What’s the New York Times’s problem with Britain?

When Mark Thompson, a Briton, took over as CEO of the New York Times in November 2012, he was under a dark cloud. He’d just served as Director General of the BBC, and the corporation had been accused of covering up the sex crimes of one of its biggest-ever stars, the late Jimmy Savile.

Ever keen to demonstrate objectivity, the Times ran an opinion piece a few days before Thompson took over, asking whether he was really the right man for the job. ‘Since early October,’ wrote columnist Joe Nocera, ‘all anybody has asked about Thompson are those two most damning of questions: what did he know, and when did he know it?’

That’s precisely the sort of objectivity that the New York Times could desperately do with now, especially when it comes to reporting on Britain. Nearly six years after Thompson’s arrival, all sense of balance seems to have disappeared from its coverage of the United Kingdom — and of Brexit in particular.