Tales From The Crypt - The Journolist Archives

Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller has gotten ahold of some of the Journolist archives and is breaking news:

Documents show media plotting to kill stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright

...

Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

Eventually, their to-ing and fro-ing led to a public petition, discussed at HuffPo and the National Review.

Now, I could even imagine a partial defense for the Journolisters.  "Process" stories are a part of the warp and woof of political coverage and commentary; sharing one's thoughts about possible process stories might, arguably, maybe, be a plausible topic for a group of like-minded lefty journalists, many of whom toil at opinion-oriented rags with an obligation to provide their readership with the finest in delusional raving.

But I don't know how anyone will defend this poo-poohing of the Journoist by Jonathan Chait of the New Republic:

Let me disabuse everybody by revealing that Journolist was not created for people to work out some party line. The discussion was private not because the conversations were too explosive to be made public, but because they were too mundane. Conversations consisted of requests for references -- does anybody know an expert in such and such -- instantaneous reactions to events, joshing around, conversations about sports, and the like. Why did this have to be private? Because when you're a professional writer, even in the age of Twitter, you try to maintain some basic standard in your published work. I don't subject my readers to my thoughts on the Super Bowl as of halftime, or even (usually) the meaning of the Pennsylvania special election two minutes after polls close. You want the ability to share your thoughts with a group to which you may not have physical proximity.

Why was the group exclusively non-conservative? I wished it did have some right-wingers, but I went back and forth on this and I can understand the reason it didn't. You wanted to have some discussion of politics that didn't constantly require establishing first principles, so you could muse about a vote to extend unemployment benefits without having to refute the notion that Franklin Roosevelt deepened the Great Depression. It was the same reason that any community of interest exists. 

...The notion that the list existed to work out some party line, or to vet ideas before they became articles, is silly.

Uh huh.  Chait didn't want to get distracted from Super Bowl prognostications by debates about whether Roosevelt ended the Depression.  Imagine his surprise when he learns that Spencer Ackerman was posting stuff like this:

...It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.

And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.

Chait had no idea any of this was happening, even though the final product, a petition denouncing ABC News, was well publicized and had a long list of signatories?  Geez, Chait can't even see all these weeds in his own backyard yet he fancies himself a reporter.

A possible Chait defense - that's not the Journolist I knew. A better defense would be for Chait to write the truth rather than participate in the cover-up.

UPDATE:  Ken Anderson of the Volokhs includes this JList defense from Henry Farrell:

There weren’t any marching orders — and indeed there was a fair amount of effort to make sure that it didn’t become a means of political organization.  People with political appointments in the administration, Congress etc were banned from membership, and after the one more or less deliberate act of organizing (a letter of complaint to ABC news which was largely discussed in terms of concerns over journalistic standards — albeit it is probably fair that some people felt it more keenly because of their feelings over the candidate), Ezra banned people from any future such efforts.

Banned what - petitions?  That hardly covers the question of whether people sought mutual agreement that anyone who covers the Forbidden Topic du Jour will be cast into Outer Darkness, or through a plate glass window.

THE NEVERENDING STORY:  The Daily Caller puts out more J-List chit-chat about sports, dinner plans, and how to bash Sarah Palin.

FROM CHAIT HIMSELF:  Chait moves off the notion that the JList was all about Super Bowl picks and offers a new explanation of the petition:

Second, the letter was hardly an example of secret message coordination. It resulted in an open letter. Everybody who agreed with the sentiment signed their name to it and published it. It was a completely transparent action.

"Completely transparent"?  I don't recall any public mention of this note originating and being coordinated on Journolist.  One might just as well argue that ten different stories bashing Palin with the same talking points are "completely transparent" since each story has a byline.  The product was transparent; the process was not.

Now, it's true that some members of the list who don't engage in political activism, like me among many others, felt a little uncomfortable with the email list being used to organize a political activity. Soon thereafter Ezra Klein, the list organizer, instructed people not to use the list to organize petitions.

So Chait knew about this at the time, thought it was inappropriate, but forgot to mention it in describing the Journolist as a liberal alternative to sports talk radio, minus the Roosevelt digressions.  

Chaitr is off the rails here, describing Chris Hayes' attempt at message coordination in the Wright controversy:

Now, you could say that Hayes' post was an attempt at message coordination if you define the term very loosely. Here was a writer saying that a story did not merit attention. Since he emailed a lot of other writers, his attempt to persuade them that the Wright story didn't merit attention could be seen as an attempt to get liberals to stop writing about Wright. But of course, this would also be true of anybody who suggested that a particular topic merited more or less attention. It's the same as if you ventured such an opinion at a party, or in a published article.

At a cocktail party?  Unless I am hosting, I don't control the guest list.  As to comparing a private email group with a published article - huh?  Does he mean, a published but anonymous article?  Even then, if three people echo the anonymous article the next day, we can observe the intellectual flow in a way that we cannot if the genesis occurred within a private discussion group.  Obvi.

