Wall Street Journal reporters say it's 'very disappointing' opinion page published Trump's 'misinformation'

(Image credit: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

published 28 October 2021

The Wall Street Journal's decision to run a lengthy letter to the editor from former President Donald Trump containing falsehoods about the 2020 election didn't go over well with many of the newspaper's reporters.

CNN's Brian Stelter spoke to several journalists who weren't entirely surprised that the conservative opinion section — which is separate from the Journal's newsroom — ran Trump's letter as is. "I think it's very disappointing that our opinion section continues to publish misinformation that our news side works so hard to debunk," one reporter told Stelter. "They should hold themselves to the same standards we do."

In July 2020, after the opinion page ran an editorial by former Vice President Mike Pence under the headline "There Isn't a Coronavirus 'Second Wave,'" more then 300 members of the Journal's staff signed a letter to publisher Almar Latour sharing their concerns over the opinion page's "lack of fact-checking and transparency," saying its "apparent disregard for evidence undermine[s] our readers' trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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