John R. Guardiano
Pious conservative blogger and innocent Matt Lewis tries to pretend he’s above the fray in a new post in which he creates moral equivalence between lefty JournOlist Matthew Yglesias and RightWingNews’ John Hawkins. But far from demonstrating moral equivalence, Lewis instead shows himself to politically weak-kneed and undependable in political combat.
One of the summer’s most damning, revealing and under-covered stories has been the existence of a vast left-wing journalistic cabal, JournOlist, which attempted to direct and coordinate news coverage in support of Barack Obama’s election and enactment of his liberal agenda.
JournOlist was a secret online listserv founded in Feb. 2007 by journalist Ezra Klein (now a reporter with the Washington Post). Its existence became public knowledge on March 17, 2009, thanks to a widely read report by Politico. However, until very recently, the inner workings of this once-secret journalistic cabal were hidden from public view. Then, thanks to some entrepreneurial reporting by the Daily Caller’s Jonathan Strong, JournOlist was exposed to the light of day.
The Caller’s expose has since rocked the journalistic world, because it seems to confirm the worst fears and suspicions of conservative media critics. To wit: that the most prominent and influential reporters are leftists who work in concert to deliberately slant the news so as to disparage conservatives and conservative ideas, while promoting liberals and liberal ideas. read more…
One of the summer’s most damning, revealing and under-covered stories has been the existence of a vast left-wing journalistic cabal, JournOlist, which attempted to direct and coordinate news coverage in support of Barack Obama’s election and enactment of his liberal agenda.
JournOlist was a secret online listserv founded in Feb. 2007 by journalist Ezra Klein (now a reporter with the Washington Post). Its existence became public knowledge on March 17, 2009, thanks to a widely read report by Politico. However, until very recently, the inner workings of this once-secret journalistic cabal were hidden from public view. Then, thanks to some entrepreneurial reporting by the Daily Caller’s Jonathan Strong, JournOlist was exposed to the light of day.
The Caller’s expose has since rocked the journalistic world, because it seems to confirm the worst fears and suspicions of conservative media critics. To wit: that the most prominent and influential reporters are leftists who work in concert to deliberately slant the news so as to disparage conservatives and conservative ideas, while promoting liberals and liberal ideas. read more…
Is the Daily Caller’s stunning fact-based expose of Journolist really an example of “tabloid journalism”?
The Journolisters have predictably and self-servingly denounced Tucker Carlson and the Daily Caller for practicing what they call “tabloid journalism.” What they mean is that Carlson has withheld information from readers and taken snippets of information out of context to “sensationalize the narrative.”
Interestingly enough, this view has been articulated most forcefully by non-Journolist John Tabin of the American Spectator and endorsed by National Review’s Daniel Foster. read more…
JournAlist (not to be confused with JournOlist) Byron York exposed the vast left-wing conspiracy several years ago. The conspiracy has since metastasized into Journolist and other new left-wing activist ventures.
Yesterday, here at NewsReal Blog I mentioned that I’m engaged in a friendly debate about Journolist with the American Spectator’s John Tabin. Tabin has argued that Journolist is no different from similar initiatives spearheaded by conservative politicos. He’s right, of course, but this proves my point: The Journolisters weren’t journalists; they were political activists.
Tabin makes two additional points in defense of the Journolisters. First he says there is no evidence that Journolist compromised its straight-news reporters. Their work, he says, was still fair and balanced. And second, Tabin charges The Daily Caller editor Tucker Carlson with practicing unscrupulous “tabloid journalism.”
Conservative Activists Admit They’re Political Partisans; Journolisters Don’t But Should
Left-wing activists love to yell and scream on behalf of the “progressive” agenda; Journolisters love to do the same.
I’ve been engaged in a friendly debate about Journolist with the American Spectator’s John Tabin. Tabin is a conservative who actually defends Journolist because… Well, Journolist is really no big deal, you see. And besides, everyone does it, even Grover Norquist and other conservatives!
Norquist, of course, has long hosted a weekly Wednesday Group meeting of conservative activists. Tabin contends that these off-the-record deliberations are no different from Journolist. read more…
Because form follows function, liberal journalists have aligned themselves with the “progressive” (read: leftist) political movement, while conservative journalists eschew partisan affiliations altogether.
Journolist is the gift that keeps on giving. Indeed, the stunning Daily Caller expose continued today with a new report on how the Journolisters openly discussed the importance of left-wing message discipline and message coordination to help elect Barack Obama president. For example:
…Luke Mitchell, then an editor at Harper’s, suggested [that] members of Journolist coordinate a progressive weekly message to help President Obama win the election, even though, [he said], that “sounds loathsome.” read more…
Journolist Coconspirator Matthew Yglesias Shoots Furiously at Conservatives, but Fires Blanks
Matthew Yglesias and other Journolist coconspirators don’t want to hear it, but conservative journalists are independent actors who kowtow to no one and no movement.
One of the rationales that the Journolisters use to justify their now-defunct secret listserv is that everyone does it, even conservative journalists. But this is simply not true. Most conservative journalists do not belong to secret listservs.
Wall Street Journal editorial page editors Paul Gigot, James Taranto and John Fund don’t. “I don’t know of anything like this,” Gigot said Sunday on Fox News’ Journal Editorial Page Report. read more…
President Obama has forced America’s top commanding general into retirement, but the Islamists and Jihadists who would destroy the United States are still at work.
It was a farewell to a hero, but not a farewell to arms.
General Stanley McChystal formally left the Army yesterday in a ceremony at Ft. McNair that reminded everyone of what makes the U.S. military, and its warriors like McChrystal, so special and so great: their good-natured cheer, their high spirits and optimism, their wit and humor, and their deep-seated faith and commitment to each other and to the nation that they so proudly serve. read more…
It’s Groundhog Day in Washington, with the pundit class again crying that an American war is unwinnable, even as the U.S. military says: “No, it’s not!” and “Yes we can!”
The pundits, the chattering classes and the Beltway elite are all worried about Afghanistan. They think the war’s a hopeless cause, a “quagmire,” and, most damning of all in their minds, “Vietnam all over again.” But the new commanding general of U.S. Central Command, General James N. Mattis, says these worrywarts are all wrong about Afghanistan. read more…
Even though we live in a democracy in which the people are supposed to rule, the Pentagon refuses to release the contents of a much-publicized survey about openly gay military service. However, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Pentagon spokesmen Geoff Morrell, and at least one gay activist group all admit that the survey is designed to facilitate open homosexuality within the ranks.
“I strongly encourage gays and lesbians who are in the military to fill out these forms,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates during a July 8 press briefing. “We’ve organized this in a way to protect their privacy and the confidentiality of their responses through a third party, and it’s important that we hear from them [lesbians and homosexuals]…”
read more…
As Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele has been an unguided missile, whose unexpected turbulence and unruly explosions have wreaked havoc with the party.
Well, it looks like, for now at least, that Michael Steele has decided not to run for president in 2012 as the insurgent anti-war candidate.
As I reported on Sunday, Steele had been implored to mount such a campaign by longtime GOP peacenik Pat Buchanan. Oh, Buchanan never explicitly asked Steele to run; however, his implicit message to the current Chairman of the Republican National Committee was quite clear:
The time for Republicans to decide on what the foreign policy of the party and a new administration should be is in the primaries of 2012. Until then, let every voice be heard, including that of Michael Steele [emphasis added].
In other words: “Run, Mike, Run!” read more…
