WSJ Great Newspaper But America Needs More!

Discussion in 'Media & Commentators' started by JimfromPennsylvania, Aug 12, 2020.

  1. JimfromPennsylvania

    JimfromPennsylvania Active Member Past Donor

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    Today, on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal its publisher, Almar Latour, wrote an article about the WSJ conveying the newspapers commitment to unbiased journalism! Mr. Latour highlighted the WSJ's commitment to reporting the facts and not spinning them to advance a certain narrative. In its non-editorial portion of the newspaper the WSJ delivers on that commitment, it's trustworthy and it is an outstanding resource for citizens that want to be greatly educated about the issues affecting the nation. This writer thinks the WSJ is the best newspaper in America bar-none and what a breath of fresh air compared to the biased reporting that pervades cable news, one used to be able to count on CNN to provide fair and balanced journalism but not any more ever since they took the bait of President Trump and let him drag them into a war where they have completely trashed their reputation as good journalists. The one great disappointment that I have with the WSJ is their editorial page, the common wrap on them is they advance a staunch right-wing economic agenda; the WSJ editorial page promotes public policies that further the interests of big business, top corporate executives and the wealthy! I think this wrap on the WSJ is spot on and in Mr. Latour's article I think he highlighted the crux of the problem when he wrote "the editorial board's philosophical commitment (its long-standing core values is ) to free people, "free markets". That is the problem for the WSJ and for the powers-that-be-in-our-society they think the world should be one "large free market". This is a bad view because America's cost structure is much more expensive than many other countries throughout the world in America the cost of housing, healthcare, food and transportation is much more expensive than many other countries as well as the costs of doing business such as the cost of regulation, facilities and legal liabilities. Not to mention the built-in competitive advantages of authoritative governments which can manipulate the capitalization and other things necessary for businesses in their country to succeed. For forty years we have been hearing America's politicians tell us how they would mitigate or eliminate these built in advantages of other countries, that this world-wide free market economic model otherwise known as globalization is the way to go, it is the best for the American people; what has resulted is that are business across America have shut down and the middle class jobs they provided have permanently gone away dramatically hurting communities and the families that make them up! WSJ if you really care about American families you would change your editorial boards philosophical commitment to free people and "good capitalism". "Good capitalism" means that individuals and groups of individuals will be able to create businesses in America that create at least good products and services and the business model of these businesses works meaning in part that they pay a wage to their employees that works for these employees and society-at-large, and this will never permanently and in a stable manner happen unless the Federal government permanently puts protections in place to protect America's capitalism from foreign competition. The protections may only need to be limited and it doesn't have to eliminate international trade completely such trade has and will always have a role in America there is many products and services it won't make sense to produce in America, low cost clothing apparel for one example! The WSJ can adopt this "merits based" principle and help fix America or hold on to their historic philosophy and watch as America divides ever larger upon economic lines and eventually permanently splits apart!
     
  2. Farnsworth

    Farnsworth Well-Known Member

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    I get the Weekend Edition of the WSJ; it is the only national newspaper left, the rest being merely propaganda outlets for the Democratic Party. There is a reason the editorial pages are referred to as The Cave, but they do offer opposing views, in the book review section and 'Off Duty', and it doesn't keep them from reporting the good and bad behaviors of corporations, so it has more real balance. It could be more balanced, but that is not its job, and adults should be able to arrive at their own conclusions based on the info and not rely on journalists to tell them what their opinions should be; their function is to provide the facts, not tell us what to think. Its focus is on financial and commercial news, not left wing advocacy journalism like we get from tabloids like the NYT and WA Po.

    the 'Fair Trade' movement is alive and still out there, but it seems few people use the info and recommendations they provide. As, for myself I grow and raise most of my own food, and try to buy American whenever possible, and we should remove the tax breaks and subsidies that make off-shoring to labor racketeering police states like Red China profitable; that will go a long way to restore productivity and a larger tax base to the U.S. again.

    The NAFTA scam was negotiated by a Fruit Of The Loom executive; the company then moved plants to El Salvador and other countries, and filed for bankruptcy two years later. So much for the lies that cheaper is better. Most the time it is subsidies that make those 'low cost goods' cheaper, not competitive productivity. Transportation costs eat up most of the labor cost advantages of slave labor, and of course when one starts adding in the total macro-economic costs, like maintaining a Navy, lost wages and equity losses in off-shoring, etc., it is no where near 'cheaper' to off-shore.

    None of those countries operate under 'Free trade' rules, by the way. That's just a propaganda word and means nothing to how Red China or Mexico or any other country actually does business with the U.S.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2020

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