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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JohnWBarber (talk | contribs) at 12:38, 23 July 2010 (→List of members: tweak organization names (mostly move "The" to end of name to help with alphabetical sorting)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

JournoList was a private Google Groups forum for discussing politics and the news media with 400 journalists, academics and others, all with political views ranging from center to left of center. Ezra Klein, an American blogger for the Washington Post and a columnist for Newsweek, created the online forum in February 2007 and shut it down in June 2010. He controlled the forum's membership and limited it to "several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics".[1] Posts within JournoList were intended only be made and read by its members.[2] Klein defended the forum saying that it "[ensures] that folks feel safe giving off-the-cuff analysis and instant reactions".[1]

Descriptions of the group by its members

According to JournoList member Jonathan Chait, "[T]he group as a whole did not jointly participate" in any particular discussion thread. "Almost every discussion was limited to a small percentage of the group that was interested in the topic. Most people ignored most of the topics".[3]

Klein justified excluding conservatives from participation as "not about fostering ideology but preventing a collapse into flame war. The emphasis is on empiricism, not ideology".[4] James Taranto observed that one JournoList contributor, Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent, stated "If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them – Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares –- and call them racists".[5]

JournoList member, and Time magazine columnist, Joe Klein said the off-the-record nature of the forum was necessary because “candor is essential and can only be guaranteed by keeping these conversations private”.[1]

Initial controversies

The existence of JournoList was first publicly revealed in a July 27, 2007 blog post by blogger Mickey Kaus.[6] However, the forum did not attract serious attention until March 17, 2009 when an article was published on Politico that detailed the nature of the forum and the extent of its membership.[1]

The Politico article set off debate within the Blogosphere over the ethics of participating in JournoList and raised questions about its overall purpose. The first public excerpt of a discussion within JournoList was posted by Mickey Kaus on his blog on March 26, 2009.[7]

On June 25, 2010, The Daily Caller published private e-mails from Weigel denigrating conservatives, who he covered for the paper.[8] That same day, Weigel resigned from the Post,[9] and JournoList — the listserv that hosted Weigel's disparaging e-mails — was deleted by Klein.[8] Weigel's resignation caused Klein to decide to terminate the discussion group. On June 25, 2010, Klein announced in his Washington Post blog that he would shortly terminate the JournoList group.[10][11]

On June 29, commentator and Web publisher Andrew Breitbart offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who could provide him with the "full 'JournoList' archive, source fully protected".[12] Brietbart wrote, "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".[12]

July 2010 controversies

On July 20, 2010, The Daily Caller (DC) published the dialog of the JournoList concerning Jeremiah Wright.[13] The contributors discussed killing the Wright story, as it was reflecting negatively on Barack Obama. Michael Tomasky, a writer for The Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks – in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people".[13]

The DC published a story by Jonathan Strong on July 21 about JournoList members wanting the federal government to shut down Fox News. According to Strong, Jonathan Zasloff, a UCLA law professor, wrote that the government should be able to pull the broadcasting license of the cable channel.[14] But Zasloff later said Strong did not correctly characterize his comment, which was "really more of a question than anything else, and nobody really picked up on it. That turns into my demand to shut down Fox News?"[15] The article also reported that one member of the discussion group, Sarah Spitz, a producer for a public affairs radio program at a National Public Radio affiliate station, wrote that she would laugh if she saw conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh have a heart attack in front of her. "On JournoList," according to the DC article, "where conservatives are regarded not as opponents but as enemies, it [the comment] barely raised an eyebrow". On the day Strong's story was published, Spitz apologized for the comment.[16] The article also quoted Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News, comparing members of the Tea Party movement to Nazis. Strong wrote, "In the view of many who’ve posted to the list-serv, conservatives aren’t simply wrong, they are evil".[14]

Tucker Carlson, who edited several of Strong's articles about Journolist, wrote in a July 22 article: "Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too. [...] I’ve been in journalism my entire adult life, and have often defended it against fellow conservatives who claim the news business is fundamentally corrupt. It’s harder to make that defense now. It will be easier when honest (and, yes, liberal) journalists denounce what happened on Journolist as wrong."[17]

Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, discussed JournoList saying, "Yes, there's liberal bias in the media, but there's no conspiracy".[18]

After Klein shut down JournoList, a new group, calling itself "Cabalist" was started by Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic, Michelle Goldberg and Steven Teles. The group, which had 173 members by late July, was made up mostly of former Journolist members. Its existence managed to stay secret for several weeks, until The Atlantic magazine correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg revealed its existence in a blog post on July 21. Goldberg reported that one recent discussion concerned whether or not members should ignore the articles on The Daily Caller website. "In other words, members of Journolist 2.0 were debating whether to collectively respond to a Daily Caller story alleging—inaccurately, in their minds—that members of Journolist 1.0 (the same people, of course) made collective decisions about what to write".[19]

List of members

To use the sortable table, click on the icons at the top of each column to sort that column in alphabetical order; click again for reverse alphabetical order. The default mode orders the list alphabetically by last name. "Employer" columns refer to employers at time of participation in JournoList.

