Patterico's Pontifications

3/26/2009

JournoList Revealed!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:45 pm



Mickey Kaus goes inside JournoList and reveals a set of messages from the secret and elite cabal. Shockingly, the participants sound like a bunch of fighting morons, just like everyone else on the Internet, with feverish e-mails bearing sober subject lines like: “BREAKING: Marty Peretz is a Crazy-Ass Racist.”

I have to admit, though, that I got a Very Special Chuckle when I read this line:

Everyone I know who likes Olbermann also acknowledge that he is egomaniacal and has a penchant for hysterical drama. The main difference, which is glaringly left out by anyone who conflates him with the Savages and O’Reillys of the world, is that Olbermann doesn’t tend to, you know, lie about stuff regularly.

Oh, man.

It’s glaring!

Read it all, and revel in how familiar and idiotic it all sounds.

UPDATE: Did the JournoList Leaker Violate the Privacy of List Members?

54 Responses to “JournoList Revealed!”

  1. Unbelievable. I just got done reading that thread and making another comment here and click back th the main page here and see this.

    The comments about about how most of them don’t think much of Olbermann’s intellectual abilities – what a shock – except they wouldn’t admit that in a public forum.

    I loved the comments about how their threads disintegrate into the equivalent of a high school locker room conversation – way to go liberal media elite – our Illuminati.

    TOO FUNNY!!!

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  2. Jesus, could there be a bigger cabal of self absorbed assholes in existence outside of the Obama Administration? It appears so.

    I wasn’t aware that my opinion of “journlists” could sink any lower than it already has attained, but this little insight has brought them to a level slightly above child rapists but lower than Cynthia McKinney

    thegreatsatan (180095)

  3. Great minds ! I’m awed.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  4. I noticed a lot of Jooz on that list.
    Be careful out there.

    PC14 (82e46c)

  5. Whats so shocking to me is that people with such small minded “world views” are trusted as arbiters of the “news”. I mean honestly, I found nothing racist in Marty Peretz comments. Anyone who has spent considerable time on the border or in a border state knows most of what he said to be pretty much factual. I guess “speaking truth to power” only works when its lefties making the charge.

    Still, its simply astonishing that these people are held in high regard by anyone. This level of discourse is right on par with what you would read at Democratic Underground or Free Republic.

    Perhaps US Magazine can do a feature on Journalists, they’re just like us!

    thegreatsatan (180095)

  6. You do realize that it was a complete coincidence that Matthew Yglesias spent time and effort debunking the ‘fake’ Chinese-Russian currency story… While at the same time Timothy Geitner was commenting on said story. Right?

    linky

    carlitos (efdd90)

  7. That was eye-opening. I hadn’t thought too much about the story because I had always assumed there was some coordination. Too many simultaneous talking-point driven articles.

    But the core of the matter is: TNR is a really first rate liberal magazine, especially in the last decade or so, so it’s disappointing that also have to run crude ethnocentric articles by Peretz.
    When The American Spectator or National Review run frothing-at-the-mouth xenophobic articles, no one here notices because we don’t expect any better from them. But TNR is one of the two or three most important liberal magazines in American history, so it matters what they publish.

    Is the TNR they’re talking about the same one that published the Beauchamp fairytales? Because we kept getting told how conservative The New Republic was since they supported the Iraq War at first (or something like that). Then they would claim that something that actually came from The National Review was written by The New Republic to show how conservative it was. How can the magazine of Glass and Beauchamp be “one of the two or three most important liberal magazines in American history”?

    Stashiu3 (460dc1)

  8. For some reason I thought they’d snappier, smarter, even wittier…

    Dana (137151)

  9. Racists

    JD (48e0d5)

  10. “For some reason I thought they’d snappier, smarter, even wittier…”

    Dana – Like they are in real life? Dana, are you drunk blogging again?

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  11. Dana – Like a bad sitcom, only worse?

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  12. “BREAKING: Marty Peretz is a Crazy-Ass Racist.”

    “Racist” has been so overused and often so misapplied by the left over the decades that it really doesn’t mean diddly-squat any longer.

    …Olbermann doesn’t tend to, you know, lie about stuff regularly.

    Since when have quite a few liberals been all that bothered by dishonesty? Moreover, they often have a tough time recognizing lies or truths, or all too easily end up transposing or twisting the two. Hardly surprising since they operate on the principle of “I feel, therefore I am,” so when truth gets in the way of how they feel, they can’t help but proclaim: to hell with truth and honesty.

