Columnists play by different rules than news reporters. By definition, they express their opinions. Columnists also, appropriately, get a lot of leeway in what they write and how they write it.
Having acknowledged that, I nevertheless understand the complaints of those readers who are bothered by something they have recently learned about David Brooks: his son is a member of the Israel Defense Forces. In a recent Hebrew-language interview in Haaretz magazine, Mr. Brooks was asked about his worries as a father. The article noted that the columnist’s “connection to Israel was always strong.” It continued:
“He has visited Israel almost every year since 1991, and over the past months the connection has grown even stronger, after his oldest son, aged 23, decided to join the Israel Defense Forces as a ‘lone soldier.’ ” (The reference is to a soldier whose family is not living in Israel.)
Mr. Brooks described the situation as “worrying.” He added: “But every Israeli parent understands this is what the circumstances require. Beyond that, I think children need to take risks after they leave university, and that they need to do something difficult that involves going beyond their personal limits. Serving in the I.D.F. embodies all of these elements. I couldn’t advise others to do it without acknowledging it’s true for my own family.’”
Since then, readers have told me of their concerns.
Robert Eldridge of Toronto wrote as follows: “I am outraged to learn that David Brooks’s son is a foreign mercenary in the Israel Defense Force. Surely given Brooks’s facile defense of Israeli actions in the Gaza Conflict and his derogation of Muslim jihadists, this information should have been prominently disclosed.”
I’ve heard from many others who have expressed similar sentiments, some of them making reference to a quite different situation that one of my predecessors, Clark Hoyt, wrote about. At that time, the son of Ethan Bronner – then the Jerusalem bureau chief – had become an I.D.F. member; Mr. Hoyt wrote that Mr. Bronner should be reassigned. But, as noted above, a general-interest columnist is not a news reporter assigned to cover Israel and the Mideast.
In a conversation on Twitter about whether writers really need to tell readers what their children and spouses do, Michael Tracey, a journalist, made the case for disclosure in cases like this one.
I asked Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor who supervises Mr. Brooks, to address the issue. He wrote:
I do not think he ever had an obligation to say that his son made this choice, any more than if his son had joined the U.S. Air Force (although I recognize that Israel is more controversial in some people’s minds).
In any case, David talked about it freely in an interview, which has been tweeted about and blogged about, so it’s hardly a secret. He is a columnist who not only has opinions, but is paid to express them in the Times. Those opinions are formed by all kinds of things, including life experiences, and I’m sure his opinions about Israel are formed by those experiences and his personal beliefs.
They are not going to change whether or not his son is serving in the I.D.F., beyond his natural concerns as a father for his son’s safety and well-being.
If David wants to mention this in his column, that would be just fine, but I don’t believe he has an obligation to do so.
My take: In general, I agree with Mr. Rosenthal about columnists and their family members. I don’t think readers usually need to know what the spouses of columnists think or what brothers do for a living, or whether a daughter has joined the U.S. Army. But this situation strikes me as a more extreme case. Mr. Brooks’s son is serving as a member of a foreign military force that has been involved in a serious international conflict – one that the columnist sometimes writes about and which has been very much in the news.
I strongly disagree with those who say Mr. Brooks should no longer write about Israel. But I do think that a one-time acknowledgment of this situation in print (not in an interview with another publication) is completely reasonable. This information is germane; and readers deserve to learn about it in the same place that his columns appear.