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v \- t \- e

“”If I were to create a list of questions to ask potential managers of my money, one of them would be: “Do you read the WSJ OpEds?” If the answer were yes, I would not walk but run in the opposite direction.

—Barry Ritholtz[1]

The Wall Street Journal (abbr. WSJ) is an esteemed, respected American newspaper (ha!) owned by the Dow Jones Corporation, which focuses on business and financial market news. The tone is dry and respectful, and they don't have a comics page (possibly because the op-eds are enough of a joke already).

Anyone interested in economics has pretty much given up on WSJ. They used to have a decent mix of free and paid content, but now even the real-time economics blog is paid.

## Contents

* 1 General decline
* 2 Noted writers
* 2.1 Racialist letter signatories
* 3 See also
* 4 External links
* 5 Notes
* 6 References

## General decline[edit]

Since Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the WSJ in 2007, many to the left of wingnut have noticed its declining editorial standards:

* One example of them failing at basic statistics
* Another example of them being unable to fact-check[note 1]
* The middle class: where you earn a minimum $15,000 a month!
* In defense of — wait for it — land mines!
* Egypt needs a Pinochet!
* Dear Israel: Violate the Geneva Conventions!
* Something something Kristallnacht. What better way to celebrate your 125th anniversary than by raising Mike Godwin from the dead?
* And did we forget the global warming denialism?[3]
* Eric Metaxas wow his readers into an euphoric feeling of goddidit
* Transgenderism: a mental disorder. It goes without saying that Paul McHugh is not an authority on the subject of trans people and greatly misinterprets the study he quotes.
* Making Money is a Patriotic Act "The two of us are quite rich. We have earned more money than we could have imagined and more than we can spend on ourselves, our children and grandchildren. These days getting rich off a profitable business is regarded as almost sinister. But we have nothing to apologize for, and we don’t think the government should have more of our profits."
* Replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket! Wait, really? They took my advice? Nevermind that, then!

The pandering has (predictably) made the comments section hilariously wingnutty and should be avoided at all costs.

On the other hand, the journalism and opinion sides are known to have a strict firewall. Murdoch had invested $125 million in Theranos, and an opinion writer had written a fawning portrayal of the founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes. When Holmes found out that one of their reporters was doing the long-overdue reporting that would expose her and her company as a complete fraud which was endangering people's lives, she tried to pressure Murdoch into killing the story. Murdoch refused to do so, and the resulting stories definitively proved that Theranos was an outright scam and made it clear that Holmes was a massive con artist; she ultimately ended up convicted and sentenced to prison. So there's that.[4]

## Noted writers[edit]

Former or current opinion contributors and journalists for the Wall Street Journal that stand out for some reason or another.

* Scott Adams, who praised himself as a "certified genius" using a sockpuppet when people criticized his WSJ article on MetaFilter.[5]
* Ayaan Hirsi Ali, penned an op/ed for the WSJ comparing "wokeists" and Islamists. Also an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow.[6]
* Joel Brind, lead author for the only paper purporting to show evidence linking abortion to breast cancer.
* John Bolton, neoconservative war cheerleader, AEI fellow, veteran of the Dubya and Trump administrations.[7]
* Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney, some more W. Bush alumni.[8]
* John Carreyrou, who discovered 21st Century Oncology was defrauding Medicare; this was indirectly what led him to his takedown of Theranos, as a doctor he had asked about billing codes for 21st Century Oncology tipped him off about Theranos.
* James Damore, former Google employee and critic of their pro-diversity policies.[9]
* Heather Mac Donald, criminal justice reform opponent and Manhattan Institute fellow.
* Francis Fukuyama, writer of The End of History and the Last Man.[10]
* Richard A. Gardner, psychiatrist who testified in "Satanic ritual abuse" cases.[11]
* Jonah Goldberg, editor for the National Review Online. AEI fellow.[12]
* Franklin Graham, Trump-supporting evangelist Christian.[13]
* Brett Kavanaugh, Trump-appointed Supreme Court justice. Federalist Society affiliate.[14]
* David Klinghoffer, a fellow for the creationist Discovery Institute.[15]
* Richard Lindzen is their go-to guy on climate issues, and most, if not every column on the issue either makes hay of warmists, or downplays it as "alarmism".[16][17]
* John Mackey, co-founder and longtime libertarian CEO for Whole Foods Market.[18]
* William McGurn, WSJ editorial board member who was also once a chief speechwriter for George W. Bush in the waning years of the administration.[19][20]
* Paul R. McHugh, anti-LGBT psychiatrist.[21]
* Rupert Murdoch himself, of course.[22]
* Andy Ngo, right-wing partisan politics of spite incarnate.[23]
* Matt Ridley, climate change denier.[24]
* Karl Rove, another former Dubya advisor.[25]
* Donald Rumsfeld, Dubya's secretary of defense. AEI fellow.[26]
* Bernie Sanders, a mere guest essayist.[27] One of these things is not like the others...
* Abigail Shrier, purveyor of anti-trans moral panic.
* Amity Shlaes, former WSJ board member.
* Suzanne Somers, Playboy cover model and woo promoter.
* Christina Hoff Sommers, faux-feminist and AEI fellow.[28]
* Willie Soon, of the Soon and Baliunas controversy.[29]
* The editorial pages regularly feature Ben Steinery (often with columns by the man himself).
* Bret Weinstein, merchant of COVID-19 vaccine doubt.[30]
* Bari Weiss, Intellectual Dark Web admirer.
* Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq War and AEI fellow.[31]

### Racialist letter signatories[edit]

"Mainstream Science on Intelligence," a public letter that defended racialist pseudoscience, received publication in the Wall Street Journal on December 13, 1994. It had 52 signatories. Some are listed below.

