The
Wall Street Journal has become a parody of itself
In the Trump era, there is simply no Republican, no matter how deranged
or unfit, whom the Journal will not prefer to a Democratic opponent. The
spectacle of the Journal chastising the Biden administration without a solitary
word about Trump and his enablers is breathtaking.
By Mona Charen
Many American
institutions have beclowned themselves in the last 10 years — too many to list.
To count the right-leaning institutions that have not succumbed to Trumpian
populism takes only one hand.
But the decline of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has been
particularly galling because, compared to the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale
College or the Claremont Institute, it had farther to fall.
In the pre-Trump era, the paper had some integrity. While the board was
broadly aligned with the Republican Party, its editorials didn’t hesitate to
differ with Republicans on major questions.
In the Trump era, the Journal has become, if not Pravda, then something
like the Nation. The Nation reliably whitewashed the sins of the Soviet Union
and other communist regimes because it regarded anti-communism as a greater
threat to the world than communism itself.
Similarly, The Wall Street Journal has gradually become a parody of
itself on the grounds that Democrats are always and forever the greatest threat
to the country.
With that guiding principle, there is simply no Republican, no matter how
deranged or unfit, whom the Journal will not prefer to a Democratic opponent.
In 2022, the Journal advised its Arizona readers to choose Kari Lake for
governor despite the fact Lake had called for the 2020 election to be
decertified, denounced mask-wearing and encouraged the use of
hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic, promised to criminally pursue
journalists who “dupe the public” and pronounced the nation “rotten to the
core” when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago.
The Journal didn’t mention most of that in its endorsement, claiming,
hilariously, that Arizona’s election was primarily about school choice.
This week, commenting on
the drone kerfuffle, the Journal intoned it couldn’t be sure what people were
seeing — but it was certain the whole thing could be attributed to the erosion
of trust in government.
Noting that “non-cranks” have reported seeing things that move strangely
in the dark, the Journal quoted Jon Bramnick, a GOP state senator from New
Jersey, who said, “It must be something going on that they can’t tell us
because they are so fearful of what the public’s gonna do when they hear what
the drones are doing.”
You might think the paper would rebuke this state senator for getting out
over his skis and encouraging conspiratorial thinking, but no, the editorial
notes: “This is how deep the suspicion runs. And when that happens, conspiracy
theories fill the air as much as drones do.”
And guess who’s responsible for this erosion of trust?
Spy balloons, drones, FEMA and more
The Biden administration has squandered its credibility to the point that
it’s rational not to believe what it says. Remember the Chinese spy balloon
that traveled across the continental U.S.? The administration downplayed its
importance while it was courting better relations with Beijing, only to shoot
it down over the Atlantic Ocean.
Whoa. If you want to cite relations with Beijing as a source of mistrust,
the Trump administration offers far more dire examples. While he was chasing a
“great trade agreement” with Xi Jinping (the terms of which were never honored,
by the way), Donald Trump repeatedly lied about and minimized the risk of
COVID-19, which had far more serious consequences for Americans’ lives than
waiting until the big spy balloon was over the ocean before shooting it down.
Nor did the Journal see fit to mention that Trump is, right on schedule
and very on-brand, stoking conspiracies of government malfeasance about the
drones. He popped off: “Can this really be happening without our government’s
knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot
them down!!!”
This is not to excuse President Joe Biden’s betrayal of trust in
repeatedly promising that he would not pardon his son and then doing so, or
misleading the public about the degree of his physical and mental decline.
But for the Journal to look at the world of 2024 and conclude the erosion
of trust in government is due to Biden without ever once mentioning Trump and
his minions are the most prolific bilge-spillers imaginable, is to be
completely without scruple.
Just in the last few weeks of the campaign, Trump falsely alleged the
Federal Emergency Management Agency was purposely withholding hurricane
assistance in order to funnel funds to illegal immigrants, the Congo was
emptying its prisons to send convicts to the United States and the 2020
election was stolen.
Trust is crucial to the successful functioning of society. Many social
science studies have found that nations with high trust have less corruption
and greater prosperity than those with low trust. It makes sense. If you
believe that most people are untrustworthy, you will rely only on those within
your own family or tribe and be less likely to engage with outsiders.
The drone affair is fluff and will doubtless be forgotten in a month if
not sooner. But the spectacle of the Journal chastising the Biden
administration without a solitary word about Trump and his enablers (in whose
ranks they stand) is breath-taking.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to
Differ” podcast.