His Big Finish:

Let me make a couple concluding points. First, this conspiratorial analysis of Journolist utterly misses the nature of the thing. It was like a bar you could go to and talk, or argue, with a bunch of people with whom you had something in common. But the group as a whole did not jointly participate. Almost every discussion was limited to a small percentage of the group that was interested in the topic. Most people ignored most of the topics. To pick out some quote and say that nobody disagreed, and thus to imply that everybody agreed, is very much like quoting something somebody said in a bar and implying that everybody else in the bar must have thought the same thing. There was no expectation of general agreement. Most of the topics were trivial, and when they weren't, people argued frequently. The conversations were "secret" for the same reason my discussions around the water cooler and in the halls are secret: people were tossing off casual reactions that they didn't deem worthy of publication: half-baked ideas, gossip, off-the-cuff reactions, chatter about sports or television.

Hmm.  So if some of the people conspired some of the time, that is OK, and we should all look away.  Save space for the planes that landed safely!

We had the most one-sided, partisan media coverage of a Presidential campaign in my memory, but Chait wants us to operate on a presumption of innocent until proven guilty.  I think most non-lefties consider the proof to be in, and are just trying to understand the process.

Comments

[Gabriel Sutherland]

What do we learn from the fact that Chris Hayes and Spencer Ackerman are the 2nd round of Journolisters thrown under the bus after Weigel?

Was it not Ackerman that recruited Weigel to the Washington Independent after Reason dropped him?

After Weigel was slighted from the juicebox mafia, he tweeted that today he found out who he counts as friends.

[BR]

On Sunday, I thought:
There will be no Washington Post on Monday.

On Monday, Breitbart says it better:
"American journalism died today."

[Clarice]

I think this story is so explosive..I can't imagine how the press involved can survive, but then I lack imagination, I guess. I couldn't imagine Obama the candidate could survive the Annenberg, Ayers and wright revelations. Little did I know of the cabal working behind the scenes.

[Clarice]

What do we learn, Gabriel? I haven't yet had my coffee.

[Janet]

Not only were these "journalists" NOT looking into Obama's past or his associations...they were stopping others from looking into it.

[narciso the harpoon]

Ah, Christmas in July, I take it, One Giant Step,...I wonder how Hillary feels now over in Islamabad. Kim, that weasel that put together Going Rouge, Schaller, one of those
academic defender of every left excess, Drum,
and co, the Plamaniac shills, Pollitt having shown a trace of integrity, she washed it down with something, but it does bear repeating

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Clarice: I'm not really sure yet. Here is what I expect to hear before the end of this week from the Jlisters.

"Breitbart and Carlson collude on smear campaign designed to deflect attention away from WaPo reporting on the large community of private contractors participating in counter-terrorism operations."

[Janet]

Is there a new "journalist" grapevine that is right now deciding how to spin THIS story? Who had an emergency cocktail party last night?

[Rob Crawford]

In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] [face?] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.

Obviously.

Would it be out of line to wish Ackerman the same treatment?

Oh, and notice how Tomasky classifies Wright's race-hatred as "discourse that actually serves the people". I have the feeling that it took a major act of will for him to refrain from capitalizing "people".

[NK]

"The notion that the list existed to work out some party line, or to vet ideas before they became articles, is silly." -- Chait

Silly but true. I guess that's something like "false but accurate." Journalism in this country died sometime shortly after Watergate, it's taken more than 3 decades for people like Breitbart to expose the rotting corpse.

[Neo]

does anybody know an expert in such and such

Doesn't that really mean "does anybody know an [friendly] expert in such and such" .. nudge nudge .. know what I mean .. say no more"

This is plain conspiracy to commit slanted news

[bunkerbuster]

The "liberal" media survive because they're the only ones that deliver news. The "conservative" media deliver opinions. Nobody even bothers to ask why Tom relies on NYT and Wapo so much for his news, rather than the conservative New York Post or Washington Times. It's because those papers don't have much in the way of news. They're packed with certified right-wing opinionations, of course, but not much news. If they did have credible, first-rate news, conservatives would have no reason to concern themselves with what NYT and Wapo publish, would they? They'd happily ignore those crazy liberals and their crazy newspapers. But they can't because know the whole world -- and most Americans -- read those crazy liberal newspapers, while mostly ignoring the conservative newspapers. That not any "bias" is what drives identity conservatives so batty. Part of the problem is that the right has drilled into itself a paranoid worldview in which every failing is someone else's fault. Conservatives seem incapable of even asking why THEIR newspapers suck so badly. Or what prevents Rupert Murdoch, by far the richest, most powerful person in world media, from producing a newspaper that could make conservatives stop obsessing about the fact that the NYT and Wapo make them feel stupid on a daily basis?
Consider Britain. There conservatives are at least honest enough and self-aware enough to acknowledge that they have their newspapers and their TV stations and that nothing stands between them and getting their message out other than the appeal of that message. Murdoch has his papers and labour has theirs. It may not be the ideal situation, but it least it somewhat tamps down the right's paranoia and forces them to engage on the issue of whether or not their ideas are palatable or, even, workable in the real world. American identity conservatives never seem to get that far because their so busy blaming every political failure on the media and the academy and Hollywood, wikipedia, Google and the Postal Service...
Sorry wingutters, ordinary Americans are going to have no idea why the journolist so unnerves you. They're likely to ask why you don't simply make your list and talk about how to get stories you like in print and keep those you don't out. Or they're likely to ask what the hell talkradio, the WSJ editorial page and Fox News is, if not a media enterprise dedicated to building up conservatives and tearing down liberals...

