Is this why they ran it as an “op-ed”? They must have known how sketchy were the claims, and that they could distance themselves from Kristof’s “opinion”?
Most likely you are right.
There must be some small print that “these are the author’s opinions and in no way, shape or form reflect the opinion of the publication” or some such legalese.
The allegations, I read them, they were presented with not even a modicum of proof, so I dismissed them as fiction until proven (and I’m nit even talking about dodgy proof, but ZERO proof was offered up by the auth6ir)