Breitbart offers $100,000 for full JournoList archive
I love Andrew Breitbart.
[I]n the interests of journalistic transparency, and to offer the American public a unique insight in the workings of the Democrat-Media Complex, I'm offering $100,000 for the full "JournoList" archive, source fully protected. Now there's an offer somebody can't refuse.If you aren't familiar with JournoList, read Michael Calderone's background story.
Yes, the mainstream media that came together to play up the false allegations that the "N-Word" was hurled 15 times by Tea Party participants at the Congressional Black Caucus outside the Capitol the day before the "Obamacare" vote, is the same MSM that colluded to make sure the American public accepted the smear, and refused to show the exculpatory videos that disproved the incendiary charges of Tea Party racism.
Ezra Klein's "JournoList 400" is the epitome of progressive and liberal collusion that conservatives, Tea Partiers, moderates and many independents have long suspected and feared exists at the heart of contemporary American political journalism. ...
The "JournoList" is the story: who was on it and which positions of journalistic power and authority do they hold? Now that the nature and the scope of the list has been exposed, I think the public has a right to know who shapes the big media narratives and how. ...
Like a ventriloquist's dummy, the reporters on the listserv mimicked the talking points invented and agreed upon by the intellectuals who were invited to the virtual cocktail party that was Klein's "JournoList." ...
The fact that 400 journalists did not recognize how wrong their collusion, however informal, was shows an enormous ethical blind spot toward the pretense of impartiality. As journalists actively participated in an online brainstorming session on how best to spin stories in favor of one party against another, they continued to cash their paychecks from their employers under the impression that they would report, not spin the agreed-upon "news" on behalf of their "JournoList" peers.
The American people, at least half of whom are the objects of scorn of this group of 400, deserve to know who was colluding against them so that in the future they can better understand how the once-objective media has come to be so corrupted and despised.
We want the list of journalists that comprised the 400 members of the "JournoList" and we want the contents of the listserv. Why should Weigel be the only person exposed and humiliated?
I therefore offer the sum of $100,000 to the person who provides the full "JournoList" archive. We will protect that person's privacy and identity forever. No one will ever know who became $100,000 richer - and did the right thing, morally and ethically - by shining the light of truth on this seamy underworld of the media.
$100,000 is not a lot to spend on the Holy Grail of media bias when there is a country to save.
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. ...Ezra Klein, the founder of JournoList, closed it down last week after someone leaked postings by Dave Weigel bashing conservatives and calling, among other things, for Matt Drudge to set himself on fire. But Weigel was probably one of the more conservative members of the all-liberal group.
But some of the journalists who participate in the online discussion say - off the record, of course - that it has been a great help in their work. On the record, The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged that a Talk of the Town piece - he won't say which one - got its start in part via a conversation on JournoList. And JLister Eric Alterman, The Nation writer and CUNY professor, said he's seen discussions that start on the list seep into the world beyond.
"I'm very lazy about writing when I'm not getting paid," Alterman said. "So if I take the trouble to write something in any detail on the list, I tend to cannibalize it. It doesn't surprise me when I see things on the list on people's blogs."
Last April, criticism of ABC's handling of a Democratic presidential debate took shape on JList before morphing into an open letter to the network, signed by more than 40 journalists and academics - many of whom are JList members.
But beyond these specific examples, it's hard to trace JList's influence in the media, because so few JListers are willing to talk on the record about it.
I hope someone takes Breitbart up on his offer. Finding out what media members really think and how they coordinate to create narratives favoring their biases would offer stunning proof of what believers in limited government already know.
