The Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker early Wednesday sent out emails criticizing his staff over “commentary dressed up as news reporting” over the coverage of President Donald Trump’s rally in Phoenix, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times.
“Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,” he wrote of a draft of the article intended for the newspaper’s final edition.
“Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?” he wrote in a second email.
After Baker reviewed the article, several phrases were removed, including where a reporter described the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “reshaping” Trump’s presidency.
Also cut from the final version was the description of Trump’s speech as “an off-script return to campaign form” where Trump “pivoted away from remarks a day earlier in which he had solemnly called for unity.”
A Journal spokeswoman in a
