JUNE 2025 – WSJ op-ed page folks pride themselves on their “free people free markets” mantra – and have for decades. And as such generally they acknowledge facts. But not always.
One howling example came on March 31 when the WSJ news department reported that an EU court convicted France’s Marine LePen of misusing funds for her political operations, a conviction that bars her from running in the French presidential election in 2027.
The WSJ newsroom produced this information about the LePen conviction:
“The court ruled that Le Pen and other members of her party illegally used 4.4 million euros, equivalent to $4.8 million, in EU funding that was earmarked for assistants helping lawmakers in the European Parliament with their work. Instead, judges said, Le Pen and her lawmakers used the money to pay party staffers who weren’t involved in work for the parliament.”
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/frances-marine-le-pen-found-guilty-of-embezzlement-b8c42dac
Then, on the very same day, the WSJ op-ed page came up with its own narrative to describe the LePen conviction:
In most of those European Parliament cases, the controversy ended after the lawmakers repaid the money. Le Monde reports that Ms. Le Pen repaid €330,000 in 2023 with no admission of guilt. Yet French prosecutors and the court have now thrown the book at Ms. Le Pen and also imposed a €2 million fine on National Rally.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/marine-le-pen-found-guilty-embezzlement-national-rally-france-lawfare-bdad179f
The discrepancy – in the numbers at the very least – is glaring. Based on the copy both sides produced, it’s hard to tell that the WSJ newsroom and the WSJ editorial board were covering the same legal case. And legal cases – even in bureaucrat-laden Brussels – are where facts are established and acknowledged. Shouldn’t be difficult to be on the same page.