Gerard Baker | |
|---|---|
 Speaking at the 2021 World Economic Forum | |
| Born | England |
| Occupation | Writer, columnist |
| Education | Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
Gerard Baker is a British writer and columnist. He was Dow Jones' Managing Editor, and The Wall Street Journal 's Editor-in-Chief from March 2013 until June 2018. [1] Baker stepped down as WSJ Editor-in-Chief and transitioned into the role of Editor-at-Large. He was succeeded by WSJ executive editor Matt Murray. [2]
Baker was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, United Kingdom and holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (first class honours). [1] [3] [4] Though he long remained a British citizen, [5] Baker took American citizenship in December 2023. [6] He was left-of-centre during his university years, [5] [7] and was elected as a Labour vice-president of the student union. [7] He subsequently moved towards the right. [5] [7]
Baker's first job following graduation was at the Bank of England. [4] [7] After working there for a year, he moved to Lloyds Bank as a Latin America analyst. [7]
From 1988 to 1994, Baker worked for the BBC as a producer in the UK and in the US, and worked as economics correspondent for BBC Radio and television. [1] From 1994 to 2004, Baker worked for the Financial Times . From 1994 to 1998, he worked as its correspondent in Tokyo, Japan; from 1998 to 2002, as its Washington, DC, bureau chief; and from 2002 to 2004, as its chief US commentator and associate editor. [1] From 2004 to 2009, Baker worked for The Times as its US editor and as an assistant editor. [1]
In January 2009, Baker moved to The Wall Street Journal, becoming the newspaper's deputy editor-in-chief. [8] [3] As deputy editor-in-chief, Baker (then serving under Robert Thomson) replaced Journal reporters and bureau chiefs who they felt were too liberal. [9] Baker was then dismissive of "what he saw as the turgid style of American journalists." [10] In 2009, a year after their appointment, Thomson and Baker were reported to have given the newspaper a more conservative outlook and, according to David Carr of The New York Times, their editing reflected "a chronic skepticism of the" Obama administration. [11] On 1 March 2013, he was named the Dow Jones Managing Editor, and The Wall Street Journal's Editor-in-Chief. [1]
Baker's tenure at the Journal was a tumultuous one, with buyouts, layoffs and discontent among some reporters. [12] In 2015, the Journal began a new round of large-scale layoffs of reporters and staff. [13] [14] Some sections of the paper's print edition, including Greater New York, were cut, while others were consolidated. [12] The Journal also undertook "a sweeping newsroom strategy review" called WSJ2020, in a bid to save $100 million in costs. [12]
As editor, Baker mourned the death of Journal reporter David Bird, who had been missing and whose body was later found in a river. [15] [16]
In November 2015, Baker was one of the moderators at the fourth Republican primary debate during the 2016 presidential primaries. [8] He was the first British-born moderator of a US presidential debate. [17] Baker's performance became an issue on social media, [18] [19] with The Daily Telegraph reporting that Baker had "bemused" and "flummoxed" America. [20]
Baker was John Carreyrou's editor when the latter investigated and reported on the Theranos scandal for the Journal.
In 2016 and 2017, the Journal leadership under Baker was criticised, both from the outside and from within the newsroom, who viewed the paper's coverage of President Donald Trump as too timid. [12] Particularly controversial was the Journal's November 2016 front-page headline that repeated Trump's false claim that "millions of people" had voted illegally in the election, without reporting his statement was inaccurate. [12]
Also controversial was a January 2017 note from Baker to Journal editors, directing them to avoid using the phrase "seven majority-Muslim countries" when writing about Trump's executive order on travel and immigration; Baker later sent a follow-up note "clarifying that there was 'no ban'" on the phrase, "but that the publication should 'always be careful that this term is not offered as the only description of the countries covered under the ban.'" [12]
At a town-hall-style meeting with Journal staff in February 2017, Baker defended the paper's coverage, saying that it was objective and protected the paper from being "dragged into the political process" through a dispute with the Trump administration. [12]
On 5 June 2018, the Journal announced that Baker would step down as editor-in-chief and step into the role of editor at large, effective 11 July 2018. Matt Murray succeeded Baker as editor in chief. [2]
As editor at large, Baker's regular column remained part of the news division. In May 2020, a column written by Baker in the wake of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, [21] which argued that the news media failed to report crimes committed by black people against whites, was criticized in a letter sent by the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, the union representing Journal reporters, for violating rules that apply to the news division. The letter stated Baker's column "posits the highly controversial argument that black people commit more hate crimes than white people" and to "'prove' that he uses only his own single weighted statistical calculation, with no attribution or context from experts either to support the idea or provide contrary views." Baker was subsequently reassigned to the opinion division where staff have more flexibility. [22]
Baker describes himself as a "right-wing curmudgeon"; [4] writer and media critic David Carr described Baker in 2009 as "a neoconservative columnist of acute political views." [11] Baker holds Eurosceptic views, arguing against closer European integration. [23] [24]
Ryan Chittum, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, criticised Baker in the Columbia Journalism Review as "an Iraq War-cheerleading neocon, goofball Obama ridiculer, and author of some of the wrongest commentary of the financial crisis". [25] Chittum highlighted several of Baker's previous writings, including a column in the Financial Times in 2003 in which Baker mocked French opposition to the Iraq War, and a column in The Times in 2006 in which Baker argued that "we are going to have to get ready for war with Iran." [25]
On 25 January 2021, five days after the inauguration of Joe Biden, Baker wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in which he insinuated that under the Biden presidency, Trump supporters would be forced to enter Democratic "re-education programs". [26] In a separate article, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof referred to the column as right-wing fearmongering. [27]
Although a white British man, the writers of The Dropout, the 2023 Hulu dramatization of the life of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and the events leading to the collapse of the company, portrayed Baker as a black American woman called Judith Baker, played by LisaGay Hamilton. An explanation for the switch was not provided by the producers.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), also referred to simply as the Journal, is an American business and economic-focused international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in broadsheet format and online. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, and is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2023.
