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  2. The Wall Street Journal, A Denialist Debunker?

The Wall Street Journal, A Denialist Debunker?

By choofnagle on May 9, 2007.

I'm a real fan of the Wall Street Journal. I read it on the BART every morning, to the displeasure of my knee-jerk co-passengers.

Why is the Journal awesome? Because days like today, you find reporting showing how branding is often an illusion, how cheaper printer cartridges are actually more expensive, and how formaldehyde is used as a preservative in Asia. Denialists may be reading the opinion page, but the rest of the paper seems to highlight the many difficulties and imperfections in the market--from insider trading to outrageous executive pay. All in the same day.

Back to the opinion page...it's crazy. The editors are infatuated with boogeymen. Today, they hit four of them: the IRS, Elliott Spitzer, the trial lawyers, and George Soros. And the facts asserted on it often differ from the reporting elsewhere in the paper. Going forward, I'm going to document examples of this, and I invite you to do so as well!

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The WSJ has long apparently had that strange editorial disconnect between the editorial pages and the news pages (and we're talking the real news pages, which are separate and in addition to the financial reporting). The editorial pages of the Journal (which gives the paper much of principle reputation) is so far out in left-field as to make Limbaugh seem like a wuss by comparison. Hey, that's why I don't want to be seen with it--much preferring the rightist-loathed New York Times.

By gary l. day (not verified) on 09 May 2007 #permalink

Better hope it isn't sold. The potential new owners wouldn't be able to help themselves in making the rest of the paper conform to the editorial page.