The Wall Street Journal Supports Bigotry

To Editors and Managements of The Wall Street Journal,

I have valued your paper for decades, and faithfully subscribed online for perhaps ten years. It was always expensive but I did not question the value.

With considerable regret I wish immediately to cancel my subscription to the Wall Street Journal and to be refunded any unused portion of the money I’ve given you for my current subscription. I was wrong to assume that what I was offered in the past would be a reliable indicator of your product today.

On the one hand you still offer superb reporting, such as the recent series on Internet e-commerce and privacy led by Julia Angwin. Regardless of one’s perspective on the issue, as I wrote when it was published, the series is a model of thorough investigation, excellent reporting, and optimal use of the online medium. With that series you have opened the eyes of many about a very important issue, and changed the nature of the debate. I commend the publishers of the Journal for supporting Ms. Angwin and her team. One is proud of the press at such moments.

Meanwhile you run a regular series of columns by Karl Rove. I nearly jumped from the subscriber ship then, but at least no one mistakes him for anyone but who he is. It’s regrettable to provide a platform for that mean-spirited fellow, but, I tried to remind myself, voices like his should also be heard. That his hiring coincided with a change of ownership at the Journal was a red flag. I now understand the flag’s meaning.

Yesterday’s piece by William McGurn tossed out the journalistic line between church and state. I now see that your new owner has purchased a respectable platform to broadcast his misanthropic diatribes. A top executive of the company that owns a once-fine newspaper is using it to make hatred more palatable.

I was drawn to the headline: “Are Americans Bigots?” Seeing it posed as a question I hoped to read an intelligent two-sided examination of the topic. What confronted me instead was weak rhetorical nonsense.

As a dual Canadian/American citizen, who lived for 15 adult years in the U.S., I know that Americans are not bigots. And so the recent bigotry displayed by my fellow citizens has surprised and disappointed me. As they are not bigots, I’ve been pondering what impact politicians and the media have had in inciting them to uncharacteristic expressions of hatred. Just before I stumbled on this piece I read Lexington’s commentary on the New York mosque in this week’s Economist. Compare it to Mr. McGurn’s commentary if you will. I can only imagine you blushing.

I thought to myself, who is writing this stuff; have I stumbled onto a Karl Rove column in disguise? Couldn’t be: it was insufficiently venal. That is when I discovered that he is “a Vice President at News Corporation who writes speeches for CEO Rupert Murdoch. Previously he served as Chief Speechwriter for President George W. Bush.” Oh, I see.

Does Mr. McGurn truly think “moving the (Muslim-backed) center a few blocks” will silence these polarized and angry voices? Surely not, when a well-respected, large circulation daily implies that their hate-filled utterances have legitimacy because they emerge from the mouths of decent “American people.”

Hatred spreads faster than good will: it is currently the most-commented article on your site.

You have put me in a position where my tacit support as a subscriber makes me feel culpable. While I acknowledge your right to publish what you see fit, I have the right to withdraw my support.

Respectfully,

Thad McIlroy
The Future of Publishing
thad@thefutureofpublishing.com
www.TheFutureofPublishing.com