Although he’s still banned from Twitter and Facebook, former president Donald Trump has found an outlet for his election conspiracy theories. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal published a letter to the editor penned by the former president in which he asserted—among other things—that Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania was fraudulent, despite the state confirming the results via two different types of ballot audits, and that “corruption” and “voter irregularities” led to his defeat. The op-ed was published without a fact-check of Trump’s claims, many of which were demonstrably false.
Naturally, backlash ensued—both from other media outlets and from the Journal‘s own reporters. But on Thursday evening, the outlet’s editorial board published an op-ed standing by its decision. “The progressive parsons of the press are aflutter that we published a letter to the editor Thursday from former president Trump, objecting to our editorial pointing out that he lost Pennsylvania last year by 80,555 votes,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. “And we think it’s news when an ex-president who may run in 2024 wrote what he did, even if (or perhaps especially if) his claims are bananas.”
While the board acknowledged the falsity of many of Trump’s claims, it jabbed at critics who took issue with publishing the letter. “We trust our readers to make up their own minds about his statement,” the op-ed read. “As for the media clerics, their attempts to censor Mr. Trump have done nothing to diminish his popularity. Our advice would be to examine their own standards after they fell so easily for false Russian collusion claims. They’d have more credibility in refuting Mr. Trump’s.”
Ironically, many of the “media clerics” objecting to the Journal’s publication of Trump’s letter hail from its own ranks. In anonymous comments made to CNN on Thursday, a number of Journal reporters criticized their own workplace. “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 the outlet. “They should hold themselves to the same standards we do!” In a tweet, former Journal executive Ken Herts lashed out at his ex-employer for “Putting falsehoods and misinformation in your newspaper,” which “tarnishes your brand.” And former Journal editor Bill Grueskin questioned why the editorial page did not “fact-check” or “delete [Trump’s] most egregious lies.”
Another journalist highlighted the harm in allowing Trump to go on beating his “rigged election” drum. New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman noted on CNN that Trump, despite his social media bans, has “found a way to platform himself” via the Journal. “One of his methods is repetition. And he knows he’s doing it,” she said. “He will say the same thing over and over and over and over again because he knows that at a certain point it does sink in.”
Other facets of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, of which the Journal is part, have played more prominent roles in allowing Trump’s mantra to sink in. On Wednesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson promoted an upcoming three-part docuseries that, according to a trailer, seemingly portrays the Capitol riot as a “false flag” operation staged by the U.S. government to frame and imprison conservatives. (In reality, the January 6 attack was orchestrated by Trump supporters who wholeheartedly believed Biden had stolen the election.) As the Journal controversy continued to roil, Murdoch himself was preoccupied with lighter matters: The media magnate celebrated his 90th birthday on Thursday night with a New York City party whose invitees reportedly included Henry Kissinger, Mike Pompeo, and Mike Bloomberg.
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