    Mark (411533)

  13. Daley, you found me out: Cocktail Conservative!

    “When The American Spectator or National Review run frothing-at-the-mouth xenophobic articles, no one here notices because we don’t expect any better from them. But TNR is one of the two or three most important liberal magazines in American history, so it matters what they publish. “

    See, they were so impressed with themselves, I thought for sure I would be too. Disappointment. Sigh. Sip. Repeat.

    Dana (137151)

  14. carlitos @7 – Yeah, it’s a good thing there wasn’t THAT much groupthink going on in that thread. I mean they did quibble over who should be in their group and whether certain people on their own side were getting trashed too much. Double Heh!!

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  15. Cocktails! Sigh.

    nk (c90ef8)

  16. The Olbermann stuff is great. It’s like that clip out today of him with Howard Dean, a model of civility itself, telling Olby that it’s not right to call the President a fascist, it’s disrespectful. Olbermann, who has just spent the past several years doing just that to Bush looks like a whipped dog.

    Olbermannwatch.com has the video cut with Keith calling Bush a fascist in numerous appropriate spots. Good thing Keith just rips and reads from Media Matters instead of Journolist.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  17. Speaking of cocktails, there’ll be a chilly frisson at certain Washington/NY cocktail parties because of this . . . The scene between Chris Hayes and Marty Peretz would be most amusing to watch.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  18. Stashiu #8,

    The fact that the magazine was partially founded by Walter Lippmann makes it one of the most important liberal magazines of the 20th century.

    The fact that they, like many newspapers and magazines, have been manipulated by liars is a stain on their record, but it doesn’t negate the fact that they are a truly liberal magazine. Unlike The Nation which is a socialist magazine.

    Under Peter Beinart, the editor who pushed for support of the Iraq war, the magazine was very much a center left magazine. Only those on the far left thought of the magazine as a conservative publication. Beinart was an editor who had a great deal of integrity as an editor and an individual. He came to view his support of the Iraq war, or at least his reasons for supporting it in the first place, to have been in error. Unlike Michael Lind, Beinart didn’t have to change his underlying logic to change his support of a particular type of war. For Beinart the war was dependent on the supposition that Iraq had nuclear potential, his magazine was very specific on what they believed constituted WMDs.

    Michael Lind, on the other hand, wrote a book critical of opponents of the Vietnam war that book was essentially a defense of Clinton’s use of the military during his Presidency. The logic of Lind’s argument could easily be applied to Iraq, but Lind abandoned his own underlying logic in order to say what he as a “good liberal” was supposed to say.

    I doubt that The New Republic would claim to be conservative, save during the Andrew Sullivan tenure. Certainly not under the Beinart tenure. He merely desired to have a liberal magazine that didn’t mimic the party line because it was the party line.

    Unlike the JournoLists.

    Christian (6b8354)

  19. Thanks Christian, the people who were defending Beauchamp frequently said that he must be telling the truth since a conservative magazine like TNR would not publish something critical of the Iraq War unless it was true. The Journolist quote was just the first time I’ve seen liberals admit that TNR was a liberal magazine. It’s not something I really believed though (along with the Beauchamp nonsense), sorry if I gave that impression. Good info on the history, I appreciate it.

    Stashiu3 (460dc1)

  20. They’re just regular people who think they’re smarter than anyone else because they have jobs that pay them a lot of money for their work and opinions.

    And they need others to tell them how smart they are.

    And, I’ll give them credit. They found a way to make their money by discrediting a system that makes them money while they can be considered the smartest people in the world.

    I could have joined the same bandwagon. Well, that’s not true, I did join that bandwagon for awhile until I couldn’t stomach the hypocrosy.

    And, they are rich and I’m just a guy. I didn’t go to the right school and they are, indeed, more clever than I am. They understand the media and can work it much better than I ever could.

    So, I celebrate their success, because that’s the way it should be. I would be no better than they are if I didn’t. But, I don’t trust them. Not for a minute.

    Ag80 (d205da)

  21. I did join that bandwagon for awhile until I couldn’t stomach the hypocrosy.

    Integrity and being able to live with oneself – that’s what separates you from them.

    Dana (137151)

  22. These are not journalists exchanging notes or developing sources, but radical activists smearing people for fun. The whole transcript is a horror. Every publication that employs these sociopaths deserves to go bankrupt.

