It has now come out that David Brooks’ son is serving in the Israeli military.
So while Brooks was providing pro-Israel commentary during Israel’s massacre in Gaza, his son was serving in the IDF. This clear conflict of interest should have required Brooks to recuse himself from commenting on Israel.
Journalistic ethics now require the New York Times, NPR, and PBS to (1) reveal Brooks’ conflict of interest, (2) apologize for not revealing this sooner, and (3) remove him as a commentator because of his dishonesty in neither recusing himself nor in revealing this essential fact to listeners – and, I assume, to these news organizations themselves.