The Wall Street Journal hits back at the New York Times

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 15, 2009 at 12:23 PM

In response to yesterday's column by David Carr that accused the Wall Street Journal of post-Murdoch news filtering towards the conservative, WSJ editor-in-chief Robert Thomson replied that the New York Times is jealous of the Journal's success.

Mr. Thomson retorted "The New York Times is uncomfortable about the rise of an increasingly successful rival while its own circulation and credibility are in retreat."

The Times article described the top editors at the Journal, Robert Thomson and Gerard Baker, as instrumental in slanting Washington coverage.

According to several former members of the Washington bureau and two current ones, the two men have adopted a more conservative tone, editing and headlining articles to reflect a chronic skepticism of the current U.S. administration.

Thomson's statement derided Carr's column as using "the usual practice of quoting ex-employees...supplemented by a succession of anonymous quotes and unsubstantiated assertions."

To top it all off Thomson accused Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, of shameless disparagement of competitors and prize seeking. In what we could ironically assume is not the case at his paper, Thomson asserts, "principle is but a bystander at The New York Times."

Keller responded in the New York Observer that "while David's column clearly got under Mr. Thomson's skin, I don't see anything in this response that casts doubt upon it. The column was scrupulously fair and, if anything, understated, and I have no inclination to help Mr. Thomson change the subject."

This verbal sparring reflects a general competitive attitude between the two papers, ever since the WSJ was bought by News Corp two years ago and began running general news stories to compete with the NYT. The Times generally reflects center and slightly leftist columnists while the Journal has some of the most conservative opinion pages in the country.

Sources: MediaGuardian, Romenesko