[anduril]

Tales from the crypt, eh? Here's another one:

Will Israel Attack Iran? Don’t Hold Your Breath:

How do you know someone has no idea what they’re talking about? They predict that Israel is about to attack Iran.

...

A third factor is a fundamental reality of international affairs: there is no compelling reason for Israel to act now and it has other problems to deal with. Iran’s obtaining a deliverable nuclear weapon is at least two, probably three, and perhaps four years off. Why do something now? There’s no motive to do so. The idea that something must or will be done immediately is a fiction among those who really don’t know much about the situation but perhaps have a thirst for action, a hunger for some decisive event that will easily and neatly solve the whole problem with one blow.

...

Finally, there are an increasing number of voices in the Israeli political, military, and intelligence establishment arguing that Israel should not wage a preemptive attack on Iran at all for a variety of reasons. When one adds up all these factors, it is rather clear that no such attack is imminent.

[Neo]

Personally, I'm dying to know what went around on or about Wednesday, September 10, 2008, the time of the Joe Klein's "Apology Not Accepted." There was a piling on that was way over the top that it seemed orchestrated.

[Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)]

((Nobody even bothers to ask why Tom relies on NYT and Wapo so much for his news))

you dont' get it

conservatives read the NYT's and Wapo more to investigate what the are NOT covering

[Rob Crawford]

Someone smell desperation and fear?

Or is that just the funk from bubu's comment?

[narciso the harpoon]

So out come "Otto" and Serge Nilus to derail the message, this really is conspiracy that they engaged in, they did not trust them to
put forward variations on the same spin, they
had to coordinate. If David Kirkpatrick would
practice sociology on them, one would see this
is 'journolists' in their natural environment, it's not exactly journalist, but
real close

[Pagar]

The first step to defeat the leftists is to quit calling them media and call them what they are--leftist propagandists.

[DebinNC]

Here's a link to the transcript of the ABC debate that got the Journos all wee-wee'd up. Amazing to read these transcripts now and realize the lack of real reporting/vetting on Obama that occurred and is occurring.

[Janet]

does anybody know an expert in such and such

Doesn't that really mean "does anybody know an [friendly] expert in such and such"

Yeah Neo, that jumped out at me too. Powerline has a good post The one-party media.
These biased gatekeepers influence culture too. What books, music, movies, art...are reviewed and recommended. Newsbusters has an article on the gay agenda targeted toward our teens.

[verner]

TM please do a post on Dana Priest and William Arkin!!! Please please!

I don't know how many of you have taken a look at TOP SECRET AMERICA! yet. Is there waste and redundancy in the Federal Government? Is the pope catholic? Do we really think that the purpose of that big ole interactive map at the Wa PO is the promotion of fiscal responsibility and the preservation of civil liberties?

I think what they're doing is right out of the radical handbook. They are creating a "narrative" and a new bogeyman called "TOP SECRET AMERICA" by cobbling together every entity in government that requires a top secret clearance, sticking them into one of 23 disparate categories, and then claiming that they are all part of the same monster.

Personally I can not believe that the WaPo allowed Priest-Goodfellow and Arkin (a marxist who has worked on castrating American Intel capabilities along with Wm Goodfellow at the Institute for Policy Studies/CIP in the 80s. That's right, BFF think tank of Philip Agee) to report on this issue.

What's next WaPo! The ghost of Josef Stalin on human rights? Fidel Castro on prison reform?

One thing is for sure. It puts truth to the lie once and for all that Priest works "independently" of her husband.
And take a look at this piece in Politico for more background LUN. She admits she's known Arkin for 15 years. I'd say she's probably fibbing since her husband has worked along side Arkin at least since the 80s.

[Sue]

Neo,

Funny how everything old is new again, isn't it? Just this last week we hear this is happening. Sort of like Obamacare is not a tax, it is a tax.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Didn't the jlisters also allege the list had no members of government?

Eric Alterman
Brad DeLong

Do these two language cops not carry government badges?

