I have been a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for over fifty years. Even though I worked in the financial services industry, I liked the Journal more for its editorial content than its business news. A few years ago the Journal was acquired by media giant News Corp. It was an unprecedented deal since it was agreed that the traditionally conservative editorial pages would be independent of the new owner.
Sure enough, the Journal’s editorial pages have remained largely conservative and pro-business. However, since 2016 the WSJ editors and commentators have never been able to swallow Donald Trump to the point where it is hard for them to say one good word about him, his actions, or his policies. They don’t appear to hate him in the manner of left-wing commentators, but they seem to regard him as a rogue relative whose presence they would prefer to ignore.
So far this year I do not recall the editors of the Journal writing anything good about the President. No one can blame them for consistently opposing his tariff policies but where is the applause as he brokers one peace deal or cease fire after another. They have even been strangely reticent about this weekend’s peace deal that included the release of the Israeli hostages.
Last Saturday, they did bury the following at the end of an editorial that praised the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a courageous female opponent of the Venezuelan dictatorship.
“If Mr. Trump helps Ms. Machado and the Venezuelan people restore democracy, and help free Mr. Lai from prison, the President will deserve the Nobel next year.”
In their opinion, the unprecedented Peace deal in the Middle East as well as the others negotiated over the globe in the past nine months are not good enough.
Journal political columnists have been equally reluctant to praise the President. Karl Rove, a regular columnist every Thursday since he left the Bush administration, has never forgiven Trump for his criticism of the Bushes. Despite his political astuteness, he finds it almost impossible to give the President any credit.
Holman Jenkins, usually an acute political observer, has to almost tie himself in knots rather than give any praise to obvious achievements of the Trump administration. After all these years, he still cannot understand the President’s popularity and insists that James Comey won the election for him back in 2016.
Peggy Noonan has been the lead political columnist in the Weekend edition for years. She has never liked Trump as a person or politician. I recall that in 2016 she admitted that she voted for Edmund Burke, a long dead British political scientist, rather than cast a ballot for either Trump or Hillary Clinton. She must feel that she would become a pariah among her political friends if she ever said a good word about President Trump.
Finally, last Saturday she had to break down and give President Trump a grudging hand for brokering the Gaza peace deal. She wrote,
"Give it to him. Give him your applause. Sometimes pessimism reaches a point of moral error. Sometimes hope is the only realistic approach.
So give it to President Trump, whose White House has produced the first progress in the Mideast since the grave crisis of Oc. 7 began. He announced Wednesday with typically Trumpian words. He called it, “a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.”
Finally, the release of the hostages on Monday led to an editorial, albeit not the lead editorial, with this headline:
“Trump’s Hostage Triumph in Jerusalem.”
Despite the headline the editorial was full of caveats and warnings. It was left to global affairs columnist Walter Russell Mead to finally give credit where credit was due.
“Only Mr. Trump could have made this happen. No other living politician could have reassured Israel, threatened Hamas, and patched together a broad coalition the way he has done. Mr. Trump has his shortcomings… but he is a leader who bestrides the world scene like no other.”
Apparently, the news dam has started to leak.
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Frank, as usual you are spot on. So called journalist/professionals put them and their biases first and do a great disservice to them, their outlets and readers.
ReplyDeleteJD comments from NYC.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Steinbrenner who was much like trump said if you do good only one person needs to know. I bet those 20 hostages are the one.
Note during his Israeli speech, Trump said that the secret bombing of the Iranian nuclear program was the turning point that changed the dynamics. He demonstrated the power that the USA has and will use anywhere in the world. As Muhammad Ali used to say,” you can run , but you can’t hide.”
Unlike the WSJ journalists, I say well done Mr. President.