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I’ve always loved the Wall Street journal, and going back to the days of Jonathan Kwittny and, in more recent years, Glenn Simpson, have thought it has had the best investigative reporters in the business. I still get the paper delivered to my door at home in print form every day, and read it religiously. And I have always defended the separation of church and state there between the news reporters and the right of wing-nut editorial side, which I have always enjoyed reading just to see how that perspective views the evolving political world down here in Washington.
Alas, those days may be over. Yesterday’s New York Times carried a lengthy and persuasive analysis of the Journal’s Washington bureau and makes the case that it has taken a hard turn to the right. Like quoting from Rush Limbaugh high up in Ted Kennedy’s obituary criticizing the Senator; referring to estate taxes as death taxes without quotes around the term; having articles always questioning the costs of health care reform but never citing the benefits; and taking shots at Obama whenever they can. In the news section, not just the editorial pages.
As a former reporter, I am of course disappointed to see this major change at the Journal. It will drive away whatever good reporters are left there (and there are still many). And it will start that drip, drip, drip of suspicion by readers like myself who wonder how the Journal editors have slanted each story out of Washington. This is not good for the Journal or for journalism.
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