Now we know what has been going on behind the scenes to kill journalism in America and convert it into propaganda instead. Jonah Goldberg brings us up to speed:
Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, or if you only get your news from MSNBC, here’s the story. A young blogger, Ezra Klein, formerly of the avowedly left-wing American Prospect and now with the avowedly mainstream Washington Post, founded the e-mail listserv JournoList for like-minded liberals to hash out and develop ideas. Some 400 people joined the by-invitation-only group. Most, it seems, were in the media, but many hailed from academia, think tanks, and the world of forthright liberal activism generally. They spoke freely about their political and personal biases, including their hatred of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. . .
JournoList e-mails obtained by the Daily Caller reveal what anybody with two neurons to rub together already knew: Professional liberals don’t like Republicans and do like Democrats. They can be awfully smug and condescending in their
sense of intellectual and moral superiority. They tend to ascribe evil motives to their political opponents — sometimes even when they know it’s unfair. One obscure blogger insisted that liberals should arbitrarily demonize a conservative journalist as a racist to scare conservatives away from covering stories that might hurt Obama.
Oh, and — surprise! — it turns out that the “O” in JournoList stands for “Obama.”
Here's the rub:
In 2008, participants shared talking points about how to shape coverage to help Obama. They tried to paint any negative coverage of Obama’s racist and hateful pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as out of bounds. Journalists at such “objective” news organizations as Newsweek, Bloomberg, Time, and The Economist joined conversations with open partisans about the best way to criticize Sarah Palin.
Most of us had indeed noticed the pack of hounds ripping, snarling, and tearing after Palin. We also couldn't help but recognize the phalanx of media soldiers surrounding the moat of Obama's castle.
Goldberg goes on:
Like an Amish community raising a barn, members of the progressive community got together to hammer out talking points. Amidst a discussion of Palin, Chris Hayes, a writer for The Nation, wrote: “Keep the ideas coming! Have to go on TV to talk about this in a few min and need all the help I can get.” Time’s Joe Klein admitted to his fellow JournoListers that he’d collected the listserv’s bric-a-brac and fashioned it into a brickbat aimed at Palin. [more . . .]
Well so much for objective coverage of the news. The media needs to look itself in the mirror and admit the reality of what it has become: liberal, left-wing, biased boosterism, conscienceless in its lies and slander. The JournoList revelation should convince fence-sitters that lamestream journalism (and academia) in America can no longer be trusted. Most of us discovered that a long time ago and the hard-evidence of these e-mails only confirms the solidity of those convictions.
See also Noel Sheppard's excellent article on the same subject supplying greater detail. (HT: Ben Banks)
See also Fred Barnes in the Wall Street Journal - "The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy"