The Decline and Fall of the Wall Street Journal
By: Mona Charen
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Or: How the Journal's editorial page learned to stop worrying and love (some) conspiracy theorists.
Mona CharenDec 17, 202484
MANY AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS have beclowned themselves in the past ten years—too many to list. To count the right-leaning institutions that have not succumbed to Trumpian populism takes only one hand. But the decline of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has been particularly galling because, compared to the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, or the Claremont Institute, it had farther to fall.
Sure, I understand that the Journal probably always rubbed progressives the wrong way, and perhaps that limits how much they can see the precipitous drop in the paper's standards. But it seems clear to me that in the pre-Trump era, the paper had some integrity. While the board was broadly aligned with the Republican party, its editorials didn't hesitate to differ with Republicans on major questions. The Journal was consistently pro-immigration, for example, strongly free-trade, and moderate on social issues like abortion and gay rights. It was a platform for serious writers and informed opinion. And even now, it still has flashes of its old self now and then. But those only underscore the sad corruption of a once great institution.
In the Trump era, the Journal has become, if not Pravda, then something like the Nation. The Nation reliably whitewashed the sins of the Soviet Union and other communist regimes because it regarded anti-communism as a greater threat to the world than communism itself. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal has gradually become a parody of itself on the grounds that Democrats are always and forever the greatest threat to the country.
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With that guiding principle, there is simply no Republican, no matter how deranged or unfit, whom the Journal will not prefer to a Democratic opponent. In 2022, the Journal advised its Arizona readers to choose Kari Lake for governor despite the fact that Lake had called for the 2020 election to be decertified, denounced mask wearing and encouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic, promised to criminally pursue journalists who "dupe the public," and pronounced the nation "rotten to the core" when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. The Journal didn't mention most of that in its endorsement, claiming, hilariously, that Arizona's election was primarily about school choice.
This week, the paper is returning to that level of analysis with an editorial about the drone kerfuffle. Noting that reports of nighttime drone sightings are coming in from around the country, but most particularly from New Jersey, the Journal intoned that it couldn't be sure what people were seeing—but it was certain that the whole thing could be attributed to the erosion of trust in government.
Noting that "non-cranks" have reported seeing things that move strangely in the dark, the Journal quoted Jon Bramnick, a GOP state senator from New Jersey, who said, "It must be something going on that they can't tell us because they are so fearful of what the public's gonna do when they hear what the drones are doing."
You might think the paper would rebuke this state senator for getting out over his skis and encouraging conspiratorial thinking, but no, the editorial notes that "This is how deep the suspicion runs. And when that happens, conspiracy theories fill the air as much as drones do."
And guess who's responsible for this erosion of trust?
The Biden Administration has squandered its credibility to the point that it's rational not to believe what it says. Remember the Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the continental U.S.? The Administration downplayed its importance while it was courting better relations with Beijing, only to shoot it down over the Atlantic Ocean.
Whoa. If you want to cite relations with Beijing as a source of mistrust, the Trump administration offers far more dire examples. While he was chasing a "great trade agreement" with Xi Jinping (the terms of which were never honored, by the way), Trump repeatedly lied about and minimized the risk of COVID-19, which had far more serious consequences for Americans' lives than waiting until the big spy balloon was over the ocean before shooting it down.
Nor did the Journal see fit to mention that Trump is, right on schedule and very on brand, stoking conspiracies of government malfeasance about the drones. He popped off: "Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge. I don't think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!"
This is not to excuse President Biden's betrayal of trust in repeatedly promising that he would not pardon his son and then doing so, or misleading the public about the degree of his physical and mental decline. But for the Journal to look at the world of 2024 and conclude that the erosion of trust in government is due to Biden without ever once mentioning that Trump and his minions are the most prolific bilge spillers imaginable is to be completely without scruple. Just in the last few weeks of the campaign, Trump falsely alleged that FEMA was purposely withholding hurricane assistance in order to funnel funds to illegal immigrants, that the Congo was emptying its prisons to send convicts to the United States, and that the 2020 election was stolen.
It is Trump, not Biden, who is attempting to install as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services a conspiracy theorist so dangerously unmoored from reality that even the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial opposing him.
Trust is crucial to the successful functioning of society. Many social science studies have found that nations with high trust have less corruption and greater prosperity than those with low trust. It makes sense. If you believe that most people are untrustworthy, you will rely only on those within your own family or tribe and be less likely to engage with outsiders. Trust is a social and economic lubricant. It's also, as we've learned, quite easy to undermine when people get their information from online rumors and irresponsible politicians and other actors who stoke distrust for their own political ends.
The drone affair is fluff and will doubtless be forgotten in a month if not sooner. But the spectacle of the Journal chastising the Biden administration without a solitary word about Trump and his enablers (in whose ranks they stand) is breathtaking.
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I cannot even think of an example of a moderate conservative media outlet. They are all "out there".
that guiding principle, there is simply no Republican, no matter how deranged or unfit,
Like every left wing outlet in existence....
Services a conspiracy theorist so dangerously unmoored from reality that even the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial opposing him.
This is funny though. She shoots down her own argument two paragraphs later.
Truer words have rarely been spoken.