Wall Street Journal (Opinion)

Important Note: AllSides rates Wall Street Journal's opinion section separately from its news content. 

Wall Street Journal Opinion/Editorial Board Lean Right Bias Rating Confirmed in Nov. 2025 Editorial Review

A panel of AllSides reviewers on the left, center and right confirmed the bias rating for The Wall Street Journal opinion/Editorial Board in an Editorial Review in November 2025. All panelists, except one panelist on the left, rated it Lean Right; the left panelist rated it Right.

Reviewers identified a strong pro-establishment conservative, pro-Zionist, anti-identity politics, pro-free market, somewhat anti-populist, bias on the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages and within the Editorial Board. A Lean Right panelist said WSJ's opinion pages felt representative of the "mainstream, older generational right — Baby Boomer ideas of conservatism."

Panelists opted to override the Aug/Sept 2025 Blind Bias Survey results that put WSJ opinion at Lean Left, but acknowledged that depending on the perspective of the reader, a Lean Left or even Center rating could make sense for Wall Street Journal Opinion/Editorial.

At the time of review, WSJ published pieces against identity politics and rent control, in favor of some immigration, anti-socialist, anti-left wing news bias, and defending high CEO pay. Pieces were rarely critical of President Trump.

Numerous opinion articles that addressed the controversy of Tucker Carlson hosting Nick Fuentes on his show and the response from The Heritage Foundation; President Kevin Roberts initially defended Carlson and the interview. However, facing backlash, he later walked back his statement. On this topic, WSJ published only anti-Fuentes/Tucker positions, including a piece celebrating a professor who walked out over Roberts' initial response and attempt at damage control, as well as a letter titled "Heritage Lost Itself Long Ago." Panelists noted that WSJ is taking a more pro-Zionist, neoconservative, establishment conservative stance amid the right-wing "civil war" on the issue of Israeli influence in U.S. politics. 

Perspectives from the left were not included, nor perspectives from the Israel-critical, populist, Trump-critical, anti-free market, pro-identity politics faction of the right-wing.

Pieces reviewed included:

• The Biased BBC Is Bad for Britain and the World
• Gen Z, Socialism and the ‘Memes’ of Production
• Antisemitism Betrays America’s Heritage
• Universities Need More AI, Not Less
• AI Can Empower the Financial Industry
• Robert George Resigns From the Heritage Foundation
• Identity Politics, Seattle Edition
• Why CEOs Get Paid So Much
• The Epstein Follies Return

The Wall Street Journal Opinion/Editorial Board rated Lean Left in August/September 2025 Blind Bias Survey

The Wall Street Journal Opinion was rated Lean Left (-2.76) in the August/September Blind Bias Survey. This differed from AllSides’ rating of Lean Right for the outlet, necessitating further Editorial Review. A total of 543 people across the political spectrum rated the bias of Wall Street Journal Opinion. 

Respondents self-identifying as Lean Right and Right rated WSJ Opinion as Left, on average; others rated the outlet as Lean Left. Democrats and Independents rated it Lean Left, while Republicans rated it Left.
 

Because this conflicted with WSJ Opinion’s Center rating at the time, AllSides scheduled a deeper review.

Wall Street Journal (Opinion) Shows Story Choice Bias: AllSides 2025 “Shaping the Narrative” Bias Analysis

In April 2025, AllSides’ “Shaping the Narrative” bias analysis examined which topics were most frequently reported on in outlets across the political spectrum. The analysis revealed potential story choice bias — a form of media bias that reveals which perspectives, information, or angles the outlet perceives as most important.

The most prevalent topic covered by the Wall Street Journal (Opinion) was the Economy, appearing in 24% of 140 articles analyzed. The next three most prevalent topics were the Trump Administration (23%), Politics (19%), and International News (8%).

