WSJ reporters complain about attempts to take graphic offline

A group of Wall Street Journal reporters sent out the following email on Thursday:

Colleagues,

This week a senior editor at the Wall Street Journal attempted to take a graphic offline because the facts it contained were not politically palatable. When that failed, it was “de-surfaced,” or in other terms, taken off the front page and links were removed to it from as many places as possible. After an early flurry of traffic, views plummeted. This is censorship and it is beneath the standards of the Wall Street Journal. It isn’t the first time, either.

We propose “resurfacing” the graphic far and wide. Please share it with anyone you can, on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, or any other platform.

Separately, we propose a massive tweet of the graphic at 12 p.m. (EST)/5 p.m. (GMT)/12 a.m. (Hong Kong). Please forward this message to anyone who you believe shares these values. Please forward this, whether in part of full to as many people at the WSJ as possible.

Here is the built-in social language:

How The World Has Changed Since 2008 Financial Crisis https://graphics.wsj.com/how-the-world-has-changed-since-2008-financial-crisis/  via @WSJGraphics

“Our business is publishing information, not withholding it. When there is news available about so vital a segment of our economy as the automobile industry we intend to be free to use our own best judgment about publishing it, undeterred by the fact that it may not be ‘authorized.'” — 1954 Wall Street Journal editorial facing down General Motors.

A Dow Jones spokesman issued the following statement:

This project first published Tuesday morning and has been online ever since. The team will be adding additional reporting and analysis on the crisis and its aftermath. The current version can be found here: https://graphics.wsj.com/how-the-world-has-changed-since-2008-financial-crisis/.