James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal ably summarized the "hindsight and hypocrisy" of the New York Times editorial page. "Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Donald Sterling scandal is that virtually no one in the sports world was surprised to hear that Mr. Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, may have been caught on tape spewing racist sentiments," the Times proclaimed.
But apparently, the NBA is responsible for tolerating Sterling's "plantation attitudes" for decades, and somehow The New York Times editorial-page crusaders never before located this American racist menace:
There's a larger obligation here. The league's top leadership tolerated and sheltered Mr. Sterling for much too long. The new commissioner, Adam Silver, needs to make clear that there's no place in the league for owners with plantation attitudes, whether or not they're caught expressing them on tape.
Taranto lowered the boom: "Today, as the Times reports, Silver did just that, barring Sterling from the league for life and imposing a $2.5 million fine. Did Silver miss all the previous Times editorials urging action against Sterling? The question's premise is false. A search shows that Sterling has never been mentioned on the editorial page before today."
