James Taranto has more on Ezra Klein's now defunct Journolist. Journolist, an online message board for elite lefty journalists, was recently shut down when one of it's presumably less ideologically committed members leaked some inflammatory emails posted by David Weigel, who up until that time was a Washington Post reporter. He was was actually forced to resign because of those emails.
The fact that Journolist was terminated is a sure indication that Weigel's online diatribes were the rule rather than the exception. But what Taranto reports is very nearly incredible.
One quote from the Caller piece, however, went too far even for an opinion journalist:
After Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat, threatening to kill the health care legislation by his presence, Weigel stressed how important it was for reporters to highlight what a terrible candidate his opponent Martha Coakley had been."I think pointing out Coakley's awfulness is vital, because it's 1) true and 2) unreasonable panic about it is doing more damage to the Democrats," Weigel wrote.Remember, Weigel's supposedly off-the-record audience consisted of hundreds of journalists, both left-wing and purportedly objective. What it appears he was doing was not merely expressing an opinion but engaging in partisan politics--i.e., advising other journalists on how they should tailor their coverage so as to avoid "doing more damage to the Democrats."
So much for progressive claims that there is no media bias. That lefty journalists would engage in this kind of coordinated slanting of the news comes as no surprise. Shocking that one of them feels secure enough in the practice to say it out loud.
Another great article. I like that you are very honest and direct to the point.
Posted by: Resume Writing Service | July 23, 2010 at 03:19 AM