Gerard Baker

In January 2009, Baker moved to The Wall Street Journal, becoming the newspaper's deputy editor-in-chief.[7][3] As deputy editor-in-chief, Baker (then serving under Robert Thomson) replaced Journal reporters and bureau chiefs who they felt were too liberal.[8] Baker was then dismissive of "what he saw as the turgid style of American journalists."[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] In 2015, the Journal began a new round of large-scale layoffs of reporters and staff.[12][13] Some sections of the paper's print edition, including Greater New York, were cut, while others were consolidated.[11] The Journal also undertook "a sweeping newsroom strategy review" called WSJ2020, in a bid to save $100 million in costs.[11]

As editor, Baker mourned the death of Journal reporter David Bird, who had been missing and whose body was later found in a river.[14][15]

In November 2015, Baker was one of the moderators at the fourth Republican primary debate during the 2016 presidential primaries.[7] He was the first British-born moderator of a US presidential debate.[16] Baker's performance became an issue on social media,[17][18] with The Daily Telegraph reporting that Baker had "bemused" and "flummoxed" America.[19]

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.[11] 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.[11]

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.'"[11]

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.[11]

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,[20] 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.[21]