Freedman’s departure from WSJ is a big blow

Dean Starkman of the Columbia Journalism Review writes Wednesday that the departure of page one editor Alix Freedman from The Wall Street Journal is a major blow to the paper.

Starkman writes, “Freedman is best known for her Pulitzer-winning series on the tobacco industry, the highlights of which can be read here. The series used internal document obtained from tobacco companies to devastating effect, showing, among other things, that companies knew all along that nicotine was addictive and even likened it to cocaine; they knew ‘lite’ cigarettes were as dangerous as regular ones, even as they said otherwise; that companies enhanced nicotine delivery by adding ammonia-based compounds, and much more. The series (reported, it should be said, amid intense competition from other news organizations) helped lay the groundwork for the restructuring of that entire industry, including the 1998 ‘master settlement agreement’ with 46 states.

“And tobacco was really only the highlight of a long string of investigative and narrative stories — into the rent-to-own business, alcohol sales in inner cities, a secretive company that dominated the market for cheap handguns—that, safe to say, put Freedman on the top wrung of Journal staffers, probably all-time, which is saying something.

“Freedman would go on to become the standards editor, which is sort of the conscience of the paper, then in April was named to head Page One, where she lasted all of four months before her departure today (and yes, that’s weird).

“But it’s more than a single journalist, but an entire journalism culture that’s in play. To understand, you have to back up a bit — to 1941.”

Read more here.