When his father joined the staff of Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where James attended the St. Albans School.

James Bennet studied at Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and was editor-in-chief of The New Journal.

[4][6] Upon his return from Jerusalem, he wrote a memorandum on the proper usage of the terms "terrorist" and "terrorism", which is often cited by editors of The Times.

[5] Bennet as editor attracted attention in April 2008 when the magazine featured a cover story on Britney Spears, a change from The Atlantic's tradition in higher culture.

[10] Bennet immediately added op-ed columnist Bret Stephens to the Times' editorial page, whose first column cast doubt on the long term consequences of climate change, resulting in reports of subscription cancellations.

These parts of the piece were later retracted, but in response, Sarah Palin (the founder of SarahPAC) filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.

[20][19] Bennet stated that the Times had invited Cotton to write an op-ed after he tweeted about using troops to stop rioting.

Bennet said that old guard Times journalists who valued "fairness, pluralism and political independence" capitulated to their younger colleagues, who used the paper to push "liberal viewpoints and shun conservative perspectives".

[18][29] Bennet states that the original goal of the Times was to present unbiased reporting of the news and viewpoints from across the political spectrum.

He argues that the Times has become a much more illiberal organization that presents news and opinions that agree with those of its left of center readership base.