The Wall Street Journal and the Facts

The Wall Street Journal is one of the best papers published in the U.S.

The fact-checking in most articles is quite impeccable, and the reporters respond positively to the occasional request for correcting errors.

However, when it comes to opinion (and some editorial) pieces, the Journal takes greater liberties and commonly falls quite short on facts, and sometimes, long on fable.

In some cases (for example today's editorial and similar opinion pieces on Iran), the essayist repeats a number of false claims (also made in earlier editorials and opinion pieces), perhaps cognizant that such repetition through time and across pieces will help give such questionable claims greater validity in some minds.

Alas!

This sort of editorializing, whether formally or as an opinion piece, only misguides the reader into beliefs that have no basis in real facts.

Instead of an attempt to help comprehend that which is at stake, the practice clouds and stupefies the mind.