[bunkerbuster]

lol...I'm trembling in fear that what? Identity conservatives will come to believe there is a conspiracy against them in the media?
Chubby: no, you don't get it. Why do you care what the NYT and Wapo cover?? Fox, WSJ, talkradio are accessible to all. No American needs to rely on NYT or Wapo for news, so why should you waste your time obsessing over what they choose to publish? As I said, the real reason is that you know people give NYT and Wapo credibility, while they consider Fox and talkradio a kind of entertainment. You know NYT and Wapo matter among people who use their brains, so you know it's important to try to influence what gets into those papers...Whereas you don't even care what shows up on Fox or talkradio, because no one serious takes them seriously...

[hit and run]

Nobody even bothers to ask why Tom relies on NYT and Wapo so much for his news

I suggest that is you who should ask TM why he uses the Times. Because I doubt you would understand actually,you know,reading the blog.

Here's how TM uses the Times to "get his news":

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/05/all-the-news-that-fits-the-narrative.html>All The News That Fits The Narrative

Or this one:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/06/if-you-can-believe-this-spin.html>If You Can Believe This Spin...

Or,you know, http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/04/a-red-america-a-blue-america-and-the-ny-times-america.html>this one:

Anyone who wants to bash the Tea Party as dominated by old racist whites will find plenty of space at the Times. But is Barack Obama especially interested in appealing to "young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women", as he said in a rrecent DNC get-out-the-vote promo? Not in Times World!

Here is Jeff Zeleny, bringing us All The News That Fits The Narrative

He's not using it to get his news,he's using it to show the world that you can't use the Times to get your news.

No one can make you pay attention. No,I mean that literally. It is impossible to make you pay attention. You're not up to it.

[Janesquaredance]

A better defense would be for Chait to write the truth rather than participate in the cover-up.

Yeah right. Chait should be disabused of his "professional writer" status. He's not the least bit professional.

What we need is a way to focus the mind on this little ruse. Perhaps a little litigation would elevate the story to the front page. The real question is who should sue who for what?

[hit and run]

Rob:
Would it be out of line to wish Ackerman the same treatment?

I'd say that Breitbart and the Daily Caller are pretty much doing exactly that.

Obviously I mean this rhetorically.
--stuff Ackerman said

[Rob Crawford]

Doesn't that really mean "does anybody know an [friendly] expert in such and such" .. nudge nudge .. know what I mean .. say no more"

That's exactly what it means.

Reporters get their comments three ways -- from contact information in the press release they're re-writing, from contacts other reporters refer them to, and from contacts they talked to previously.

Who was that "man on the street" who appeared in dozens of articles?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

A civil case?

Are you going to see the Jlisters for conspiring to collude in an enterprise of stupidity?

They didn't break any laws as far as I know. All they mortgaged was their reputations.

Quick. To the Goldman cave where this high risk investment is collateralized into a synthetic ethics security and sold to an array of progressive counter parties.

[narciso the harpoon]

It is verner, I've been watching this game too long, to see this isn't the result, the
last time was Weiner with the Guatemala story
that led to Torricelli and the Deutsch purge.
Previously it was the investigations of Sy Hersh, that led to the Church Committee, and subsequently the Halloween massacre, this also gave an opening to the likes of Phillip
Agee who was working with open sources too, plus whatever he could glean from East GErman
researcher like Mader

[hit and run]

Gabriel:
Quick. To the Goldman cave where this high risk investment is collateralized into a synthetic ethics security and sold to an array of progressive counter parties.

An idea so crazy funny . . . it just might work!

[Janet]

Verner, great link.
"Arkin, according to his Post biography, later did stints at Greenpeace International and Human Rights Watch – activist associations that might not pass the classic standard of journalistic objectivity..."

The Human Rights Watch that had a Nazi memorabilia collector?
The Human Rights Watch that Tim McGirk from Time initially said was a party to exposing the now discredited "Haditha massacre"?

Our media is just a stage for the leftist show.

[Janesquaredance]

They didn't break any laws as far as I know.

I agree, at least none that I can think of. I was hoping all the rest of you see something I don't.

[Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)]

(( Chubby: no, you don't get it. Why do you care what the NYT and Wapo cover?? Fox, WSJ, talkradio are accessible to all.))

just so you won't come across as a loathesome hypocrite, tell us when you have lobbied Media Matters and insisted they stop reading conservative media.

[And your worldview is derivative from these deceitful people who knew they were doing wrong.]

Apparently bb believes that anyone who is serious is happy to read propaganda instead of news. Have we told you, bb, that you yourself have a bunkered and blinkered view of the real world?
==================

[Janet]

From Verner's link -

“We weren’t really competitors, so we would exchange thoughts and intellectual conversations, and the more we did that, the more we carefully tested each other out and the more we thought about whether we would want to join forces,” Priest said. “Two summers ago in August, I went up to his barn in Vermont where he works and we brainstormed on how we would do it.”

