Here is one of the print headlines in today's Journal regarding the news that Obama's economic advisor Lawrence Summers will be leaving the administration:
Summers is not a “czar.” He's a presidential advisor. Specifically, he's the Director of the White House National Economic Council for Obama. The Council was created nearly two decades ago, and similar types of senior level positions created to advise the POTUS about economic matters have been in existence for many, many decades but have not been referred to as “czars.”
Of course, the “czar” phrase is mostly a media creation that has been applied to a handful of White House advisors. And it's a phrase that right-wing critics have latched onto under Obama as a way to paint this administration as being unaccountable and vaguely undemocratic. (Fact: Under Bush, some conservatives urged for more so-called “czars.”)
But inside the GOP-leaning Journal newsroom, Summers, for some reason, is now dubbed a “czar.” And yes, based on the Nexis search I conducted, Rupert Murdoch's Journal today is the only major newspaper in America to refer to Summers as a “czar” while reporting his decision to leave the administration. In fact, the Journal is the only major news organization in the entire country today to tag Summers as a “czar.”