Although I am aware of groups to debate policy and news, this is new to me:
For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.
There’s a difference between debating issues and coordinating them. If the list was meant to debate issues, to give each other tips about important news, etc. I don’t quite see how anyone can have a problem with it. However, I get the impression that the JournoList is about the first (coordination), rather than the latter (debate), which explains why left-wing bloggers, political reports, etc. and even politicians all seem to agree with each other on almost everything and repeat the same talking points over and over.
If it was about debate, they would’ve asked conservatives and others to join as well, no? Instead, it’s a group by and for liberals. This gives me the impression it was more about pushing a certain agenda than about having in-depth debates.
One wonders what “reports, magazine writers” and “policy wonks” are part of this specific group and why they joined the group in the first place.
Lastly, we shouldn’t be too quick to judge. Debating lists exist and have always existed for good reason. But if this wasn’t about debate, the individuals who normally pretend they are objective should be held accountable.
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Michael wrote:
“. . . left-wing bloggers, political reports, etc. and even politicians all seem to agree with each other on almost everything and repeat the same talking points over and over.”
This is funny because in the U.S. this is exactly what the right is always accused of doing. In fact, progressives are always telling themselves, “We should do the same thing.” Maybe they’re finally succeeding!
As for Journolist, I’d never heard of it before. I checked it out but couldn’t get a sense of it right away.
The funny thing is that this does not, as far as I and say Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey know, exist on the right side, while it seems to exist on the left side. In other words, projection perhaps?
Pity. I’d love to know more about this list – if it’s purely debating they could be forthright about this controversy; it’s not doing wonders for their reputation me thinks.
For one week after Obama won the nomination the talking heads hit the talk shows with a unified, single message.
WIN at all costs. NO matter what it takes.
This is why the GOP seems to be in such disarray. They are incessantly pounded by the left in a unified single minded message which seems to make a mockery of the party.
I have noticed this for about 5 years now. The message against Bush became more and more Unified and driven almost daily. The democrats were about winning at all costs and that is precisely I believe why Barak Obama put forth a 1.75 trillion dollar deficit spending budget with everything the Democrats have wanted for years in it and then single handedly and with purpose began “fear mongering” us into compliance.
Just as the GOP and Bush did with Iraq…..The democrats learn well.
I’m not a member of J-List. I’m too small a fish for Ezra and his chums (and I often get the impression some think I’m too much of a loose cannon, too ready to criticize the Dems, Obama and the A-Listers themselves when I think they’re showing tendencies towards kowtowing to establishment-think). I’m not a member of an even larger and more infamous listserv for A-Listers run by Markos either. But I’m a member of more than one listserv which serves as a forum for “thinking out loud” and getting feedback from peers – the results of which often find their way into blog posts. Some of those are “proggie only” because the members don’t want their batting ideas around to descend into flame wars of right and left, others are bipartisan because they want to encourage bipartisan discussion and are willing to take the chance of flame wars. All are “off the record” because they want to encourage members to take intellectual chances they wouldn’t in public forums. Some conservative bloggers are co-listers on one such foreign policy discussion listerv with me, and I’m sure they belong to lists that exclude DFHs like me as well as other bipartisan groups I’ve never been invited to.
Regards, Steve
Michael, you want to bet Ed Morrissey doesn’t belong to more than one rightie-only email group. Say, the Heritage Foundation list, for instance?
Cernig: there’s nothing wrong with such lists – as you know, I’m on at least one of them myself as well – as long as the journalists on a strictly partisan list don’t pretend to be objective to the outside world.
Morrissey is a blogger, not a journalist. IT’s perfectly alright for bloggers to talk about stuff, even among likeminded individuals only. But reporters are different. Or they should be at least.
I agree. I think if you claim to be a reporter, then you should report things as they are and leave opinions out of the equation. Opinions should be left to commentators, bloggers, and other such people who’s job it is to dissect the facts and provide opinions.
And if leftists are coordinating their efforts with the opinions of left leaning bloggers, then it completely destroys the objectivity of a news organization.
I am a right wing conservative Jew… and I make no secret of that. I myself have been quoted in the media more than once, but they made it clear that I was a biased party.
So-called, “independent” news agencies for years has been trashing Fox News as a “biased” news agency, and yet they have the chutzpah to do exactly what they supposedly are against.
I’m never shocked by leftist media sources, but the level of hypocrisy they stoop to is sometimes mind boggling none-the-less.
I am a member. It’s all discussion, no coordination at all.
Right Hilzoy, but if the Fox News reporters or Wall Street Journal writers were caught in a right-wing list like that, discussing the news, etc, with right wing bloggers, the outcry from the left would be deafening.
It’s the hypocrisy that bothers me. The left is always self-immune to criticism, but they show no mercy when they attack the right.
Hmm. Any moderate lists out there?
“if the Fox News reporters or Wall Street Journal writers were caught in a right-wing list like that, discussing the news, etc, with right wing bloggers, the outcry from the left would be deafening.”
How do you know? It’s not at all clear to me that it would. I certainly wouldn’t beat up on anyone for that, assuming there was no attempt to coordinate anything. I mean, the existence of listservs is hardly news, and it would amaze me if there weren’t a right-wing listserv somewhere.
I didn’t say you would–but you are not the leftist media either. The leftist media ALWAYS does such things. It has happened time and time again.
They were the same guys complaining about talk radio being run by the right wing, instead of just admitting to the fact that liberals don’t listen to talk radio.
Liberals are emotional decision makers by and large… they like to be told what to believe. Conservatives on the other hand like to hear point-for-point what the facts are.
You can say I’m wrong all you’d like, but there’s a good reason why TALK radio (you know, the kind where you DISCUSS issues) is LARGELY a conservative enterprise.