“The only morality [that] they recognize is what will
further their cause — meaning they reserve unto themselves the
right to commit any crime, to lie [and] to
cheat…”
— Ronald Reagan,
speaking candidly about the Soviet Union during his first press
conference as president, Jan. 29, 1981
“Spencer Ackerman of the Washington
Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from
Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject [and
lying]. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote,
‘Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them
racists.’”
— The Daily Caller’s
Jonathan Strong in a stunning investigative exposé of the
hidden machinations behind “Journolist,” a secret listserve of
several hundred liberal journalists, activists and academics,
July 20, 2010
We always knew that most liberal journalists were biased.
Now we know that many of them are dishonest — and that, like
their leftist forbearers in the Soviet Union, they reserve unto
themselves the right to lie and to cheat to further their
political ends.
We know this because of the Daily Caller’s
astonishing report
yesterday that a cabal of liberal journalists, activists, and
academics acted in concert, and with malice aforethought, to kill
and bury stories that were unfavorable to their political
masters: Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Indeed, these “journalists” were so blindly and zealously
committed to the left-wing political agenda that they advocated
smearing their political opponents with wholly unfounded charges
of “racism” and “bigotry.”
Thus Ackerman’s call for his fellow lefty “journalists” to
“pick one,” any one conservative. After all, “who cares” who it
is? Who cares about their innocence? Just pick a prominent
conservative and call him a racist. Smear him! Show no mercy!
Destroy his reputation and kill his public image!
Now!
I must confess that as worldly wise as I like to think that
I am, I have been stunned, shocked and appalled by the raw
partisanship and animalistic lust for power displayed by this
pack of left-wing journalists.
Of course I always new most Washington journalists were
leftists. But what I didn’t realize were the depths of
intellectual dishonesty and dishonor to which many Washington
journalists would descend in order to protect leftist pols and
smear conservatives.
“Have you no sense of decency?” Mr. Ackerman. “Have you no
sense of shame?”
Apparently not. But Ackerman is not alone. As the Daily
Caller reports, several hundred journalists, activists and
academics secretly conspired on Journolist. What did they know
and when did they know it — and with whom did they conspire and
why?
Did anyone pay them for favorable news coverage? Were they
promised jobs and privileges for toeing the party line? And whom
else were they commanded to punish in the public prints? What
other lies did they purposely, and with malice aforethought,
disseminate throughout the media?
In short, there are a lot of unanswered questions that
still surround the lingering Journolist scandal. Which is why I
have urged Journolist co-conspirators Ezra Klein, David Weigel,
Jonathan Chait, Michael Tomasky, Matthew Yglesias, and Spencer
Ackerman to come clean and to release the Journolist archives in
toto.
The public has a right to know what reportorial actions
these “journalists” were coordinating, with whom and why.
Sure, there may be no legal right to know, but
there is a moral and professional right to know. We’re
not talking about private love letters, after all. We’re talking
about coordinated journalistic actions designed to shape and
influence what is reported in the public prints.
Moreover, these journalists are very influential; they
write for the “big media.” Klein, for instance, reports for the
Washington Post, Chait for the New Republic;
Weigel for MSNBC; Tomasky — The
Guardian; Yglesias — Think
Progress; and Ackermann — Danger Room.
These are the same media outlets that are often in high-dudgeon
about the public’s “right to know.”
Well, turnaround is fair play — and entirely justified
right now. The Left’s journalistic empire has destroyed too many
innocent people for too long. It’s time, then, that these
“journalists” be held to account for their misdeeds.
Public exposure, public pressure, and moral suasion
ultimately destroyed the “evil empire,” and it will destroy the
Left’s journalistic empire as well. Which is why Journolist
insists on covering up its journalistic crimes. But moral suasion
can be a powerful and righteous force; and it just might force
Klein, Chait, Weigel, Tomasky, Yglesias, and Ackerman to do the
right thing — even though, sadly, they’d quite clearly prefer
not to.