    Official Internet Data Office (cbf26d)

  23. So, I celebrate their success, because that’s the way it should be.

    I hope they fail.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  24. Dana:

    Thanks. I do appreciate that. But there’s a point that I want to emphasize from my previous post:

    They really are smart, very smart people. They are much more successful than I have ever been. They’ve made connections and succeeded in ways that I can only dream of.

    They know how to craft a message to attain their goals. And I, sincerely, give them credit for being able to do so.

    However, I do have the satisfaction that if things go the way they hope, they will be first to be sacrificed on the altar of truth.

    Ag80 (d205da)

  25. Bro said:

    I hope they fail.

    I know where you’re coming from, and I agree that I hope they fail.

    But I wouldn’t be a good conservative if I didn’t believe that they should reap the benefits of the marketplace of free ideas.

    Ag80 (d205da)

  26. Well, crap, substitute “ideals” for “ideas.”

    Ag80 (d205da)

  27. “Integrity and being able to live with oneself – that’s what separates you from them.”

    Amen Dana.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  28. Ag80,

    At a time when journalism needs more than ever to prove its worth to society, they have brought discredit to journalism. With a glaring lack of respect for facts, they have pursued their personal agendas and narrow self-interest. They brought journalism to its present ridiculous state.

    For journalism to succeed, they must fail.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  29. Ag80,
    But I wouldn’t be a good conservative if I didn’t believe that they should reap the benefits of the marketplace of free ideas.

    As a good Libertarian I agree with that. And depite that success, they have done a pretty good job of running down their value in that marketplace. So despite their past success, they are scared.

    They are scared their time is coming to an end. They blame the Web, they blame Craig Newmark, they blame Google, they blame Rush . . . anybody but themselves for their own decline.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  30. Bro said:

    At a time when journalism needs more than ever to prove its worth to society, they have brought discredit to journalism. With a glaring lack of respect for facts, they have pursued their personal agendas and narrow self-interest. They brought journalism to its present ridiculous state.

    For journalism to succeed, they must fail.

    That’s a lesson they have to learn.

    And they haven’t, because, in some respects you see it every day. Right now the government is considering how to rescue an old way of communication to maintain it’s hold on the American public.

    But, these individuals have managed to be “successful” or “important” in the national conversation and I can’t deny their success.

    Again, they are reaping rewards from a system they condemn.

    I hope they fail as much as you do, but I can’t deny them success if they do win because they will ultimately fail in the long run.

    Ag80 (d205da)

  31. Bro:

    We cross-posted, but I think we agree.

    Ag80 (d205da)

  32. Wonkette says:
    So, it’s just a bunch of libtard bloggers emailing each other in the lonesome night, with occasional complaints about how Marty Peretz does not care for these Mexicans, and Eric Alterman is …. well, exactly like he is in his public writings.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  33. Pardon me for the vulgarism, but this group seems to me to be a representation of a circle jerk of fourteen-year-old girls, if such a thing were to exist.

    JVW (bff0a4)

  34. The main difference, which is glaringly left out by anyone who conflates him with the Savages and O’Reillys of the world, is that Olbermann doesn’t tend to, you know, lie about stuff regularly.

    No, the main difference is that Olbermann describes himself as a news reporter and MSNBC assigns him to its news desk on their election and campaign coverage.

    The lunatic Savage and occasionally lunatic O’Reilly make no pretense about their objectivity.

    And it’s good to know that Eric Altermann is the same charming fellow behind closed doors as he is in the public.

    SteveMG (155198)

  35. I’m not getting the joke, and I think it’s an unfortunate choice for Kaus to have published this obvious parody, and for Patterico to have fallen for —

    No. Really? I mean, well, wow.

    Joel Rosenberg (677e59)

  36. Dennis Miller told a story on the radio about an editor who told his reporter to go down to City Hall and cover “the dog and pony show”, meaning the City Council meeting. Well, she did, and when nobody would tell her where the dog and pony show was, no matter how many times and how many people she asked, she made a scene over the City’s locking out the press.

    nk (c90ef8)

  37. blame the Web, they blame Craig Newmark

    Bradley, that’s the greatest irony I’ve found among their long list of whines; Newmark’s about as close to an honest – to – God socialist you’re ever going to find in a capitalistic system. The man developed a brilliantly effective technology and structure, made it easily accessible to the masses for a mere penance (as compared to newspapers), and resists any and all attempts to overtly commercialize his product. Not only that, but he spurns billion – dollar offers to buy his company annually, and contributes millions of his own personal wealth to progressive causes.

