Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal, an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, is owned by News Corporation, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. It typically misinforms its readers about climate change.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
The Wall Street Journal has been a corporate funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). See ALEC Corporations for more.

Editors
As of January 2010: On the editorial side are:
 * Paul Gigot is the Editorial Page editor;
 * Robert Pollock is The Editorial Features editor, in charge of op-eds;
 * Timothy Lemmer is the Letters editor

On the news side are:
 * Robert Thomson, Editor-in-Chief, Dow Jones & Company; Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal
 * Gerard Baker, Deputy Editor-in-Chief The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Company
 * Jeffrey Ball, Environment Editor and Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
 * Rebecca Blumenstein, Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal Online
 * John Bussey, Washington Bureau Chief, The Wall Street Journal
 * Laura Landro, Assistant Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal
 * Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor, Executive Editor, Online, The Wall Street Journal
 * Gerald F. Seib, Assistant Managing Editor, Executive Washington Editor, The Wall Street Journal

Ownership, circulation and history
The paper was owned by Dow Jones & Company until 2007, when that company was acquired by News Corporation. As of October 2009, its daily circulation is over two million, including over 350,000 electronic subscribers. Based on these new figures reported by Editor & Publisher magazine, its total circulation has now exceeded USA Today giving it the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States. USA Today remains number one in total print circulation, despite a 17% decline in the first half of 2009 to a circulation of 1.88 million.

The newspaper has been printed continuously since July 8, 1889, and has won the Pulitzer Prize twenty-six times.

Subject matter
Nicknamed The Journal, this newspaper primarily covers U.S. and international business and financial news and issues. In fact, the paper's name comes from Wall Street, the street in New York which is the heart of the business district.

Climate coverage
An analysis of 86 editorials and op-eds about climate published in the WSJ between October 2008 and January 25, 2011 showed a "backward" mix, with the vast majority of columns opposing climate science.

News vs. editorial
The Journal enjoyed the reputation of being a generally reliable source of news, though not for climate change. ,, . Its editorial pages are considered far less reliable on matters of fact and solidly right-wing, although it regularly gives one weekly opinion column spot to an opposing view, as with the slot formerly held by the liberal Al Hunt and now held by a populist, Thomas Frank, who wrote What's the Matter with Kansas How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. The editorial pages commonly publish global warming skeptic op-eds and pieces by U.S. and world leaders with conservative views such as Russian president Vladimir Putin and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

When it comes to the WSJ´s views towards Latin America, the paper features articles from Mary Anastasia O´Grady, who wrote reports published by the conservative Heritage Foundation. O´Grady often criticizes "populism" and "leftists" in Latin America.

WSJ´s O´Grady recently criticized the South American multilateral forum known as Unasur saying "(Colombian president) Uribe will be outnumbered by leftist tyrants" despite the fact that all countries of Unasur have democratically elected presidents. Amerian author living in Mexico Richard Grabman chracterized O´Grady´s columns at the WSJ as " a better barometer of what Latin Americans are NOT going to do than the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer"

Political blogger Sabina Becker dubbed WSJ´s O´Grady as "a discredited hack parachuted in from the Heritage Foundation to promote far-right "values" at the expense of honesty and reality." , and Inca Kola News compiled a list of WSJ´s O´Grady inaccuracies involving her stories on Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ecuador, criticizing her "serial ignorance of Latin American affairs".

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
Editorial Board Member Stephen Moore is also an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) "Scholar." On August 4th, 2011, he spoke at a Shell Oil-sponsored plenary session of the 38th Annual ALEC Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, along with fellow ALEC "scholar" Arthur B. Laffer. Moore also participated in the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting, speaking on a panel on corporate taxes in front of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force. Furthermore, he partook in the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force meeting at the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting, leading a discussion, alongside ALEC Director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force, Jonathan Williams, about the 4th Edition of Rich States, Poor States.

Contact details

 * Official Web site: http://www.wsj.com

Books
ISBN 978-1559721189
 * Francis X. Dealy, The Power and the Money: Inside the Wall Street Journal, Jr. Birch Lane Press, June 1993. ISBN 1559721189

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Leslie Chang
 * Melanie Kirkpatrick

External Articles

 * Chris Welles, Of Bulls and Bears and Sacred Cows", Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1993. (This is a review of Francis X. Dealy's book The Power and the Money: Inside the Wall Street Journal.)
 * Dean Starkman, "WSJ committee Must Prove Its Mettle: It gets benefit of doubt, but now it’s time to fight", Columbia Journalism Review, April 30, 2008.
 * Dean Starkman, "The Anglo-ization of The Wall Street Journal: A struggle over the editor was about much more than turf", Columbia Journalism Review, May 8, 2008.
 * Ryan Chittum, "The WSJ’s Sketches of Pain", Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2008.
 * Ryan Chittum, "'Good News (For Once) At The Journal: Two internal promotions are hopeful signs in the News Corporation era", Columbia Journalism Review, July 7, 2008.
 * Ryan Chittum, "Audit Roundup: Wall Street Gives Way: Wall Street’s rot; Where are the accounting cops?", Columbia Journalism Review, September 16, 2008.
 * David Carr, "Under Murdoch, Tilting Rightward at The Journal", New York Times, December 13, 2009.