The Wall Street Journal Opinion often published pieces on the Trump administration’s ‘wins.’ However, when it came to the Trump administration’s handling of the economy, the outlet was quite critical across the board, particularly on their disapproval of Trump’s tariffs. 

During a 14-day period from April 9 – 22, 2025, AllSides pulled the top 10 articles on each outlets’ homepage — 140 total articles per outlet. Read the entire report here.

Wall Street Journal Opinion/Editorial Rated Lean Right in April 2022 Independent Review

The Wall Street Journal Opinion retained its media bias rating of Lean Right following an April 2022 Independent Review by an AllSides reviewer.

The reviewer noticed bias through story choice. Topics featured on the opinion home page included Hunter Biden's laptop and critiques of Democrat's economic policies. There was also sensationalism in some stories such as "Democrats threw kerosene on the kindling with another $1.9 trillion in March 2021."

Wall Street Journal Opinion/Editorial Moved from Right to Lean Right in Sept. 2018 Editorial Review

In Sept. 2018, AllSides conducted an extensive Editorial Review of the Wall Street Journal's opinion and editorial content and decided to move its media bias rating from Right to Lean Right.

AllSides found that WSJ opinion does not outright ignore left voices and perspectives, as many very biased outlets do. In fact, WSJ highlights them frequently — if only to combat them.

When it comes to economics, WSJ opinion writers are on the right. However, they take a traditionally left view on some other issues, such as civil asset forfeiture and redistricting. One AllSides team member referred to WSJ opinion as "Rockefeller Republicans — more moderate and even-handed, not supporting Trump consistently."

Previous Media Bias Ratings of Wall Street Journal Opinion

Prior to Sept. 2018, AllSides gave Wall Street Journal's opinion section a Right media bias rating. As of August 2018, 2,917 AllSides readers agreed that the Wall Street Journal's editorial/opinion page had a Right media bias. 

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal. The Journal is the largest newspaper in the United States, by circulation. Source: Wikipedia 

According to Wikipedia, "The Journal's editorial pages and columns, run separately from the news pages, are highly influential in American conservative circles. As editors of the editorial page, Vermont C. Royster (served 1958–1971) and Robert L. Bartley (served 1972–2000) were especially influential in providing a conservative interpretation of the news on a daily basis. Some of the Journal's former reporters claim that the paper has adopted a more conservative tone since Rupert Murdoch's purchase.^[50]"

Further, the paper's editorial board editorial board has argued for a pro-business immigration policy (in 1984, it advocated for open borders) and has critiqued Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act legislation. A 2015 study found The Wall Street Journal was the least likely newspaper to present the negative effects of global warming among several newspapers (Source).

Note from AllSides about the Wall Street Journal media bias rating:

This media bias rating refers to WSJ's opinion and editorial pages. Most AllSides media bias ratings refer specifically to the outlet's news coverage, but in this case, because WSJ's media bias differs so much between its news page and editorial page, we have split WSJ into two separate ratings. WSJ's news content — see The Wall Street Journal- News — has been blindly rated as Center. See our media bias survey results here.

Third-Party Accusations of Bias

Some see WSJ's ownership by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp as a potential source of conservative bias. A 2021 article in the Columbia Journalism Review said an op-ed criticizing Jill Biden, Democratic President Joe Biden's wife, "may have represented an appealing opportunity for corporate synergy" between WSJ and other Murdoch-owned outlets like Fox News. Many of Murdoch's outlets have a conservative reputation; Sky News Australia, for instance, has been accused of misleading viewers about climate change and spreading fear and falsehoods about the country's indigenous representation in parliament.

The CJR article continued, saying, "The Journal has a distinctly conservative, finance-focused sensibility; it also belongs squarely among the New York media elite. It is not where many reporters aspire to land, however, in large part because its reputation is so tainted by incendiary op-eds. For decades, the Journal newsroom has grumbled about leaps of logic and reckless ideology on the opinion side. During Trump’s presidency, the grumbling grew into a roar."