The Journal claims that Gershkovich is being held as a "political hostage."

That might well be true, but a question naturally arises: Are officials at the Wall Street Journal partially responsible for the plight in which Gershkovich finds himself?

After all, it's one thing for a 32-year-old reporter to innocently and naively think that Russian authorities were going to respect his "free-speech" rights by permitting him to live in Russia while writing critical articles about Russian president Vladimir Putin and Putin's war in Ukraine. 

But it's quite another thing for the the older, more crusted members of the Journal management staff to have such innocence and naïveté. Given the longtime conservative bent of the Journal, I'll bet that a few them might even be unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, anti-communist Cold Warriors. 

Given such, the Journal management had to be fully aware of the dangers that Gershkovich faced in a country whose government is at war, especially one that U.S. officials have labeled an "enemy" of the United States and, more important, has lost tens of thousands of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, many of whom have been killed by U.S. weapons of war that U.S. officials have given to Ukrainian officials. 

The Journal also had to know that Russian officials were not likely to look kindly on a critical reporter who was working for a U.S. newspaper that has been a big cheerleader for U.S. support for Ukraine. 

Thus, other questions naturally arise: Why didn't Journal officials pull Gershkovich out of the country before he fell into the plight in which he now finds himself? Did they even discuss this possibility among themselves? If so, how was it decided to leave him there? Was it by majority vote among Journal management? What factors went into deciding to leave him in Russia, knowing that he would continue to write critical articles that the Journal would be publishing? Why haven't Journal reporters reported on the deliberations within Journal management that left Gershkovich in Russia, where he obviously faced grave risks?