WSJ’s Baker is “pop culture sensation”

Gerard Baker

Joe Pompeo of Politico writes about Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker, whose performance Tuesday evening at the Republican presidential debate has drawn rave reviews.

Pompeo writes, “In the wake of the event in Milwaukee, which drew 13.5 million viewers to Fox Business, the web was crawling with tweets and memes about a bald British newspaperman who cut an under-the-radar figure next to his more famous, camera-ready, American co-moderators.

‘In a surprising twist, the stand-out performer [of] the night according to the audience on Twitter wasn’t even a candidate,’ a BBC article declared. ‘Step forward Gerard Baker, aka ‘the British guy’, ‘the guy with no hair’ or least flatteringly of all ‘Humpty Dumpty’.’

“‘British moderator of Republican Debate bemuses America,’ proclaimed a headline from Britain’s Telegraph.

“Baker, who was named editor in chief of the Journal in 2012, addressed his newfound stardom in a podcast interview Wednesday afternoon with Journal sportswriter Jason Gay, who introduced his boss as, ‘quite frankly, a pop culture sensation.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.