Former Clinton Pollster Mark Penn: For New York Times ‘to Cave’ on Trump Headline ‘Will Haunt Them’

On Tuesday night, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn commented on the New York Times changing the headline on a story about President Trump’s speech in response to two mass shootings, saying the alteration “will haunt them.” “To actually bend after it is printed to a political faction is to cave in a way that I think will haunt them for some time to come,” Penn told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. On Monday evening, New York Times print editor Tom Jolly tweeted an image of the paper’s Tuesday morning print edition, featuring a headline about the speech that read “Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism.” Also Read: New York Times Changes Headline on Story About Trump's Gun Violence Speech After Backlash Later editions of the paper carried a new headline: “Assailing Hate But Not Guns.” Executive editor Dean Baquet later told the Daily Beast, “It was written on deadline and when it was passed along for approval we all saw it was a bad headline and changed it pretty quickly.” “The paper wanted to please a constituency,” Penn said, calling the change “incredible.” He asked, “Why don’t they just run the headlines before [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] before they run them now and not...