Professional
Bartley started at the Journal in 1962. After working as a staff reporter in the Chicago and Philadelphia bureaus, he became part of the editorial page staff in 1964. In 1972, he became editor of the editorial page, and in 1979 the editor of the Journal. In 1980, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. In 1982, John Tebbel, professor emeritus of journalism at New York University, called Bartley "the most influential editorial writer of my time."
In 1983, Bartley was named a vice president of the Dow Jones & Company, the company that owned the Journal.
Bartley was the author of "The Seven Fat Years: And How to Do It Again," published in 1992, a book on the economic policy of the Reagan administration.
In December 2002, Bartley stepped down as editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. In December 2003, a week before Bartley died of cancer, President George W. Bush announced that Bartley was being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
On the free market, he said "In general, 'the market' is smarter than the smartest of its individual participants."
A supporter of NAFTA, Bartley is said to have observed to a former colleague, Peter Brimelow, "I think the nation-state is finished." Alongside his support for the free flow of goods, Bartley supported the free flow of labour across borders. He controversially wrote in favor of open borders and high rates of immigration to the United States. After then Mexican President, Vicente Fox, declared in a speech in 2001 that "NAFTA should evolve into something like the European Union, with open borders for not only goods and investment but also people", Bartley wrote in support of having open borders between Mexico and the United States. Indeed, in that July 2, 2001 Wall Street Journal editorial, Bartley reminded readers that "during the immigration debate of 1984 we suggested an ultimate goal to guide passing policies--a constitutional amendment: 'There shall be open borders.'"
Read more about this topic: Robert L. Bartley
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