A 'new low': Wall Street Journal slammed for giving Trump a platform to circulate election lies
The Wall Street Journal is being criticized for hitting a "new low" by publishing a scathing, lie-filled letter from former President Donald Trump.
'Accord to HuffPost, Trump wrote the letter to the editor in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "The Election for Pennsylvania's High Court," which was published on Sunday, October 24. In the letter, Trump ranted and pushed more false claims about the presidential election.
At one point, Trump wrote, "Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven't figured out."
Per HuffPost, the former president also "provided a bulleted list of 'examples' of voter fraud in Pennsylvania to support his claims, relying repeatedly on data from Audit the Vote PA, an organization that has no real experience in assessing elections and has promoted unsubstantiated claims of fraud."
Reporters have also pushed back against Trump's letter and the publication's categorization of it as an opinion piece. One of the Wall Street Journal's own reporters even blasted the publication for stretching the definition of "opinion."
"I think it's very disappointing that our opinion section continues to publish misinformation that our news side works so hard to debunk," the reporter said.
Wall Street Journal reporter: "I think it\u2019s very disappointing that our opinion section continues to publish misinformation that our news side works so hard to debunk.\u201d https://cnn.it/3EpJyAC— Oliver Darcy (@Oliver Darcy) 1635393996
Jordan Fischer, an investigative reporter for Washington, D.C.'s WUSA9, described the decision to publish Trump's letter as a "new low."
"Today they printed a litany of election falsehoods from former President Trump – without even a single mention of the fact that their own editorial side has thoroughly debunked these claims," he added.
In a new low for the @WSJ Opinion section, today they printed a litany of election falsehoods from former President Trump \u2013 without even a single mention of the fact that their own editorial side has thoroughly debunked these claims.https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-donald-trump-2020-election-fraud-pennsylvania-ballots-11635280347?mod=opinion_major_pos16\u00a0\u2026— Jordan Fischer (@Jordan Fischer) 1635362164
The Bulwark's Amanda Carpenter noted that Trump's election falsehoods should not be defined as "opinion."
"Trump couldn't post this on Facebook but the editors at the WSJ collectively decided to put it on their platform. Think about that. And they think they can distance themselves from it by doing it as an LTE. As of that magically absolves them from pushing the lies," Carpenter tweeted.
Trump couldn\u2019t post this on Facebook but the editors at the WSJ collectively decided to put it on their platform. Think about that. And they think they can distance themselves from it by doing it as an LTE. As of that magically absolves them from pushing the lies.— Amanda Carpenter (@Amanda Carpenter) 1635364380
