WSJ launches resource to highlight difference between news and opinion

The Wall Street Journal launched a new resource designed to educate readers on the standards and ethics that are fundamental to its journalism and also highlight the differences between its news and opinion sections.

The resource comes as the paper’s reporters and editors have raised concerns about how its content differs from the opinion page. Journalists at The Journal and other Dow Jones & Co. staffers sent a letter last summer to publisher Alma Latour calling for a clearer differentiation between news and opinion content online.

The letter stated, “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.”

On the resource, editor in chief Matt Murray wrote, “Sound news reporting is based in facts, impartially gathered and fearlessly presented. It relies on objective, baseline truths that are knowable. Great reporters are curious, skeptical, challenging, open, empathetic and genuinely impartial—and go where the facts lead.”

To read more, go here.