So we know one of the cocktail parties was in Vermont.

[Rick Ballard]

H&R,

Once upon a time the MFM was capable of drawing the "correct" inferences from implications contained within the pap generated by the NYT and WaPo propagandists. It was worthwhile to read them in order to understand how the party line was to be disseminated. The juiceboxers are too f'ng stupid to draw an inference and must have the crayon on butcher paper illustrations provided by journolist.

Just one more example of Gramscian degradation.

[verner]

Oh Janet, HRW is nothing compared to the blatantly KGBesque Institute for Policy Studies!!! IPS and it's sister org CIP (where Priest's husband Goodfellow has been director since it was started in the 1970s) have documented ties to Soviet and Cuban intel. Like I said, Arkin has been trying to bring down the "Amerikkkan intel industrial complex" for three decades now, along with Priest-Goodfellow's husband.

In all honesty, it would not surprise me one whit if Arkin turned out to be a Cuban spook. He also has ties to John Hopkins, and I would bet you lots of money he knows Kendall Myers (who just got sentenced to life this week!)

[Clarice]

They abused the trust of their readers and audience by conspiring to keep the truth from them; they deserve to be shunned by their colleagues outside Journolist who tried to do their job and were the targets of the journolist vitriol for doing so.

If they are not fired, it will be a scandal.

[Rob Crawford]

Note that Ackerman admits he has to distort what people say to make them "racists", and that he is doing so intentionally for political gain:

Ackerman did allow there were some Republicans who weren’t racists. “We’ll know who doesn’t deserve this treatment — Ross Douthat, for instance — but the others need to get it.” He also said he had begun to implement his plan. “I previewed it a bit on my blog last week after Commentary wildly distorted a comment Joe Cirincione made to make him appear like (what else) an antisemite. So I said: why is it that so many on the right have such a problem with the first viable prospective African-American president?”

These people are scum.

[Rob Crawford]

They didn't break any laws as far as I know.

Don't we have laws against cartels?

[Extraneus]

These biased gatekeepers influence culture too. What books, music, movies, art...are reviewed and recommended.

Like Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead.

Ayn Rand could see these people from a mile away.

[Dave (in MA)]

They thought ABC was using gotcha journalism against Obama?

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

I disagree. The juiceboxers should be honored for their utter transparency and lack of intelligence. I suggest rapid promotion to editorial positions and the power to fire anyone with whom they disagree. Advancing the journolice to positions even further beyond their absolutely minimal competence is giving vitamins to termites. The rot in the MFM is beyond remediation - I want to hasten the collapse of the structure, not brighten the facade.

[narciso the harpoon]

One is reminded in the Wiki entry of Arkin,
this bit of vileness that he let flow through,
in the LUN

Too much freude in my schaden, today, these people are vile, they sold the people this fraud, the journolistic equivalent of subprime
trash, they colluded I'm rather certain of it,
to savage a good and decent woman who did as much as possible to alert us to this trainwreck

[gmax]

Quick. To the Goldman cave where this high risk investment is collateralized into a synthetic ethics security and sold to an array of progressive counter parties.

They may not be able to sell it, but they can probably swap it for some carbon credits, and then strongarm the regulators not to make them mark the dogs for other flea ridden dogs swap to its ever more obvious market value, hovering just above zippo.

[Old Lurker]

"Or is that just the funk from bubu's comment?"

You don't read that carp do you, Rob? Life is too short.

[narciso the harpoon]

Atlas Shrugged, ironically for Chambers'
review, was much more prophetic about the world we would be facing

[gmax]

In all honesty, it would not surprise me one whit if Arkin turned out to be a Cuban spook.

Nahw, HRW and Greenspeace is filled with Lenin's useful idiots. Like Trotsky, they will be herded up - when no longer of use and disposed of, properly.

[Ranger]

I agree, at least none that I can think of. I was hoping all the rest of you see something I don't.

Posted by: Janesquaredance | July 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM

What about fraud? If they sold their papers under a false pretense (that the reader was being provided news, not political propaganda), couldn't a class action suit in the name of the readers be filed?

Also, what about violation of campaign finance laws. This looks like donated services to the Obama campaign that were never reported.

[Rob Crawford]

You don't read that carp do you, Rob? Life is too short.

Not usually, but today he's particularly amusing. Stomping his feet, threatening to hold his breath, intent on doing anything to distract from the reality:

THE ONE-PARTY-MEDIA IS CORRUPT AND DESERVES TO BE DEMOLISHED.

[Danube of Thought]

Obviously I mean this rhetorically.

Jeez--nice of him to point that out.

[Rob Crawford]

Jeez--nice of him to point that out.

He was talking to fellow leftists, so it's a good thing he made that clear.

[Captain Hate]

"Or is that just the funk from bubu's comment?"

You don't read that carp do you, Rob? Life is too short.