* Douglas K. Detterman, founder of the International Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR).
* Hans Eysenck, former Mankind Quarterly editorial board member.
* Robert A. Gordon, who was one of several signatories to receive funding from the white supremacist Pioneer Fund.
* Linda Gottfredson, also received Pioneer Fund money. Former president for the ISIR.
* Garrett Hardin, neo-Malthusian.
* Richard J. Haier, racialist editor-in-chief of Intelligence.
* Seymour Itzkoff, contributor for Mankind Quarterly.
* Arthur Jensen, another Pioneer Fund recipient.
* Richard Lynn, former editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly.
* Robert Plomin, has also written columns for the WSJ.
* J. Philippe Rushton, Pioneer Fund recipient.

## See also[edit]

* Investor's Business Daily, its nuttier younger brother.
* The National Post, its Canadian cousin.
* The New York Times, its less conservative neighbor.

## External links[edit]

* Gawker.com: archive.ph, web.archive.org — A tale of two newspapers.

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ Having a noted medical non-expert (in fact, a noted "expert" at promoting medical woo) like Suzanne Somers write (badly) about the economics of the Affordable Care Act was part of a blatant appeal to celebrity the WSJ was trying in the early-mid 2010s, in a clear sign of a decline in its rigor. Around this time period, the WSJ drafted many famous entertainers (such as Pat Sajak and Morgan Fairchild among others) to write on financial and political topics that they were way out of their depth on. Bizarrely, this was often done under the special report title "The Experts"[2]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Art Laffer: Make Up Your Own Facts Here, Barry Ritholtz
2. ↑ "A Celebrity Journal fiasco: Quack-loving Suzanne Somers, WSJ "expert" on health care by Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review, 2013 October 29
3. ↑ Wall Street Journal Doubles Down on Global Warming Denial, Slate
4. ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/11/30/elizabeth-holmes-went-to-rupert-murdoch-to-kill-wsj-theranos-story.html
5. ↑ Mary Elizabeth Williams, "Dilbert creator's ever-worsening P.R. crisis", Salon
6. ↑ "What Islamists and ‘Wokeists’ Have in Common". The Wall Street Journal.
7. ↑ John Bolton (March 15, 2023). "Why Won’t the West Let Ukraine Win Against Russia?". The Wall Street Journal.
8. ↑ "The Collapsing Obama Doctrine". The Wall Street Journal.
9. ↑ "Why I Was Fired by Google". The Wall Street Journal.
10. ↑ At the 'End of History' Still Stands Democracy Francis Fukuyama. Wall Street Journal. JUN.6.14
11. ↑ Richard Gardner (February 21, 1993). "Modern Witch Hunt: Child Abuse Charges". The Wall Street Journal.
12. ↑ "Big Dumb Lie". The Wall Street Journal.
13. ↑ "Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness" by David French, 2019 April 25, National Review
14. ↑ Complaints against Brett Kavanaugh dismissed by federal judicial council. CNN. December 18, 2018.
15. ↑ The Branding of a Heretic: Are religious scientists unwelcome at the Smithsonian? by David Klinghoffer (January 28, 2005) Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page.
16. ↑ WSJ: Selectively pro-science, ThinkProgress
17. ↑ Real Climate: WSJ vs. the Consensus of the Scientific Community, Lindzen: Point-by-point, WSJ Editorial Board: Head Still Buried in Sand, Global warming delusions at the WSJ, etc.
18. ↑ Claire Prentice (August 23, 2009). "Customers call for Whole Foods boycott". BBC News.
19. ↑ "William McGurn". The Wall Street Journal.
20. ↑ Dylan Byers (December 11, 2012). "William McGurn named New York Post editorial page editor". Politico.
21. ↑ Nathaniel Frank (June 16, 2014). "The Wall Street Journal’s Ignorance on LGBTQ Issues Is Alarming". Slate.
22. ↑ Rupert Murdoch (June 18, 2014). "Immigration Reform Can't Wait", The Wall Street Journal.
23. ↑ Lee, Edmund (2020-07-24). "At Wall Street Journal, News Staff and Opinion Side Clash". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
24. ↑ New slew of climate delayer talking points in the WSJ
25. ↑ "Karl Rove: I Was Wrong About Dick Cheney . . . ". The Wall Street Journal.
26. ↑ "Donald Rumsfeld's Rules for Successful Meetings". The Wall Street Journal.
27. ↑ "Why We Need the $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Package". The Wall Street Journal.
28. ↑ "‘The Gender Gage Rap Is Real!’". The Wall Street Journal.
29. ↑ "WSJ Op-Ed Denies Dangers Of U.S. Mercury Emissions". Media Matters for America.
30. ↑ "The Campus Mob Came for Me—and You, Professor, Could Be Next ". The Wall Street Journal.
31. ↑ "U.S. Taiwan Policy Threatens a Face-Off With China". The Wall Street Journal.