About the upcoming transition to general election season

[Jim Lane]

240. I'd be more permissive than that.

If a WSJ opinion piece asserts that our trade deficit with Freedonia hit a record last year, I think that's a decent source. No matter how much the editors enjoy bashing Obama, I don't think they'd let a columnist just outright lie if the trade deficit actually declined. Of course, you have to keep your eyes open; maybe the increase was caused by inflation, and was a record in current dollars but actually fell when stated in constant dollars.

If the source is noted in the post, though, I think DUers can decide how much weight to give to a well-known source like the WSJ. If you're quoting an obscure source that most people won't have heard of, it can be useful to mention what you know of the source's bias, be it left or right.

You could argue that the poster should have to fact-check anything from the WSJ, rummaging around on the web to find the Freedonian trade statistics from another source, but I think that's an unreasonable burden.