James Taranto

Last updated
James Taranto
Born (1966-01-06) January 6, 1966 (age 57)
OccupationJournalist, columnist, editor
Nationality American

James Taranto (born January 6, 1966) is an American journalist. He is editorial features editor for The Wall Street Journal , in charge of the newspaper's op-ed pages, both print and digital. [1] He was formerly editor of its online editorial page OpinionJournal.com. [2] He joined the newspaper's editorial board in 2007. [3]

Contents

Before joining the Wall Street Journal in 1996, Taranto spent five years as an editor at City Journal . He has also worked for The Heritage Foundation and Reason magazine. [3] He pursued a degree in journalism at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) but "never bothered to graduate" after "conflict with teachers and professors". [4]

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, in which the editor of the Daily Bruin student newspaper was suspended after the paper published a comic strip depicting a rooster 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 Foundation of Southern California filed suit against Rawitch and other members of the CSUN journalism school. [5] The suit was settled before trial on terms favorable to Taranto and the ACLU. [6] [7] [8]

Best of the Web Today

Under Taranto, Best of the Web Today was a column published weekday afternoons on WSJ.com. It began as an anonymous 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. [9] 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 account, in reference to the victims and survivors of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting: "I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice". [10] [11]

Later that day, Taranto issued a mea culpa in his Best of the Web Today entry. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University, Northridge</span> Public university in Los Angeles, California

California State University, Northridge is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students, it has the second largest undergraduate population as well as the third largest total student body in the California State University system, making it one of the largest comprehensive universities in the United States in terms of enrollment size. The size of CSUN also has a major impact on the California economy, with an estimated $1.9 billion in economic output generated by CSUN on a yearly basis. As of Fall 2021, the university had 2,187 faculty, of which 794 were tenured or on the tenure track.

The Wall Street Journal is an American business and economic-focused international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in broadsheet format and online. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, and is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1994 Northridge earthquake</span> Earthquake in Los Angeles, California

The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment magnitude 6.7, blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately 10–20 seconds, and its peak ground acceleration of 1.82 g was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America. Shaking was felt as far away as San Diego, Turlock, Las Vegas, Richfield, Phoenix, and Ensenada. The peak ground velocity at the Rinaldi Receiving Station was 183 cm/s, the fastest ever recorded.

<i>Yale Daily News</i> Student newspaper of Yale University

The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878. It is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. The Yale Daily News has consistently been ranked among the top college daily newspapers in the country.

<i>The Daily Cardinal</i> Student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin–Madison

The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. One of the oldest student newspapers in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the university.

<i>The Lantern</i> Student newspaper of Ohio State University

The Lantern is an independent daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, by students at Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000.

The Parthenon is the independent student newspaper of Marshall University based in Huntington, West Virginia. The paper began publication in 1898. It currently is published in print on Tuesdays with content added daily online. It is distributed for "free" on the Huntington and South Charleston campuses. The Parthenon is also published online. Student reporters change every semester and are instructed by the faculty adviser in a beat reporting class within the school of journalism. Editors, staff reporters and other staff change annually or every semester.

Michael Patrick Ramirez is an American cartoonist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His cartoons present mostly conservative viewpoints. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

<i>The Cornell Daily Sun</i> Independent daily newspaper published in Ithaca, New York, United States

The Cornell Daily Sun is an independent newspaper published three times a week in Ithaca, New York, by students at Cornell University and hired employees. Founded in 1880, The Sun is the oldest continuously independent college daily in the United States.

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 Trojan, or "DT," is the student newspaper of the University of Southern California. The newspaper is a forum for student expression and is written, edited, and managed by university students. The paper is intended to inform USC students, faculty, and staff on the latest news and provide opinion and entertainment. Student writers, editors, photographers and artists can develop their talents and air their opinions while providing a service to the campus community through the Daily Trojan. Readers can interact with the Daily Trojan by commenting on articles online or writing a letter to the editor.

