I had never read anything witten by Rosenthal, but prompted me to look at some of his columns
I ran across a 1999 story McCain's Fresh Air and it somewhat confirms what you said.
The point of that article was to say that McCain's support of the Iraq war was good and Buchanan's protest was Jew-hating.
But I've read Buchanan enough to know he's solid and a terrific writer -- and he presaged Trump. So Rosenthal savaged a good patriot and praised that nut-case McLame.
In what I read, Rosenthal wasn't particularly clear or engaging. He reminds me a bit of George Will, a windbag who could convince the average reader he's super-smart without saying a single thing profound.
An executive editor doesn't need to be a great writer. He simply needs to ensure a story hangs together technically and conforms to certain policies set by the editor in chief or publisher.+
So if scanning a couple of showcase columns by Rosenthal indexed on NYT don't thrill me, then "He Kept the Paper Straight" -- as in tidying up and being a good policy cop --was an appropriate epitaph for him afterall.
I honestly think FReepers could get put together a nice publication and put that worthless Never-Trumper National Review out of business.
He put himself on the editorial page and constantly ran his own stuff. He was a nasty man who publicly fired a friend of mine...at a party. He wasn’t drunk, just coldly clinical in his axing of a long time friend and colleague.
Also, his disgusting vilifying of the good people of Queens (and all middle-class city people) when Kitty Genovese was murdered is unforgivable. Even when Kitty’s brother tried to tell him his book was a crock, the high-and-mighty little creep dismissed it with an airy wave of his hand.