The letter sent by employees was addressed to Almar Latour, chief of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp.
Photo: Richard B. Levine/Zuma PressA group of journalists at The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones NWS 0.51% staffers sent a letter on Tuesday to the paper’s new publisher, Almar Latour, calling for a clearer differentiation between news and opinion content online, citing concerns about the Opinion section’s accuracy and transparency.
The letter, signed by more than 280 reporters, editors and other employees says, “Opinion’s lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers’ trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources.”
The letter cites several examples of concern, including a recent essay by Vice President Mike Pence about coronavirus infections. The letter’s authors said the editors published Mr. Pence’s figures “without checking government figures” and noted that the piece, “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” was later corrected.
The letter says many readers don’t understand that there is a wall between the Journal’s editorial page operations, which have been overseen by Paul Gigot since 2001, and the news staff, which is overseen by Editor in Chief Matt Murray. Mr. Murray was also copied on the letter.
The letter proposed more prominently labeling editorials and opinion columns on the website and mobile apps, including the line “The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion pages are independent of its newsroom.” It also suggests removing opinion pieces from the “Most Popular Articles” and “Recommended Videos” lists on the website, and creating a separate “Most Popular in Opinion” list.
The letter also proposes that “WSJ journalists should not be reprimanded for writing about errors published in Opinion, whether we make those observations in our articles, on social media, or elsewhere.”
The letter doesn’t challenge the right of the editorial page to offer its own opinions and analysis.
A spokeswoman for Dow Jones and the Journal didn’t have an immediate comment.
Messrs. Latour and Murray earlier received letters from journalists seeking more diversity in the newsroom and voicing concerns regarding hiring practices and how stories involving race are covered by the Journal.
Among the other examples the latest letter highlighted was an opinion article titled “The Myth of Systemic Police Racism,” which the letter’s authors said was one of the paper’s most read articles in June. The article argued that the “charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today.” The letter says the piece “selectively presented facts and drew an erroneous conclusion from the underlying data.”
The letter said that many “employees of color publicly spoke out about the pain this Opinion piece caused them during company-held discussions surrounding diversity initiatives” and added that if the “company is serious about better supporting its employees of color, at a bare minimum it should raise Opinion’s standards so that misinformation about racism isn’t published.”
The letter also said that “Opinion has also published basic factual inaccuracies about taxes,” citing two specific articles.
Opinion pages recently have become subjects of newsroom controversy.
In early June, James Bennet stepped down as editorial page chief of the New York Times following widespread criticism in the newsroom and on social media of an opinion column by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) that called for the government to deploy U.S. troops to cities to deter looting following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd. Mr. Bennet was succeeded by Kathleen Kingsbury, now acting editorial page editor for the Times.
Bari Weiss, a well-known editor and writer for the Times’s opinion section, resigned on July 13, writing on her website that she had been bullied by colleagues and that her work and character were “openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in.”
A spokeswoman for the Times said at the time that it is “committed to fostering an environment of honest, searching and empathetic dialogue between colleagues, one where mutual respect is required of all.”
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com
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