James Taranto (born January 6, 1966) is an American journalist. He is editorial features editor for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', in charge of the newspaper's op-ed pages, both print and digital.Finale
James Taranto, ''WSJ'', January 3, 2017 He was formerly editor of its online editorial page OpinionJournal.com. He joined the newspaper's

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...

in 2007.James Taranto WSJ Bio
James Taranto, ''WSJ'', August 23, 2011 Before joining the ''Wall Street Journal'' in 1996, Taranto spent five years as an editor at ''

City Journal ''City Journal'' is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that covers a range of topics on urban affairs, such as policing, education, housing, and other issues. The magazine ...

''. He has also worked for

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presi ...

and ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

'' magazine. He pursued a degree in journalism at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

(CSUN) but "never bothered to graduate" after "conflict with teachers and professors".

Rooster incident

While attending CSUN, Taranto worked as news editor and also as one of two opinion page editors for the ''Daily Sundial'' student newspaper. On March 5, 1987, Taranto published an opinion piece criticizing a controversy at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

, in which the editor of the ''

Daily Bruin The ''Daily Bruin'' is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles. It began publishing in 1919, the year UCLA was founded. The ''Daily Bruin'' distributes about 6,000 copies across campus each school day. It also publis ...

'' student newspaper was suspended after the paper published a comic strip depicting a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

admitted to the university via affirmative action. Accompanying Taranto's column was a reprint of the rooster cartoon. Journalism professor and ''Daily Sundial'' publisher Cynthia Rawitch suspended Taranto for two weeks without pay. Acting on Taranto's behalf, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

Foundation of Southern California filed suit against Rawitch and other members of the CSUN journalism school. The suit was settled before trial on terms favorable to Taranto and the ACLU.

Best of the Web Today

Under Taranto, ''Best of the Web Today'' was a column published weekday afternoons on

WSJ.com ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

. It began as an

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

web column collecting interesting links. (The title and the use of the editorial "we" come from that era.) Within a year it became a bylined column with commentary as well as links. Many of the items came from suggestions by readers, and each column ends with thanks to those who contributed to it. In his final column, Taranto announced that the Best of the Web Today feature would return with another editorial writer taking the reins.

Aurora mass shooting controversy

On July 25, 2012, Taranto sparked outrage online by posting the following comment to his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account, in reference to the victims and survivors of the

2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, United States, during a midnight screening of the film ''The Dark Knight Rises''. Dressed in tactical clothing, James Holmes set off tear gas g ...

: "I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice". Later that day, Taranto issued a mea culpa in his ''Best of the Web Today'' entry.'Heroes of Aurora'
James Taranto, ''WSJ.com'', July 25, 2012

References

External links

James Taranto's own homepage

at OpinionJournal.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taranto, James American columnists California State University, Northridge alumni The Wall Street Journal people 1966 births Living people