Wall Street Journal Discloses A Second Romney Adviser Following Criticism

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The Wall Street Journal disclosed that Hoover Institute fellow John Taylor is a Mitt Romney adviser after not doing so when it published two previous op-eds by Taylor.

The Journal has published a total of 23 op-eds from 10 other Romney advisers without disclosing their Romney connection. Editorial page editors from across the country have criticized the Journal for its lack of transparency in its editorial pages, and several media outlets have noted their failure to disclose. Media Matters has also launched a petition urging the Journal to disclose the conflicts.

But recently, the Journal identified Max Boot as a Romney adviser in a book review he wrote for the paper. Following criticism, the Journal has also disclosed that weekly columnist Karl Rove is linked to the pro-Romney American Crossroads Super PAC in Rove's two most recent columns.

The Wall Street Journal identified Taylor in his October 3 column as a “professor of economics at Stanford and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is an economic adviser to the Romney presidential campaign.

The Journal previously published a September 11 op-ed that Taylor co-wrote with former GOP senator Phil Gramm without such disclosure. The Journal instead identified Taylor as “a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs in the first George W. Bush administration.” The Journal also did not disclose Taylor's affiliation with the Romney campaign in a September 16 op-ed Taylor co-wrote.

An August 15 Fortune article, identified Taylor as part of Romney's “Economic Policy Steering Group,” a group that convened on July 4. also co-authored an August 2 paper for the Romney campaign titled “The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth and Jobs.”