Wall Street Journal (Opinion) Media Bias Rating (2024)

About Wall Street Journal (Opinion)'s Bias Rating

Wall Street Journal (Opinion) is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

Wall Street Journal (Opinion) is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Right.

Important Note: AllSides rates Wall Street Journal'sopinion section separately from itsnews content.

What a "Lean Right" Rating Means

Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Lean Right display media bias in ways that moderately align with conservative, traditional, libertarian, or right-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Lean Right bias is a moderately conservative rating on the political spectrum.

Wall Street JournalOpinion/Editorial Rated Lean Right in April 2022 Independent Review

The Wall Street Journal Opinion retained its media bias rating of Lean Right following an April 2022 Independent Review by an AllSides reviewer.

The reviewer noticed bias through story choice.Topics featured on the opinion home page includedHunter Biden's laptopand critiques of Democrat's economic policies. There was alsosensationalism in some stories such as "Democrats threw kerosene on the kindling with another $1.9 trillion in March 2021."

Wall Street JournalOpinion/Editorial Moved from Right to Lean Right inSept. 2018Editorial Review

In Sept. 2018, AllSides conducted an extensive Editorial Review of the Wall Street Journal's opinion and editorial contentand decided to move its media bias rating fromRightto Lean Right.

AllSides found that WSJ opinion does not outright ignore left voices and perspectives, as many verybiased outlets do. In fact, WSJ highlights them frequently — if only to combat them.

When it comes to economics, WSJ opinion writers are on the right. However, they take a traditionally left view on some other issues, such as civil asset forfeitureand redistricting. One AllSides team member referred to WSJ opinion as "Rockefeller Republicans — more moderate and even-handed, not supporting Trump consistently."

AllSides noted WSJ opinion writers are comfortable with delineating from the dominant Republican view on any given issue, refusing to parrot popular talking points, bucking groupthink and truly thinking for themselves. WSJ Opinion is Lean Right biased, but independent in thought.

Previous Media Bias Ratings of Wall Street Journal Opinion

Prior to Sept. 2018, AllSides gaveWall Street Journal's opinion section aRight media bias rating. As of August 2018, 2,917 AllSides readers agreed that the Wall Street Journal's editorial/opinion page had aRight media bias.

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As of September 2024, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for Wall Street Journal (Opinion). On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Right bias.

As of September 2024, AllSides has medium confidence in our Lean Right rating for Wall Street Journal (Opinion). An Editorial Review or Blind Bias Survey has affirmed this rating, or multiple reviews have returned differing results. If we perform more bias reviews and gather consistent data, this confidence level will increase.

Additional Information

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal. The Journal is the largest newspaper in the United States, by circulation.Source:Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia, "TheJournal'seditorial pages and columns, run separately from the news pages, are highly influential in American conservative circles. As editors of the editorial page,Vermont C. Royster(served 1958–1971) andRobert L. Bartley(served 1972–2000) were especially influential in providing aconservative interpretationof the news on a daily basis.Some of theJournal'sformer reporters claim that the paper has adopted a more conservative tone sinceRupert Murdoch's purchase.^[50]"

Further, the paper's editorial boardeditorial board has argued for a pro-business immigration policy (in 1984, it advocated for open borders) and has critiquedBarack Obama'sAffordable Care Actlegislation.A 2015 study foundThe Wall Street Journalwas the least likely newspaper to present the negativeeffects of global warmingamong several newspapers (Source).

Note from AllSides about the Wall Street Journal media bias rating:

This media bias rating refers to WSJ's opinion and editorial pages. Most AllSides media bias ratings refer specifically to the outlet's news coverage, but in this case, because WSJ's media bias differs so much between its news page and editorial page, we have split WSJ into two separate ratings. WSJ's news content — seeThe Wall Street Journal- News— has been blindly rated as Center. See ourmedia bias survey results here.

Third-Party Accusations of Bias

Some see WSJ's ownership by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp as a potential source of conservative bias. A 2021 article in the Columbia Journalism Review said an op-ed criticizing Jill Biden, Democratic President Joe Biden's wife, "may have represented an appealing opportunity for corporate synergy" between WSJ and other Murdoch-owned outlets like Fox News. Many of Murdoch's outlets have a conservative reputation; Sky News Australia, for instance, has been accused of misleading viewers about climate change and spreading fear and falsehoods about the country's indigenous representation in parliament.

The CJR article continued, saying, "The Journal has a distinctly conservative, finance-focused sensibility; it also belongs squarely among the New York media elite. It is not where many reporters aspire to land, however, in large part because its reputation is so tainted by incendiary op-eds. For decades, the Journal newsroom has grumbled about leaps of logic and reckless ideology on the opinion side. During Trump’s presidency, the grumbling grew into a roar."

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Owner: Dow Jones & Company (a division of News Corp.)