The latest story about the members of Journolist or, as Fred Barnes called them, “The Vast Leftwing Media Conspiracy,” is how they debated making their support of and coordination with the 2008 Obama Campaign more explicit.
The catalyst for this debate, according to The Daily Caller, was Sarah Palin’s Republican Convention speech:
“Sarah Palin’s speech to the 2008 Republican convention impressed more than a few doubters, including even some members of Journolist, an online community for liberal journalists.
“‘This speech is gangbusters,’ wrote Ari Melber of the Nation. ‘Her tone is pitch perfect.’ Adele Stan of the Media Consortium agreed: ‘Palin is golden.’
“The exuberance appeared to unnerve the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky. ‘People get a hold of yourselves!’ Tomasky wrote to his fellow Journolisters. ‘It’s a very good speech with good lines. But there’s very little substance.’
“Rebecca Traister of Salon wrote to say she was grateful for Tomasky’s message. (‘This is a reassuring sentiment, since at the moment, I feel like we’re in End Times.’) But the rest of the country apparently didn’t agree. Polls a few days later showed Obama’s lead in the race had narrowed to virtually nothing.
“Palin’s speech had been remarkably effective. This troubled members of Journolist. On Sept. 8, 2008, five days after Palin’s national debut, some members of the group discussed producing coordinated propaganda designed to wound Palin and boost Obama.”
The real takeaway from this part of the unfolding Journolist scandal is that the mainstream media, at least those who were posting to Journolist, did not believe for a moment the meme of Sarah Palin as brainless, uneducated bimbo, later made famous by Saturday Night Live‘s Tina Fey. They were frightened of Palin, thinking correctly that her star power and charisma were the things that might derail Barack Obama’s road to the Presidency.
The members of the list debated if and, if so, how news organizations should coordinate messaging with the Obama campaign. While some thought that openly, rather than implicitly, supporting the Obama campaign a little not done, Todd Gitlin of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalist, one of the most prestigious schools of its kind in the country and charged with educating the next generation of journalists, was very sure about what needed to be done. The Daily Caller quotes him:
“On the question of liberals coordinating, what the hell’s wrong with some critical mass of liberal bloggers & journalists saying the following among themselves:
“McCain lies about his maverick status. Routinely, cavalierly, cynically. Palin lies about her maverick status. Ditto, ditto, ditto. McCain has a wretched temperament. McCain is a warmonger. Palin belongs to a crackpot church and feels warmly about a crackpot party that trashes America.
“Repeat after me:
“McCain lies about his maverick status. Routinely, cavalierly, cynically. Palin lies about her maverick status. Ditto, ditto, ditto. McCain has a wretched temperament. McCain is a warmonger. Palin belongs to a crackpot church and feels warmly about a crackpot party that trashes America.
“These people are cynical. These people are taking you for a ride. These people are fakes. These people love Bush.
“Again. And again. Vary the details. There are plenty. Somebody on the ‘list posted a strong list of McCain lies earlier today. Hammer it. Philosophize, as Nietzsche said, with a hammer.
“I don’t know about any of you, but I’m not waiting for any coordination. Get on with it!”
In a later interview, Gitlin claimed that he was just reviewing facts about the McCain/Palin Campaign most useful for defeating it and denied having bent those facts.
Many people have noted that the mainstream media, which has claimed for decades to be only reporting the news, has become increasingly partisan and political, with a bias to the left. That fact explains the rise of alternate media, cable news, talk radio, and a variety of venues on the Internet. Denials of liberal media bias, in the light of the Journolist revelations, have become even more threadbare and non-credible. Indeed, there now seems to be proof that “bias” is too weak a word for how many in the mainstream media view their jobs; they have become out and out propagandists for left wing causes and candidates.
Source:
Journolist debates making its coordination with Obama explicit, Jonathan Strong, The Daily Caller, July 26th, 2010
