Editing The Wall Street Journal (section)

===Bias in news pages===
====Pre-Murdoch ownership====
The ''Journal''{{'}}s editors stress the independence and impartiality of their reporters.<ref name="Crovitz" /> According to CNN in 2007, the ''Journal''<nowiki/>'s "newsroom staff has a reputation for non-partisan reporting."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/31/news/companies/dowjones_newscorp/index.htm |title=News Corp.-Dow Jones finally a done deal |date=August 1, 2007 |first=Paul R. |last=La Monica |publisher=CNN/Money |access-date=May 25, 2025|archive-date=November 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105045435/http://money.cnn.com:80/2007/07/31/news/companies/dowjones_newscorp/index.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Ben Smith of the ''New York Times'' described the ''Journal''<nowiki/>'s news reporting as "small-c [conservative]", and noted that its readership leans further to the right than that of other major newspapers.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Ben|date=October 25, 2020|title=Trump Had One Last Story to Sell. The Wall Street Journal Wouldn't Buy It. |work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/business/media/hunter-biden-wall-street-journal-trump.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025224009/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/business/media/hunter-biden-wall-street-journal-trump.html |archive-date=October 25, 2020 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|access-date=October 26, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Under the ownership of Clarence W. Barron, the ''Journal'' generally restricted editorializing to its opinion pages, but a 1922 series of news articles described the [[organized labor]] movement as having "one of the most sordid records of humanity".{{sfn|Scharff|1986|pp=[https://archive.org/details/worldlypowermaki0000scha/page/16/mode/2up?q=%22daily+sermons%22 16-17]}}

In a 2004 study, Tim Groseclose and [[Jeffrey Milyo]] argue the ''Journal''{{'s}} news pages have a pro-liberal bias because they more often quote liberal think tanks. They calculated the ideological attitude of news reports in 20 media outlets by counting the frequency they cited particular [[think tank]]s and comparing that to the frequency that legislators cited the same think tanks. They found that the news reporting of the ''Journal'' was the most liberal (more liberal than [[NPR]] or ''[[The New York Times]]''). The study did not factor in editorials.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Groseclose |first1=T. |last2=Milyo |first2=J. |doi=10.1162/003355305775097542 |title=A Measure of Media Bias |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=120 |issue=4 |page=1191 |year=2005 |s2cid=54066953 |doi-access= }}</ref> [[Mark Liberman]] criticized the model used to calculate bias in the study and argued that the model unequally affected liberals and conservatives and that "the model starts with a very peculiar assumption about the relationship between political opinion and the choice of authorities to cite." The authors assume that "think tank ideology ... only matters to liberals."<ref>{{cite web| last=Liberman| first=Mark| title=Linguistics, Politics, Mathematics| publisher=Language Log| date=December 22, 2005| url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002723.html| access-date=November 6, 2006| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910105642/http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002723.html| archive-date=September 10, 2006| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

The company's planned and eventual acquisition by [[News Corp]] in 2007 led to significant media criticism and discussion
about whether the news pages would exhibit a rightward slant under [[Rupert Murdoch]].<ref>{{cite news| last = Shafer | first = Jack| title = The Murdoch Street Journal| work = Slate| date = May 7, 2007| url = https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/05/the-murdoch-street-journal-not-for-me-thanks.html| access-date = September 7, 2008| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080918203139/http://www.slate.com/id/2165749/| archive-date = September 18, 2008| df = mdy-all}}</ref> An August 1, 2007, editorial responded to the questions by asserting that Murdoch intended to "maintain the values and integrity of the ''Journal''".<ref>
{{cite news| title = A New Owner| work = The Wall Street Journal| date = August 1, 2007| url = http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010409| access-date = September 7, 2008| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090625154530/http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010409| archive-date = June 25, 2009| df = mdy-all}}</ref>

====During Trump presidency====
In 2016 and 2017, the ''Journal'' leadership under Baker came under fire from critics{{who|date=February 2024}}, who viewed the paper's coverage of President [[Donald Trump]] as too timid.<ref name="Ember">{{cite news |last1=Ember |first1=Sydney |title=Top Wall Street Journal Editor Defends Trump Coverage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/business/media/wall-street-journal-wsj2020.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213210535/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/business/media/wall-street-journal-wsj2020.html |archive-date=February 13, 2017 |url-access=limited|url-status=live |access-date=July 14, 2020 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 13, 2017}}</ref> Particularly controversial was the ''Journal''{{'}}s November 2016 front-page headline that repeated Trump's false claim that "millions of people" had voted illegally in the [[United States elections, 2016|election]], only noting that the statement was "without corroboration".<ref name="Ember"/>

Also controversial was a January 2017 note from Baker to ''Journal'' editors, directing them to avoid using the phrase "seven majority-Muslim countries" when writing about [[Executive Order 13769|Trump's executive order on travel and immigration]]; Baker later sent a follow-up note "clarifying that there was 'no ban{{'"}} on the phrase, "but that the publication should 'always be careful that this term is not offered as the only description of the countries covered under the ban.{{'"}}<ref name="Ember"/>

At a town-hall-style meeting with ''Journal'' staff in February 2017, Baker defended the paper's coverage, saying that it was objective and protected the paper from being "dragged into the political process" through a dispute with the Trump administration.<ref name="Ember"/>

On February 19, 2020, China announced the revoking of the press credentials of three ''Wall Street Journal'' reporters based in Beijing. China accused the paper of failing to apologize for publishing articles that criticized China's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and failing to investigate and punish those responsible.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wen |first1=Xin |title=China revokes the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters based in Beijing |url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2020-02/19/c_1125597355.htm |access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Xinhua News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004061339/http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2020-02/19/c_1125597355.htm| archive-date=October 4, 2020}}</ref>

In June 2020, following the [[murder of George Floyd]] and [[George Floyd protests|subsequent protests]], journalists at the ''Journal'' sent a letter to editor in chief [[Matt Murray (journalist)|Matt Murray]] demanding changes to the way the paper covers race, policing and finance. The reporters stated that they "frequently meet resistance when trying to reflect the accounts and voices of workers, residents or customers, with some editors voicing heightened skepticism of those sources' credibility compared with executives, government officials or other entities".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tracy |first1=Marc |title=Wall Street Journal Staff Members Push for Big Changes in News Coverage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/business/media/wall-street-journal-staff.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711004014/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/business/media/wall-street-journal-staff.html |archive-date=July 11, 2020 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |access-date=July 14, 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 10, 2020}}</ref>