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Gerard Baker is a British writer and columnist. He was
Dow Jones Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones. Dow Jones & Company Dow, Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. That company eventually became a subsidiary of News Corp, and ...
'
Managing Editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...
, and ''
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 ...
''s Editor-in-Chief from March 2013 until June 2018.Gerard Baker: official biography
, Dow Jones & Company. 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.Matt Murray Named Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal.


Early life and education

Baker was educated at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...
, United Kingdom and holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (
first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
).Michael Calderone
Baker named WSJ's Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Politico (12 November 2008). Baker is a
British citizen British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
.Roger Simon
I say potato and he says chip
''Politico'' (11 November 2015). He was
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
-of-centre during his university years, and was elected as a
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
vice-president of the student union. He subsequently moved towards the
right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...
.


Career

Baker's first job following graduation was at the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
.Interview: Gerard Baker, Editor, ''The Wall Street Journal''
''How Did They Do It? 30 Interviews Exploring Success''. After working there for a year, he moved to
Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...
as a Latin America analyst. From 1988 to 1994, Baker worked for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as a producer in the UK and in the US, and worked as economics correspondent for
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
and television. From 1994 to 2004, Baker worked for the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
''. 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. From 2004 to 2009, Baker worked for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' as its US editor and as an assistant editor.


''The Wall Street Journal''

In January 2009, Baker moved to ''The Wall Street Journal'', becoming the newspaper's deputy editor-in-chief. As deputy editor-in-chief, Baker (then serving under Robert Thomson) replaced ''Journal'' reporters and bureau chiefs who they felt were too liberal. Baker was then dismissive of "what he saw as the turgid style of American journalists." 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 Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
. On 1 March 2013, he was named the Dow Jones Managing Editor, and ''The Wall Street Journal''s Editor-in-Chief. Baker's tenure at the ''Journal'' was a tumultuous one, with buyouts, layoffs and discontent among some reporters.Sydney Ember
Top Wall Street Journal Editor Defends Trump Coverage
''The New York Times'' (13 February 2017). In 2015, the ''Journal'' began a new round of large-scale layoffs of reporters and staff. Some sections of the paper's print edition, including Greater New York, were cut, while others were consolidated. The ''Journal'' also undertook "a sweeping newsroom strategy review" called WSJ2020, in a bid to save $100 million in costs. As editor, Baker mourned the death of ''Journal'' reporter David Bird, who had been missing and whose body was later found in a river. In November 2015, Baker was one of the moderators at the fourth Republican primary debate during the 2016 presidential primaries. He was the first British-born moderator of a US presidential debate. Baker's performance became an issue on
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
, with ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' reporting that Baker had "bemused" and "flummoxed" America.


Trump Presidency

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 Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
as too timid. 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 An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
, without reporting his statement was inaccurate. 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.'" 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.


Editor-at-large

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. 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 On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated Hate crime laws in the United States, hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, Brunswick in Glynn ...
, 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.


Views

Baker describes himself as a "right-wing curmudgeon"; writer and media critic David Carr described Baker in 2009 as "a
neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...
columnist of acute political views." Baker holds
Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...
views, arguing against closer
European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic integration, economic, political, legal, social integration, social, and cultural Regional integration, integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integrat ...
. Ryan Chittum, a former ''Wall Street Journal'' reporter, criticised Baker in the ''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'' as "an
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
-cheerleading neocon, goofball Obama ridiculer, and author of some of the wrongest commentary of the financial crisis".Ryan Chittum
Neocon WSJ editor sits down with France's Iran critic: Gerard Baker gets a byline
''Columbia Journalism Review'' (20 December 2015). 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 Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
." On 25 January 2021, five days after the
inauguration of Joe Biden The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, marking the start of the four-year term of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. The 59th presidential ...
, 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". In a separate article, ''New York Times'' columnist
Nicholas Kristof Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. Born in Chicago, Kristof wa ...
referred to the column as right-wing fearmongering.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Gerard Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford British journalists British expatriates in the United States The Wall Street Journal people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American newspaper editors Managing editors