David Brooks tells the ‘PBS NewsHour’ that he didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein was in the room

The last thing I want to be doing on the Saturday morning before Christmas is writing about David Brooks’ undisclosed (by him) encounter with the notorious pedophile and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. But it’s in the news, and there are plenty of people, especially on social media, who are demanding that the New York Times columnist and “PBS NewsHour” commentator be held accountable.

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So let’s review the facts that have come out. As Jeremy Barr reported in The Guardian, photos released on Thursday by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reveal that Brooks attended a lunch or dinner where Epstein was present in 2011. Unlike photos of many other powerful men that have been released recently, there are no photos of Brooks actually with Epstein.

Three years earlier, Epstein had pleaded guilty to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution with a minor under the age of 18. So Epstein’s depravity was known at the time, though he wasn’t nearly as notorious as he would later become.

What gives this salience is that, on Nov. 21, Brooks wrote a Times column (sub. req.) headlined “The Epstein Story? Count Me Out.” He made no disclosure of that earlier encounter with Epstein; nor has one been appended following Thursday’s revelations. Brooks lamented that “the QAnon mentality has taken over America” and wrote:

Why is Epstein the top issue in American life right now? Well, in an age in which more and more people get their news from short videos, if you’re in politics, the media or online it pays to focus on topics that are salacious, are easy to understand and allow you to offer self-confident opinions with no actual knowledge.

Brooks had his first extended opportunity to defend himself Friday evening during his regular appearance on the “NewsHour” with MS NOW’s Jonathan Capehart, helmed this week by co-anchor Geoff Bennett. Here’s how it went:

Bennett: And, David, we should say there were photos of you included in the House Democrats’ release this past week, which you have addressed.

Brooks: Yes, I will just clear that up and then go to the larger issue.

So, in 2011, I attended the TED Conference, and there was an adjacent dinner to that conference, which, in my memory, maybe two or three dozen people, different roundtables. And I was at that dinner. And, apparently, Jeffrey Epstein was at that dinner.

As far as I know, I did not ever meet him. I never exchanged a word with him. We must have been at different tables. And, in my life — I went through all my email files — I have never exchanged a word. I have never had any contact with Jeffrey Epstein. The photos are not of me and Epstein. There’s one of me alone, because nobody wants to talk to me at a party, and another with me chatting with Sergey Brin, one of the Google co-founders.

And so the bottom line is, I had no idea who Jeffrey Epstein was in 2011, so I didn’t know he was at the party, and I have had no contact with him.

On a scale of one to 10, with a 10 being Larry Summers’ nauseatingly close contacts with Epstein, Brooks would appear to come in at a one. Calls for Brooks to be disciplined or even fired from the Times, the “PBS NewsHour” or both are out of bounds, assuming that Brooks’ account is accurate. He should have disclosed his proximity to Epstein in that earlier column if he was aware of it, but it’s not clear that he even knew Epstein was in the room. Here is the Times’ defense of Brooks as quoted by The Guardian:

As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely attended dinner.

This isn’t the first time that Brooks’ outside behavior has caused distress for his employers. In 2021, he used some of his time on the “NewsHour” to address another controversy — conflicts of interest arising from his undisclosed paid work with Weave, a civic-engagement organization that’s part of the Aspen Institute.

Based on what we know at the moment, though, I’d say the Weave controversy was a more significant lapse than his failure to disclose a not-very-close encounter with Epstein 14 years ago — again, assuming Brooks didn’t realize that Epstein was present. I’m prepared to revise my opinion if we learn more, but at the moment this appears to be much ado about very little.

More: I didn’t realize that BuzzFeed had reported on the 2011 event back in 2019, even mentioning that Brooks was there. That makes Brooks’ claim that he didn’t remember being at an event with Epstein harder to defend.

Agreed that the 2011 event is a “1”, but given the Buzzfeed story published about it in 2019, including noting Brooks in photos, his failure to disclose it last month when pooh-pooling the whole Epstein scandal was a misjudgment he should acknowledge.

— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T13:55:01.452Z