Today's desperate obfuscations are pretty amusing as it's twitching like a crack baby it claims to be concerned about.

[Clarice]

It would be wrong of course, but someone ought to float the story that Ezra Klein created journolist expressly to get this candid cabal on the record so he could force his professional rivals out of business.

[Clarice]

Late last night even after the hints from Breitbart, Ackerman was tweeting away nonchalantly about getting his windshield repaired.

[Danube of Thought]

I Bernie Goldberg last night talking about Bob Schieffer's interview with Holder, in which he didn't ask him anything about the New Black Panthers case. Schieffer's excuse was that he'd been on vacation that week, and actually did know about the story.

As Goldgerg pointed out, the actual reason he didn't know about it was that during that vacation week the case was not mentioned in the New York Times, which he is certain to have read every day of his vacation. (And apparently his research staff only reads the Times and the Post.)

[Ranger]

OT, but something else of interest, the TARP IG filed their report that found the closing of thousends of dealerships was based on no real data and cost tens of thousends of jobs that shouldn't have been eliminated. So, can the disposessed dealership owners now sue for just compensation from the government on a violation of the takings clause? Granted, the closings were carried out by "private" corporations", but those private entities had ben directed to take that action by the Federal Government as part of the bail out.

[verner]

Narciso, plain and simple, the WaPo is now letting marxist activists report on the American Intelligence community.

Four years ago, when I wrote my AIM piece, Clif KIncaid went to the WaPo with irrefutable evidence that Dana Priest was nothing more than a political operative who was colluding with her husband and the dems to bring down Bush. He even presented photos of Priest at the "Cowboy Diplomacy" conference, put on by CIP and Chris Dodd.

The WaPo defended her to the hilt. "No, she's objective, what her husband does is completely seperate."

BIG FAT LIE!!! and THEY HAVE NO DEFENSE NOW.

There is not one spot of news in that big fat whopping piece. They basically paid Arkin to do what Putin or Raoul Castro would pay their intel operatives to do--go through open source material and gleen out anyone working on security. Arkin did the same thing with IPS in the 80s under Reagan! He has worked hand and glove with Bill Goodfellow at least since the early eighties. The very idea that Priest would chose to work with him SAYS IT ALL.

[Danube of Thought]

I *saw* Bernie Goldberg...

Minus 17 at Raz today.

[Janet]

Maybe the public needs to demand a refund from any of the Journolist participating news organizations?

[narciso the harpoon]

Look who my Miami Herald employs, without apology, in the LUN, verner,

[Rick Ballard]

Ranger,

Perhaps BP took notice of the fact that Obama is a company killer in developing their strong letter follows response to his order to let the oil continue to ruin employment in the Gulf? The drilling moratorium is very much akin to Obama's killing off dealerships as payoffs to the competitors who can be counted upon for "contributions" in order to survive.

[Janet]

Why isn't this story up on Drudge?

[MarkO]

Anyone with access to a computer [or with a bloated staff that has access to a computer] has no excuse for being ignorant of any item of news of gossip. I think it is a lie. Remember, it was this same bloated Schieffer who refused to report on the Edwards scandal because he did not think it was "newsworthy."

But, I ask you, what possible difference it will make to expose the corruption in the media. The NYT is going broke, but it is not making any changes in coverage or tone. NBC? Unless these outlets expose their own corruption, the stories will not make the nightly air wave news.

Is it a slow death? Even Bernie seemed to give Schieffer the benefit of the doubt and call him simply lazy and uninformed. What about corrupt and a liar?

Civility goes unrewarded.

Did I mention Obama is a liar?

[Janesquaredance]

Verner,

Dana Priest admitted yesterday she gave the Obama administration "many months" to review the story before it was published. Was the Bush administration given a day before she compromised all our intelligence efforts?

What about fraud? If they sold their papers under a false pretense (that the reader was being provided news, not political propaganda), couldn't a class action suit in the name of the readers be filed?

Also, what about violation of campaign finance laws. This looks like donated services to the Obama campaign that were never reported.

I don't think the fraud thing works, at least I can't find an in on it. The campaign finance laws is an interesting perspective, but would that require that someone prove Obama knew.

I just want to find a way to force the perps to headline their own criminality, which is pretty much a pipe dream I suspect.

[Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)]

sooner or later the moral bankruptcy will be reflected in total collapse ... that always happens. It grinds slowly but it grinds.

[narciso the harpoon]

They always give that excuse, Jane, it almost always never turns out to be true, the TSP, SWIFT, the Gitmo interrogators

[Ranger]

Personally, I would like to see criminal charges against the entire Obama auto-bailout team for fraud and extortion over this. And since it was done nation wide, you could pick any venue outside of DC to bring the charges (and avoid the jury nulificaiton because they are democrats issue).

Hmmm... I wonder if there is some up and comming state AG looking to make a big splash? Or even a local state prosecutor... we need our own guys to start playing this game like hard ball.