    Dmac (49b16c)

  38. Just more evidence that the Media is filled with idiots that pee in their own rice bowl.

    PCD (02f8c1)

  39. Journalists complaining about having their privacy violated?

    Irony is NOT dead!

    mojo (8096f2)

  40. Two points.

    First, based on these emails, I think you can safely refute the meme that Journo List is an echo chamber. To the extent I have implied otherwise in prior posts on this or other sites, I was in error.

    Second, if Journo List turned into an echo chamber, it would be an improvement. It really is jarring to see a large collection of highly educated people, who have written lengthy polemics on this issue or that (some of which I have even read) babbling like a bunch of cliquish Junior High Schoolers (one of the Journo List commentators even noted this explicitly). Very illumniating.

    Sean P (e57269)

  41. The original quote from Peretz that got them going was the following. Sure, he strayed from liberal orthodoxy, but is this racist?

    “Well, I am extremely pessimistic about Mexican-American relations,
    not because the U.S. had done anything specifically wrong to our
    southern neighbor but because a (now not quite so) wealthy country has
    as its abutter a Latin society with all of its characteristic
    deficiencies: congenital corruption, authoritarian government,
    anarchic politics, near-tropical work habits, stifling social mores,
    Catholic dogma with the usual unacknowledged compromises, an anarchic
    counter-culture and increasingly violent modes of conflict.

    carlitos (cfbec1)

  42. Well, it’s racist to point out their deficiencies.

    AD - RtR/OS (0053b8)

  43. carlitos – Criticizing brown people is racist under our new liberal overlords as is supporting the Jooooos in Israel, which is an implied criticism of the Muslims who have sworn to wipe them from the face of the earth.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  44. Reading it again, I think Peretz’ comment is not only fairly applied to Mexico, but to Chicago city government as well. Alas, those corrupt Catholic authoritarians with near-tropical work habits are mostly Irish.

    carlitos (cfbec1)

  45. I’m just waiting for a troll to jump in here and call Carlitos a self – loathing Hispanic. I’m about 99% Irish, and could not agree more with your statement – I’ve always told my friends that the main reason why I stopped celebrating St. Paddy’s (aside from the Amateur Hour here on the North Side) is that every day in Chicago is St. Patrick’s day – a permanent holiday for the drunk and shiftless city workers we’ve all come to know over the decades. Erin go Braugh, my arse.

    Dmac (49b16c)

  46. How do you say “Si, se puede” in Irish?

    Remember Teddy Kennedy singing “Que Lindo es Jaliso?” “y todo Jalisco es mi Guadalajaaaaaaraaaa!” It was brutal, but to his credit, Teddy actually seemed to know the words and the tune by heart. I have to find that and make it my ringtone – going to Jalisco next week. (Yes, JD, there will be carne asada)

    carlitos (cfbec1)

  47. DMac, “shiftless” = racist. Just a heads up 🙂

    carlitos (cfbec1)

  48. “Alas, those corrupt Catholic authoritarians with near-tropical work habits are mostly Irish.”

    carlitos – I was frequently around for city building and department of health inspections. It was amazing how easily some of those “violations” could disappear if you spoke the right language, you know, Grant, Jackson, Benjamin. It’s been a few years since I shadowed one, but the last one I did, probably around 2003 or 2004 it did seem like some reform was coming through since the inspectors did not have their hands blatantly held out. I prolly scared ’em.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  49. “every day in Chicago is St. Patrick’s day – a permanent holiday for the drunk and shiftless city workers”

    Dmac – I agree with carlitos. That terminology is not politically correct. Henceforth please refer to those people as the CIA – Catholic Irish Alcoholics. People will understand what you mean.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  50. How do you say “Si, se puede” in Irish?

    Hmmm, not sure, my Gaelic’s fairly terrible. But you could get away with saying Pug Mahone (“kiss my arse”) to almost any query – particularly after you’ve been taking the piss on (getting stinking drunk).

    Question: what’s an Irish 7 – course meal?
    Answer: a six – pack and a potato. (rim shot)

    Dmac (49b16c)

  51. Question: what’s an Irish 7 – course meal?
    Answer: a six – pack and a potato. (rim shot)

    Fixed that for you!

    carlitos (cfbec1)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1087 secs.