Dow Jones staff demands Wall Street Journal differentiate between news and opinion after lies appear in Pence editorial
July 21, 2020
The Wall Street Journalis coming under fire after Vice President Mike Pence was allowed to post an editorial in the paper saying that there isn't a second wave of the coronavirus.
The paper reported that Wall Street Journal reporters and staffers at the Dow Jones signed a letter demanding the opinion section still have accuracy and transparency. Pence's claims appeared without government figures and void of sources.
"The letter says many readers don’t understand that there is a wall between the Journal’s editorial page operations, which have been overseen by Paul Gigot since 2001, and the news staff, which is overseen by Editor in Chief Matt Murray. Mr. Murray was also copied on the letter," said the report.
The letter encourages the Journal to label editorials and opinion pieces on the website and mobile apps with the line “The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion pages are independent of its newsroom.” They also said that all opinion pieces should be removed from appearing on "Popular Articles" and "Recommended Videos" since they aren't actual news.
They also demand, “WSJ journalists should not be reprimanded for writing about errors published in Opinion, whether we make those observations in our articles, on social media, or elsewhere.”
The complaints are not that the editorial page exists, rather it should be labeled more clearly as to differentiate between actual reporting and commentary.
Another opinion piece, “The Myth of Systemic Police Racism,” has come under criticism as well after saying that the “charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today.”
Staffers of color have pointed out the problem, according to the letter, adding that if the Journal "is serious about better supporting its employees of color, at a bare minimum it should raise Opinion’s standards so that misinformation about racism isn’t published.”
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