<i>The Daily Northwestern</i> Student newspaper at the Northwestern University

The Daily Northwestern is the student newspaper at Northwestern University which is published in print on Mondays and Thursdays and online daily during the academic year. Founded in 1881, and printed in Evanston, Illinois, it is staffed primarily by undergraduates, many of whom are students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

Carl Bialik is an American journalist and YouGov America's vice president of data science and U.S. politics editor. Earlier, Bialik was known for his work for The Wall Street Journal. In 2013, Bialik was hired by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com. In 2017 he was named data science editor of Yelp, working on Yelpblog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bret Stephens</span> American journalist (born 1973)

Bret Louis Stephens is an American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a senior contributor to NBC News since 2017. Since 2021, he has been the inaugural editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations.

<i>Journal Editorial Report</i> US weekly television program

The Journal Editorial Report is a weekly American interview and panel discussion TV program on Fox News Channel, hosted by Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal. Prior to moving to Fox News, the show aired on PBS for 15 months, ending on December 2, 2005.

<i>The Diamondback</i> University of Maryland student newspaper

The Diamondback is an independent student newspaper associated with the University of Maryland, College Park. It began in 1910 as The Triangle and became known as The Diamondback in 1921. Now a weekly online journal, The Diamondback was published as a daily print newspaper on weekdays until 2013. It is published by Maryland Media, Inc., a non-profit organization. The newspaper receives no university funding and derives its revenue from advertising.

<i>The Miscellany News</i> Student newspaper of Vassar College

The Miscellany News is the student newspaper of Vassar College. Established in 1866, it is one of the oldest student newspapers in the country. The paper is distributed every Thursday during Vassar's academic year to locations across the College's campus, including dormitories, dining and athletic facilities, communal areas, as well as off-campus locations in the Town of Poughkeepsie. The paper accepts contributions from all members of the college community—students, administrators, faculty, staff, alumnae/i and trustees—and has a regular staff of roughly 40 to 50 student editors, reporters, photojournalists, multimedia correspondents and designers. In addition to its print publication, the staff also publishes articles, videos, and photo essays daily on its website and blogs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newspaper</span> Scheduled publication containing news of events, articles, features, editorials, and advertisements

A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports, art, and science. They often include materials such as opinion columns, weather forecasts, reviews of local services, obituaries, birth notices, crosswords, editorial cartoons, comic strips, and advice columns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunku Varadarajan</span> Indian-British journalist

Tunku Varadarajan is a India-born naturalised British writer and journalist, formerly editor of Newsweek Global and Newsweek International. He is the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Research Fellow in Journalism at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a contributing editor at Politico Europe.

The Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal is the editorial board of the New York newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The board is known for its strong conservative positions which at times brings it into conflict with the Journal's news side.

References

  1. Finale, James Taranto, WSJ, January 3, 2017
  2. James Taranto: Why Is This Man HAHAHA-ing?, Eric Randall, The Atlantic , July 6, 2012
  3. 1 2 James Taranto WSJ Bio, James Taranto, WSJ, August 23, 2011
  4. Disparate But Not Serious, James Taranto, WSJ, May 18, 2007
  5. Padilla, Steve (May 11, 1988). "CSUN Sued on Its Newspaper Review Rule". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  6. The Rooster Papers. A student's journalistic feathers are plucked., Mike Moore, The Quill (Society of Professional Journalists), September 1988
  7. Taranto, James (24 May 2013), "See You in the Funny Papers", The Wall Street Journal.
  8. Miller, Alan C. (May 17, 1989). "Settlement Gives Student Editors More Autonomy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  9. 'The Shoulders of Giants', WSJ.com, July 26, 2012 (see “Why 'We'”)
  10. "WSJ Columnist Asks if Women Saved by Boyfriends in Aurora Theater Shooting Were Worth It". The New York Observer . 25 July 2012.
  11. "James Tarantos Batman Sacrifice Tweet Controversy". DailyTelegraph.[ dead link ]
  12. 'Heroes of Aurora', James Taranto, WSJ.com, July 25, 2012