WSJ editor Baker to address staff at town hall meeting

Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker will hold a town hall meeting next week with the staff to answer questions about the paper’s coverage of the administration and address other concerns, writes Joe Pompeo of Politico.

Pompeo writes, “The meeting, announced in a company email on Wednesday and scheduled for Monday, February 13, is billed as a wide-ranging session on the state of the Journal, but Trump coverage is expected to be high on the list of discussion topics.

“‘I’m eager to talk with all of you about the challenges and opportunities for our journalism,’ Baker wrote.

“While other major news outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, have covered Trump aggressively throughout the campaign, the transition and the early days of the 45th presidency, repeatedly stoking the ire of Trump and his aides, the Journal has taken an arguably more circumspect, if not softer approach.

“Baker has been hesitant to allow Journal reporters to characterize Trump’s false assertions as lies and has suggested that media ‘elites’ are out to get Trump. During the campaign, reporters say, some of his editorial decisions tended to downplay Trump’s transgressions while he urged his staff to be tougher on Hillary Clinton.”

Read more here.