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David Halbfinger recently returned to the United States after nearly four years as The New York Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, a role widely considered one of the most sensitive jobs in journalism. His next challenge is proving to be just as big a test: Heading the paper’s U.S. political coverage during a time of partisan division and what looks to be a bare-knuckle midterm election in 2022.
In a recent conversation, Mr. Halbfinger, who served as deputy politics editor during the 2016 presidential race, discussed the reasons he wanted the job, the differences between working in Israel and the United States and the value he sees in even some of the most virulent criticism. This interview has been edited and condensed.
You spent the past four years as the Jerusalem bureau chief. What brought you back to the United States?
The Jerusalem role was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for my family to live overseas, and for me to do a job I’d always had my eye on. I’d spent most of my career as a reporter, and it was a thrill to stretch as a foreign correspondent in one of the world’s most intensely followed hot spots. Personal reasons drew us back home this year, as did my desire to get back into an editing role.


Why did you want to be the politics editor specifically?
Above all, for the chance to work with our stellar team of political reporters. Beyond that, I just can’t think of a more important way that I could contribute. It feels as though there’s almost a pandemic of politics in the country right now, and one that feels like it could be permanent. There are vaccines for Covid-19, but there doesn’t seem to be an effective vaccine for the animosity, divisiveness and stridency that are infecting and coming between people at every level of our government, between neighbor and neighbor. It’s causing every issue to be nationalized, and I also think everyone feels national politics very locally and urgently in their lives. It’s just all-consuming now. It’s vital that we as a paper reflect this and help our audience understand and grapple with what’s going on.
Jerusalem bureau chief is considered one of the most sensitive jobs in journalism — every word you publish is scrutinized by people on both sides of the conflict.
Everyone had warned me that you get hammered for everything you write. And they weren’t understating it. It’s intense, it’s constant and it can be a lot to deal with. But you quickly develop a thick skin. And you focus on being fair, with your readers’ best interests at heart.
How did that experience prepare you for your new role?
Thick skin was vital, but so was always listening to what people were saying to see if there was something we actually did wrong, and learning from that. Even in the angriest criticism, there often could be a germ of a fair point. It’s a very difficult job to be fair on. Every word can be parsed.
How does covering politics in America compare with covering it in Israel?
It was striking how much that country’s politics could be seen as a kind of cracked-mirror reflection of what was going on in the United States. There are similarities in the partisan vitriol, and the no-holds-barred, politics-at-any-cost partisan warfare, and even in the relationships of Donald Trump to his base and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his base. The two countries were on strangely parallel paths in many ways under those two leaders.


What do you expect your biggest challenge will be?
As much as I kept up with U.S. politics, there’s also a lot I missed being away for four years. And I’ve had to exercise some editing muscles that had gone flabby from disuse. The learning curve is very, very steep, but I’m lucky to be able to learn from some very smart reporters and editors. And the degree of difficulty is also what makes it so much fun.

Source: New York Times

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