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The Spectacle Blog
On the main page today, John Guardiano is justifiably appalled by what he’s seen from Journolist, the now-defunct off-the-record listserv for liberal journalists. Particularly disturbing is Spencer Ackerman saying it’s a good idea to hurl bad-faith accusations of racism. This tells us what was already obvious: Spencer Ackerman shouldn’t be taken seriously. This is hardly a secret: We’re talking about a guy who was fired from The New Republic after starting a blog called “Too Hot for TNR” to denounce his employer. He then took a flamethrower to all his bridges by airing gripes about all his coworkers. The guy is insane — and, occassionally, not intellectually honest. (He’s also an energetic reporter who does good work covering national security, but you have to learn to ignore his utterly unserious opinions whenever reading his work.)
Likewise, Chris Hayes’s suggestion that no one should cover the Jeremiah Wright controversy is no surprise. Chris Hayes is a dyed-in-the-wool far-left ideologue. I imagine that Hayes disagrees very little with much of what Jeremiah Wright says about how awful America is. Indeed, while I wasn’t there, I did hear stories that other reporters were bemused to see Hayes applauding Wright’s National Press Club speech, in which Wright doubled down on all his views.
Lots of things that we’ve seen from Journolist reflect poorly on the people who wrote them. But in almost every case, we already knew that these people were buffoons. Leaks from Journolist are useful primarily in reminding us how utterly ridiculous these people are.
What they don’t tell us, though, is that Journolist was a media conspiracy to shape coverage based on what the craziest members of the list suggested, which is how the Daily Caller is framing its stories. Everyone on Journolist insists that this isn’t true, and that Jonathan Strong’s Caller stories are taking snippets of conversations and making them look much, much worse than they are. The context provided by, for example, Jon Chait’s response to the Caller suggests that this is probably true. Since I have no reason to believe that anyone at the Daily Caller would deliberately mislead readers, I suspect that whoever is leaking material from Journolist is doing so selectively. Thus, it would serve readers well if the Daily Caller would, as Daniel Foster suggests over at National Review, release all of the source material they have, as soon as possible.
A member of Journolist has leaked a thread to me, in fact — albeit with the authors’ names stripped out — under the condition that I promise to run it in its entirety. When I do so tomorrow, you will see, again, how utterly inane the discussions on Journolist often were.
View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/21/journolist-a-conspiracy-or-jus
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kingsmill| 7.21.10 @ 5:52PM
Have Spencer Ackerman and David Frum been seen in the same room together?
Alan| 7.22.10 @ 1:09AM
Look at the list of JournoList subscribers that Daily Caller has released. Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew all the way down.
Conspiracies are never that surprising if you're paying attention.
SC Mike| 7.21.10 @ 7:25PM
Dave Bunge beat you to it:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/io.....tbart.html
Ammo Guy| 7.22.10 @ 10:40AM
As usual, once Iowahawk comments, there is nothing (funny) left to say. I pray that I never do anything foolish enough to get in his sights.
Roger| 7.21.10 @ 9:15PM
So some anonomous lefty wants to send out the word: "Nothing to see here. Move along, move along! Just lefties (who are engetic reporters doing good work) mouthing off. No harm done at all." Where does he go? To this guy. What does this guy say? "John Tabin, sir, at your service, sir! What do you want published? In what form? Anyway you want it is fine with me. I'll obey your orders to the last detail. You can depend on me! Just please, remember the wing-nut hater who was willing to do your bidding. Insult me as much as you want. I'll still do whatever you say!"
Jocon307| 7.21.10 @ 10:38PM
These people are NOT to be forgiven, and they are certainly NOT to be taken at their word.
So, they are juvenile and inane. So, they discuss football, or whatever. That is NOT the point.
The point is that they were involved in a secret, semi-organized attempt to obscure and distort THE NEWS.
They were purposefully not doing their jobs and they were at the very least urging their peers to also be derelict in their DUTY to inform the American public. Only about a candidate for president, only about the most important thing the public ever needs information about.
(We were kept well aware of every sordid detail of Bristol Palin's family and romantic travails, weren't we? For months, no? Even to this very day. - I'd like to see the Journolist thread on that!)
They were striving to rig the election, and in fact I think they succeeded.
We've got to look at how these people see us. How they see conservatives and ordinary Americans.
To them we are just bitter clingers, or worse, racist haters, or maybe worst of all (by their lights) morons.
Yet is is they who bitterly cling, they who are racists who hate, and they who are morons.
THEY ARE OUR ENEMIES.
Stop it, just stop excusing them.
This is the second time today I've written to a right-wing commentator who seems to feel sorry for these guys.
This is what is killing America, the good making excuses for the bad.
No more Mr. Nice Rightwinger, it's way past time to throw these leftists through a few plate glass windows, take a picture of the bloody mess for a Christmas card, and send it around to the lot of them.
You know what I mean?
Maccacca!
Zero | 7.22.10 @ 5:47AM
Conspiracies are never that surprising if you're paying attention.
martin j smith| 7.22.10 @ 6:54AM
Do not underestimate your opponent no matter how "inane " they may appear. As I have hear " montages" of journalists talk about various news issues that involve criticism of say Palin, or Bush or whoever, the one thing that comes out clearly is that virtually say the almost exact same thing in the exact same words. That is important to get thru your heads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brian H| 7.23.10 @ 12:39AM
Not to mention the blindingly obvious, but the dastardly distortions and false accusations etc. they so blithely and outrageously suggest are EXACTLY what actually happened.
If this is coincidence, then who needs conspiracy?
mmille| 7.22.10 @ 8:00AM
A template exists that the media uses. If they published their transcripst, it could be termed plagiarism. The media is a myth, and they assume we are their phantom public.
Lazy Jack | 7.22.10 @ 9:04AM
See below for an oldie but a goodie with NBC and Newsweek implying that if you voted for Scott Brown, you were a racist.
You just can't make this stuff up.
Lazy Jack
http://thanksforthelaughs.word.....st-really/
bert| 7.22.10 @ 11:10AM
So, John Tabin is doing damage control for the leftist Media complex ( aka His Friends) when they are outed !
Its not a shock that Johnny wants to peddle the tired oldest strategy around that its NO BIG DEAL that media and university elites peddle lies and propaganda to distort facts and ram radical socialism to the little people or as ted baxter at Fox News aka Bill O' Reilly calls us the " Folks "!
But, Johnny it seems the Folks have ahd enough of YOU and YOUR SO CALLED FRIENDS BS!
And Johnny if its all so boring on the website then let THEM share all the boring emails with the world !