Charles Henry Dow was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.
Paul Anthony Gigot is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning conservative political commentator and editor of the editorial pages for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the moderator of the public affairs television series Journal Editorial Report, a program reflecting the Journal's editorial views which airs on Fox News Channel.
Walter S. Mossberg is an American technology journalist and moderator.
Kimberley Ann Strassel is an American conservative columnist and author who is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. She writes a weekly column, "Potomac Watch", which appears on Fridays.
Bret Louis Stephens is an American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a senior contributor to NBC News since 2017. Since 2021, he has been the inaugural editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations.
John Harwood is an American journalist who worked as White House Correspondent for CNN from February 2021 until September 2022. Harwood was formerly an editor-at-large for CNBC. He was the chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC and a contributor for The New York Times. He wrote a weekly column entitled "The Caucus" that appeared on Monday about Washington politics and policy. Before joining the Times, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
Sir William John Lewis is a British media executive who serves as the publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post. He was formerly chief executive of Dow Jones & Company and publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Earlier in his career, he was known as a journalist and then editor.
Robert Leroy Bartley was the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize for opinion writing and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Bush administration in 2003. Bartley, a graduate of Iowa State University, was famed for providing a conservative interpretation of the news every day, especially regarding economic issues. The Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 states:
Leslie Frank Hinton is a British-American journalist, writer and business executive whose career with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation spanned more than fifty years. Hinton worked in newspapers, magazines and television as a reporter, editor and executive in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and became an American citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by News Corp. Hinton has variously been described as Murdoch's "hitman"; one of his "most trusted lieutenants"; and an "astute political operator". He left the company in 2011. His memoir, The Bootle Boy, was published in the UK in May 2018, and in the US under the title An Untidy Life in October of the same year.
WSJ Magazine is a luxury glossy news and lifestyle monthly magazine published by The Wall Street Journal. It features luxury consumer products advertisements and is distributed to subscribers in large United States markets. Its coverage spans art, fashion, entertainment, design, food, architecture, travel and more. Kristina O'Neill was Editor in Chief from October 2012 to 2023. Sarah Ball, previously Style News Editor, became Editor in Chief in June 2023. Launched as a quarterly in 2008, the magazine grew to 12 issues a year for 2014. It was originally intended to be a monthly magazine named Pursuits.
Deborah Needleman is an American editor and writer. She was editor-in-chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine and WSJ.. She was also the creator of the paper's weekend lifestyle section and the founding editor-in-chief of Domino magazine.
Robert Costa is an American political reporter who is the chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News. Prior to joining CBS in 2022, Costa was a longtime national political reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, he was a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS. He is the co-author with Bob Woodward of Peril, a # 1 New York Times bestseller on the final days of the Trump presidency, including the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Twelve presidential debates and nine forums were held between the candidates for the Republican Party's nomination for president in the 2016 United States presidential election, starting on August 6, 2015.
David Christopher Bird was an American journalist who covered energy markets for The Wall Street Journal and was deputy managing editor for Dow Jones Energy Service. He was known for his ability to detect emerging market trends, particularly the decline in oil prices that began in 2014, before they otherwise became apparent, through close analysis of data. Before working at the Journal he had worked for Dow Jones overseas, based in its London office.
John Carreyrou is a French-American investigative reporter at The New York Times. Carreyrou worked for The Wall Street Journal for 20 years between 1999 and 2019 and has been based in Brussels, Paris, and New York City. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice and is well known for having exposed the fraudulent practices of the multibillion-dollar blood-testing company Theranos in a series of articles published in The Wall Street Journal.
Matt Murray is an American journalist. He was the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal from 2018 until 2023.
Rajiv Pant is former Chief Product & Technology Officer of The Wall Street Journal, responsible for Product, Design, and Engineering. He reported jointly to the WSJ editor-in-chief Matt Murray and to parent Dow Jones corporate side. Pant was previously Chief Technology Officer of The New York Times, Vice President in Digital Technology at Condé Nast, and Chief Technology and Product Officer at Tribune Publishing. Before joining WSJ, he was Chief Technology and Product Officer at Thrive Global, Arianna Huffington's wellness venture. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders community.
Almar Latour is a media executive and current CEO of Dow Jones and Company.
The editorial board at The Wall Street Journal is the editorial board of the New York City newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The editorial board is known for its strong conservative positions which at times brings it into conflict with the Journal's news side.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
