Ex-'Wall St. Journal' Editor Will Get Presidential Medal

By: (AP) Robert Bartley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor emeritus of The Wall Street Journal, has been chosen to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The award, announced Wednesday by the White House, cites Bartley as one of the most influential journalists in American history. He ran the newspaper's editorial page from 1972 to 2002.

Bartley joined the Journal in 1962 and was a reporter in the Chicago and Philadelphia bureaus before joining the editorial page staff in New York in 1964. He became editorial page editor in 1972, editor of the Journal in 1979 and a vice president of Dow Jones & Co. in 1983.

"As a reporter, author, editorial page editor and columnist, he helped shape the times in which we live," the award citation says. "The United States honors him for his contributions to American journalism and to the intellectual and political life of our nation."

Bartley, 66, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was born in Marshall, Minn., and was raised in Iowa. He served in the Army Reserve after he graduated from Iowa State University. He later earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin.