Wall Street Journal

From SourceWatch

The Wall Street Journal, an influential international daily newspaper, was acquired in 2007 by News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch. It is unclear how this has affected its reputation and reliability of its articles. Its editorial page has always been very conservative and is expected to remain so.

It was formerly owned by Dow Jones & Company. It is still published in New York City, New York. 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.^[1]

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

The Journal enjoys the reputation of being a generally reliable source of news. Its editorial pages are considered far less reliable on matters of fact ^[2] 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.^[3] The editorial page commonly publishes pieces by prominent U.S. and world leaders with conservative views such as Russian president Vladimir Putin and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.