[MayBee]

Jared Bernstein, who would go on to be Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist when Obama took office, helped, too. The letter should be “Short, punchy and solely focused on vapidity of gotcha,” Bernstein wrote.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/2/#ixzz0uEejYKeS

So Jared Bernstein was part of it. Then he became a source (one I'm sure they were quite impartial about, no?)

[narciso the harpoon]

And he had the chutspah of having a car dealer as one of the props for his promotion of the unenployment benefits scam

[verner]

Jane, I believe that the Obama administration wanted Priest and Arkin to publish this, so that when they get ready to go after the private contractors who actually DO the intel and security work (because our CIA is such a pile of crap), all he'll have to do is shake his finger at "TOP SECRET AMERICA"

It's also a great fundraising tool for neo-marxist think tanks like CIP.."Help us fight TOP SECRET AMERICA!!!!..." Fear Fear Intelligence Industrial Complex and all that...

[MayBee]

Here is the story Karen Tumulty did, painting the Franklin Raines ads as racist.

Not all the comments are there anymore. It was a huge driver of the view of the story.

[Neo]

Journolist ScoreCard
----------------------------
Ezra Klein Journolist Asshole-in-Chief (WaPo)
Chris Hayes member (Washington editor, The Nation)
David Greenberg member (Slate)
David Roberts member (Slate)
Holly Yeager member (nonpartisan Columbia Journalism Review)
Kevin Drum member (Mother Jones)
Mark Schmitt (executive editor of The American Prospect)
Michael Tomasky member (The Guardian)
Richard Kim member (Senior Editor, The Nation)
Jared Bernstein former ? member, absorbed into the body
Joe Conason member (brainless)
Jonathan Stein member (Mother Jones)
Ross Douthat member (The New York Times)
Spencer Ackerman member (Fire Dog Lake)
Thomas Schaller member (Baltimore Sun & Ass Prof, U Maryland)
Todd Gitlin member (The Journalism School Columbia University)

Miscellaneous
----------------------------
Barack Obama Dear Leader
Joe Biden Dear Leader for vice
Charlie Gibson brainless (ABC)
George Stephanopoulos hack (ABC)
Jeremiah Wright racist fake preacher
Joe Cirincione (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

[Janesquaredance]

I agree Verner.

we need our own guys to start playing this game like hard ball.

But we never do.

[narciso the harpoon]

Just like Phillip Agee did 35 years ago, what did it matter if one or another station chief
was killed, 'you have to break eggs to make an omelet" recall that one of Agee's side projects was with Syd Blumenthal, in "Government by Gunplay" a compendium of all the debunked conspiracy theories of the era

[Pagar]

" Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist "

Why are we paying for these leftists to have economist when all they do is destroy the private economy and enlarge the government employees unions.

[Janet]

Just a reminder of what a liar Obama & the Dems are...Obama heckled by GOP

Where are the Rep. Joe Wilsons of the world?

[memomachine]

Hmmmm.

"I agree, at least none that I can think of. I was hoping all the rest of you see something I don't. "

False advertising.

Remember when the WWF was sued successfully and had to stop representing itself as a "sport"?

If nothing else it would make for some interesting depositions. And if the lawsuit withstood challenge the "journolists" couldn't even use any shield laws because nobody is asking them about sources.

[matt]

it was interesting to read today's WSJ, where they had an editorial on Vickt Pelaez, one of the senior editors at El Diario, and who was deported as the only non-Russian spy in the recent case.

Ms. Pelaez' husband was a Russian spy masking himself as Uruguayan, and she was one of the most active writers and promoters of communist agitprop in this country. She was also a courier for the takings of the Russian spy network. She was also a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Questions:

1 -what exactly did she take with her?
2 - why wasn't she prosecuted for treason and espionage?
3 - how did she keep her job when the whole world knew she was in the bag for Castro?

It is the same reason that the Left and MSM minimize the activities of the Journo-list.

Whether you want to call them fellow travelers or SDS or outright communist agents, we still have a lot of very strong influence in this country by people whose interests are antithetical to the Constitution and our nation's security.

There is an active and evil propaganda machine at work that is doing its best to damage our nation. It has been seen through the attempt to use the NEA as a propaganda machine; Obama's messianic set piece events; his demonization of his opponents. It's all there if you look at it critically. That is what scares the bejeepers out of me.

[Walter]

Jane,

I would look at libel. It works even if the allegations are not published beyond the email list. Since the plaintiffs would be public figures, they'd have to show malice. It seems like a reckless disregard for the truth when you have them saying that it does not matter if it is true so long as it changes the subject.

More importantly, you get discovery.

[Janesquaredance]

Why are we paying for these leftists to have economist when all they do is destroy the private economy and enlarge the government employees unions.

