But to backtrack, revelations about the JournoList had already done some damage to the Left. June 25 - Dave Weigel: Someone on Journolist had apparently "outed" Dave Weigel, who had been hired by the Washington Post to cover the "conservative movement" as a hater of conservatives. He had once worked for the libertarian magazine, Reason, which the Post apparently thought would give him an "in" at conservative events. Editor of Daily Caller has questions for the Washington Post, others.
Weigel resigned from the Washington Post on July 24 and was hired by Slate, which is owned by the Washinton Post, on July 27. The next day he "confessed" in a guest-post on the conservative/libertarian Andrew Breitbart site, Big Government, concerning "the Washington Post, the D.C. Bubble and JournoList". Bonus Austin Powers "Dr. Evil" reference. Question: Is "Snark" a specialty of "The Millenials"? "Starry-eyed they’re not."
JULY 22: An op-ed that appeared Wednesday at Investor’s Business Daily dubs the JournoList “The Smoking Gun For Media Bias:”
The point is, this is America’s “mainstream” media, supposedly. Except it’s not. It’s in fact a support wing for one party and one vision for America. And as with the rest of the progressive movement, it’s concerned not with the truth, but with power.And that was written before this morning’s JournoList document drop du jour from Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller, who writes, “When McCain picked Palin, liberal journalists coordinated the best line of attack:”
MORE: "Despite its name, membership in the liberal online community Journolist wasn’t limited to journalists. Present among the bloggers, reporters and editors were a number of professional political operatives, including top White House economic advisors, key Obama political appointees, and Democratic campaign veterans. Some left government to join Journolist. Others took the opposite route. A few contributed to Journolist from their perches in politics. At times, it became difficult to tell who was supposed to be covering policy and who was trying to make it."
. . . “Calling all Journos,” Bernstein wrote in a message relayed by Klein. “I thought we got too little love from progressive types re our tax changes targeted at businesses with overseas operations. We’re maybe going for another bite at the apple this Monday,” he wrote. Bernstein invited members of the list to join him on a conference call on the issue a few days later.
Not everyone was sold. A couple of members on the list, including Greg Anrig of the Century Foundation and Bloomberg’s Ryan Donmoyer, panned the administration’s plan to crack down on offshore tax havens as a misleading political stunt.
Dean Baker, at the time a blogger at the American Prospect, agreed the policy was dishonest, but defended it anyway. “Sure, some of the things they are saying are not true (the jobs story first and foremost),” he wrote, “but the industry groups have this town blanketed with lobbyists and own a large portion of Congress outright. … There has to be some counterforce to the industry groups and that is the populist rabble. It might not be pretty, but that’s Washington.” . . Yglesias took some pains to couch his advocacy in the language of journalism. Jeff Hauser, a professional political operative, didn’t bother. During key moments in the presidential campaign, Hauser dropped the pretense entirely, becoming nakedly political. . .
. . . Journolist’s greatest challenge is to make sure an actual win by Obama translates into winning the battle for political impact.
In the conversation that followed Hauser’s post, not one Journolister expressed surprise or disapproval. No one rebuked Hauser for telling journalists how to carry water for a politician. Despite the group’s supposedly “very strict” ban on political operatives and explicit partisan coordination, Hauser remained a member of Journolist for almost two more years.
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