen at once.
Its lizards brain because people soooooo want it all to be a black and white decision.....but almost nothing works that way. The guy sees a picture of people basically on vacation and says lock em up. Similarly we had people saying the same thing about Hilary Clinton because she opposed trump in an election.
The fact that you can't seem to see this only proves my point.
Our society has just become one giant fallacy of simple minded mobs.
Epstein was super bad. But that does not equal everyone he interacted with or even everything he did being bad. Thats not how reality works.
As much as I love being called a rube, I have to say, if you think for maybe this one particular subject a mob mentality isn’t a good thing, idk what the fuck we are talking about. Especially seeing as every sign points to this being a fairly large coverup.
We are talking about the methodical trafficking and rapes of teenage girls(by the very people David brooks writes to protect frequently)If he didn’t want scrutiny he shouldn’t have written an article literally called “the Epstein story, count me out” less than a month ago.
I’d love a nuanced conversation with detailed facts to comb through but that’s just not even on the same planet as where we are at.
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Why would good people associate with a known pedo?
Are you a fan of Chomsky or something? lol
Really defending this like you have a beloved academic or something involved.
Btw accusations on society as a whole can usually be admissions. Ppl are freaking out bc a lot of currently powerful & wealthy ppl are connected to a guy who ran a pedo ring & he had a very untimely impossible death in jail. It's not crazy, ppl aren't freaking out, just give them a minute, ppl getting dragged through the mud on this is okay with me as most are boomers & we need youthful energy in government anyway (Federalist Papers no. 1 talks about energetic executives for a reason).
Yes thank you
OK, David
This thread is just like the one in the Woody Allen sub. It's all fun and games until someone we like gets named.
Maybe the problem is that these are the only kinds of events nyt columnists attend
The event was literally funded by Epstein, according to something I read. It was thrown by an organization but he funded it, apparently to get access to billionaires. It was billed as a "billionaire's dinner."
This sub lost its mind thinking he basically was yesterday.
Remember when we used to discuss journalism here? I long.
This is journalism. It's about ethics and disclosure. That's crucial to good journalism.
There is a problem with people conflating any contact with Epstein as being part of some mask wearing cult of elite pedophiles that eat children and rig the Oscars.
Hypothetically, you’re one of these rich folks who met him. How do you prove you weren’t involved in his shady business?
Hmmmm I don’t know but surely we don’t have any examples of this kind of thinking that has historically gone awry!
Do you float in water, by any chance?
Exactly. I’m definitely not excusing the real monsters, but it will be hard for those tarred by the Epstein brush who genuinely didn’t know to clear their names. Whether Brooks is one or the other I don’t know.
He knew for sure. You’re not someone of Brooks’ stature and connections without knowing what’s going on. Come on now. He wants to be part of the club and have access to it. It pays to ignore.
Okay dude, we get it. You’re in some of the pictures that were released earlier today
This.
The man's body language from the beginning of the segment should be studied. He looked very nervous throughout the segment and especially the lead up.
And the deflection to “nobody would want to talk to me at a party”… the self deprecation seems telling and that alone made me think he would be the type to be involved
Body language, when it is studied, isn't really a reliable indicator of anything though. There are tendencies, sure, but there are zillions of confounds in whatever "data" you gather.
Body language experts are charlatans and the study of reading body language is a pseudoscience.
Agreed. It’s right up there with handwriting “experts” who can tell everything about you by how you write the letter B.
Non-verbal communication has merit
By all means. Read his body language as a way to not engage in the least with what he says.
I suppose you are right. If he were the slightest bit guilty, I am sure he would confess on national TV.
I have no great love for the man. But what he says is consistent with the evidence and there is no evidence otherwise.. focus on what matters
“And then move to the larger issue” ummmm…this is the larger issue
Apparently, part of the files contain a story (possibly written by Michael Wolff) that Epstein became buds with Punch Sulzberger while teaching at Dalton (where Carol Sulzberger went to school) and visited their country estate at least once.
After another thousand dollar lunch that was all Biden's fault of course. Fire this clown.
I said it on Nyt sub I’ll say it here too
It’s easy to say you didn’t know Jeffery now that he’s been murdered.
If there were 20 men guilty of sexual abuse being investigated why tf was he deflecting the files as being only a conspiracy?
The quality of discourse in the "journalism" subreddit.
He needs to be fired
I mean, yeah. I've felt that way for years, but obfuscatory pseudointellectualism is too on-brand for the NYT.
Him being tied in any way to Epstein is just extra grist for the mill.
There’s no apparently when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. He wasn’t apparently there. He was there. You knew he would be there and you’re lying to us when we know better. You see him at a party you get the fuck out and you say something. You don’t hide behind your column and call this whole thing a distraction.
They weren’t indicted because people like you keep telling people nothing happened, Brooks.
Epstein funded this party! https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-john-brockman-edge-foundation
I’m sorry, a few of the responses above are really stretching credulity. I don’t think the accusation is that Brooks is a pedophile or that he was somehow involved in the crimes. He clearly had a monumental lack of judgment then to hobnob with him and his ilk, and a disqualifying lack of candor when he wrote an article dismissing the importance of the story.
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No bigotry, racism, sexism, hate speech, name-calling, etc.
No bigotry, racism, sexism, hate speech, name-calling, etc.
All the Zionists hate the Epstein story. Brooks, Maher, Harris etc Even if they weren't personally involved with him they know it makes the community look bad and it's brought down some of the most powerful members Black, Wexner, Summers etc
Let me guess: everyone implicated is going to have a bullshit excuse and be given a platform and not challenged by the reporter.
Sound about right?
This man left his wife to marry his assistant who’s 30 years younger younger than him. He’s 100% a PDF. And he definitely knows Epstein. What a liar. Also, just read his articles in the NYT and you’ll know what kind of person he is. Truly vile
I know nothing about this guy but it’s a stretch to call him a PDF if he married a much younger woman who was his assistant.
ok go ahead and defend disgusting behavior. You obviously haven't done any research on the matter.
So, he was already shit, but I hope people never listen to anything this criminal fraud has to say ever again, but we know people still will.
guilty as fuck
There's an almost religious fervor around this story.
Let me posit a hypothetical: I've been divorced for nine years; if my ex-wife kills someone today, does that make me complicit?