If you look up Bernstein on Wiki you learn that he majored in "bass". Economics just emerged as music to his ears.

[narciso the harpoon]

Well you see that Matt, from my 10:48 LUN, with my local paper, who also had the likes
of Ray McGovern and Wayne Madsen, thosr nutballs who showed up on RT not too long ago.

[jimmyk]

False advertising.

While I don't seriously think there would be any legal actions coming out of this (and the stain on their reputations might be enough punishment, we'll see), I could imagine making a case for collusion under antitrust law. If a bunch of businesses get together in a smoke-filled room and collude about prices, that's a criminal offense. I don't know if that also applies to the quality of the product, but it should. Imagine all the auto producers getting together and saying "Let's agree not to make any quality improvements this year so we can increase our profits."

[Ranger]

Someone asked on the other thread where FDL gets their funding. My understanding is they get a lot of money from the SEIU. That Helps explain why they were so harsh about dropping the public option.

[Dave (in MA)]

Why isn't this story up on Drudge?

No room. He needs the space for the latest on Lindsay, Mel and the parachuting donkey.

[Dave (in MA)]

If you look up Bernstein on Wiki you learn that he majored in "bass".

The instrument, or the fish?

[Rob Crawford]

If a bunch of businesses get together in a smoke-filled room and collude about prices, that's a criminal offense. I don't know if that also applies to the quality of the product, but it should.

What I've read on the Sherman Antitrust Act says, yes, it does: "The law directs itself not against conduct which is competitive, even severely so, but against conduct which unfairly tends to destroy competition itself."

A per se violation requires no further inquiry into the practice's actual effect on the market or the intentions of those individuals who engaged in the practice. Conduct characterized as per se unlawful is that which has been found to have a "'pernicious effect on competition' or 'lack[s] . . . any redeeming virtue'" Such conduct "would always or almost always tend to restrict competition and decrease output."

Source LUN, Wikipedia so season to taste, emphasis mine.

I'd say their actions tend to restrict competition and decrease output. They were attempting -- and succeeding -- at cutting off an entire realm of investigation.

[Janesquaredance]

Neo,

Where did you get that list?

The instrument, or the fish?

Is there a difference?

Walter - who has standing to bring that case?

[MayBee]

Wow. That is pretty shocking that Bernstein does not have an education in Economics. His "training" all came from an organized labor think tank.

[BB Key]

I would like to see the Journolist strategy and emails on the cerificate of live birth vs. original birth certificate....

[Pagar]

"why wasn't she prosecuted for treason and espionage?"

Who would possibly believe the Obama administration would charge one of Castro's favorites with treason and espionage?

[Janet]

Ah yes BB Key! THAT would be interesting!!!

[Janet]

My CAPS & !!!! denote excitement. :)

[Rob Crawford]

Boy, the inside-the-Beltway media types seem to be circling the wagons on this one. Two mentions at NRO, one of which takes the predicted "these are just opinion journalists" tack. Except that to be the preferred defense for the time being.

It's immaterial, anyway. These "opinion" journalists have admitted they're willing to lie about someone for political gain. Their opinions should be weight with that in mind -- and rejected.

[Ignatz]

--Wow. That is pretty shocking that Bernstein does not have an education in Economics.--

That was common knowledge to regulalr Kudlow watchers where Bernstein was a frequent guest. A likable but utterly bumbling guest I might add.

--2 - why wasn't she prosecuted for treason and espionage?--

When you have a DOJ and a whole administration which because of their idealogy will not prosecute people of a particular favored race it's a very small stretch to conclude they will hesititate to prosecute or will go easy on those they may feel an idealogical affinity for as well.

[MayBee]

It's immaterial, anyway. These "opinion" journalists have admitted they're willing to lie about someone for political gain. Their opinions should be weight with that in mind -- and rejected.

They are opinion journalists, but they are opinion journalists I see quoted by other journalists. And when not quoted, their leads are followed.

McCain came up with the brilliant strategy of neutralizing Obama's pre-election trip to Europe as a "celebrity" jaunt. The Journolisters jumped on him as race-baiting, and other journalists followed up on that.
McCain tied Obama to Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines, and journolisters jumped on him for race-baiting. The ad was based on a Washington Post article. The Washington Post then did a quick "fact check", which basically decided McCain was wrong to rely on Washington Post reporting.

They set a tone because other reporters listen to them. Unlike the partisans at Fox News.

[narciso the harpoon]

And he was hired by Biden, isn't that proof of
'the blind leading the blind' no wonder he thinks the stimulus works

[MayBee]

Yet they are shocked that their economic policies aren't creating jobs.

Someone with labor union experience only knows how to add jobs by being a parasite off a host job creator.

[Danube of Thought]

My favorite line in the Daily Caller piece is attributed to Kevin Drum, near the end:

After all, why vote for him if it turns out he’s not going change the way politics works?

How's that change looking now, Kevin?