Name Most prominent employer (position) Additional employer, if any
(position) 		Other information
Spencer Ackerman Washington Independent, The [13]
Ben Adler Politico (reporter) Later an editor at Newsweek[20]
Michael Allen Politico (columnist) [1]
Eric Alterman Nation, The City University of New York (professor) [1]
Greg Anrig Century Foundation, The [21]
Dean Baker American Prospect, The [22]
Nick Baumann Mother Jones [20]
Josh Bearman L.A. Weekly [21]
Steven Benen Carpetbagger Report, The [22]
Jared Bernstein Later became an economist
working for Vice President
Joe Biden[13]
Lindsay Beyerstein (blogger) [14]
Michael Berube Crooked Timber blog Pennsylvania State University [22]
Joel Bleifuss In These Times [22]
John Blevins South Texas College of Law (professor) [21]
Sam Boyd American Prospect, The [22]
Rich Byrne playwright freelance writer [23]
Jonathan Chait New Republic, The (senior editor)
Lakshmi Chaudry In These Times [22]
Michael Cohen New America Foundation [20]
Joe Conason New York Observer (columnist) Salon.com (columnist) [13]
Daniel Davies Guardian, The (columnist) [14]
Brad DeLong Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal University of California, Berkeley [22]
Ryan Donmoyer Bloomberg News [21]
Kevin Drum Washington Monthly, The (when list began) [13]
Henry Farrell George Washington University [21]
James Galbraith University of Texas at Austin [22]
Todd Gitlin Columbia University (journalism professor) [13]
Ilan Goldenberg National Security Network, The [22]
Merrill Goozner Chicago Tribune [22]
David Greenberg Slate (contributor) [13]
Robert Greenwald Brave New Films [22]
Christopher Hayes The Nation [13]
Don Hazen Alternet [22]
John Judis New Republic, The (senior editor) [14]
Michael Kazin Georgetown University (law professor) [23]
Ed Kilgore Progressive Policy Institute (senior fellow) FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)[14] Managing editor of The Democratic Strategist, an online forum [24][3]
Richard Kim Nation, The [22]
Mark Kleiman Reality Based Community, The University of California, Los Angeles [22]
Ezra Klein
(no relation to Joe)		 Washington Post (blogger) [1]
Joe Klein
(no relation to Ezra)		 TIME magazine (columnist) [1]
Paul Krugman New York Times (Op-ed columnist) Princeton University (professor) Nobel Prize laureate [1]
Lisa Lerer Politico [1]
Daniel Levy Century Foundation [20]
Alec McGillis Washington Post [21]
Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed [22]
Ari Melber Nation, The [22]
Seth Michaels MYDD.com [21]
Luke Mitchell Harper's magazine (editor) [21]
Gautham Nagesh Daily Caller, The Joined in March 2009 and left in April 2010; later a reporter with The Hill[25]
Susan Nossel Human Rights Watch (chief of operations) [20]
Michael O'Hare University of California, Berkeley (professor) [23]
Rick Perlstein Campaign for America's Future [22]
Harold Pollack University of Chicago [21]
Katha Pollitt Nation, The [13]
David Roberts Grist blog (staff writer) [13]
Alyssa Rosenberg Government Executive [21]
Thomas Schaller Baltimore Sun (columnist) University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor) FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)[13]
Michael Scherer TIME magazine [14]
Mark Schmitt (later executive editor at The American Prospect)[13]
Julie Bergman Sender Balcony Films [22]
Nate Silver FiveThirtyEight.com [26]
Ben Smith Politico [1]
Sarah Spitz KCRW-FM (National Public Radio affiliate station) program "Left, Right & Center" (producer; as of July 2010 a publicity director)[16] After her JournoList comments about Rush Limbaugh were made public,[14] she apologized.[16]
Adele Stan Media Consortium, The [21]
Kate Steadman Kaiser Health News [21]
Jonathan Stein Mother Jones (reporter) [20]
Sam Stein Huffington Post, The (reporter) [25]
Steven Teles Yale University (professor) [21]
Mark Thoma Economist's View, The [22]
Michael Tomasky Guardian, The [13]
Jeffrey Toobin CNN (senior analyst) The New Yorker (staff writer) [1]
Rebecca Traister Salon (columnist) [23]
Cenk Uygur Young Turks, The [22]
Tracy Van Slyke Media Consortium, The [22]
David Weigel Washington Post news blogger
covering the conservative movement		 [27]
Moira Whelan National Security Network [21]
Kai Wright Root, The [22]
Holly Yeager Later associated with Columbia Journalism Review[13]
Rich Yeselson Change to Win labor federation (research coordinator)[28] [3]
Matthew Yglesias [1]
Jonathan Zasloff University of California Los Angeles (law professor) [14]
Julian Zelser CNN (contributor) Princeton University (professor) [23]
Avi Zenilman Politico [20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Michael Calderone (2009-03-17). "JournoList: Inside the echo chamber". The Politico. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  2. ^ JournoList Google Groups.
  3. ^ a b c Chait, Jonathan, ["The Journolist Conspiracy Continues"], The New Republic website, July 20, 2010, retrieved same day. Cite error: The named reference "Journolist Conspiracy Continues" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ OBLIGATORY JOURNOLIST POST., Ezra Klei, March 17, 2009.
  5. ^ James Taranto, 'Call Them Racists', online.wsj.com, July 20, 2010.
  6. ^ Mickey Kaus (2007-07-27). "Educating Ezra Klein". Slate (magazine). Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  7. ^ Mickey Kaus (2009-03-26). "JournoList Revealed! Inside the Secret Liberal Media Email Cabal". Slate (magazine). Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ezra (June 25, 2010). "On Journolist, and Dave Weigel". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Hagey, Keach (June 25, 2010). "David Weigel resigns". Politico. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
  10. ^ Klein, Ezra (June 25, 2010). "On Journolist, and Dave Weigel". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 25, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Keach Hagey, "David Weigel quits – and a debate begins, Politico.com, June 25, 2010. Retrieved 6-27-2010.
  12. ^ a b Brietbart, Andrew, "Reward: $100,000 for Full ‘JournoList’ Archive; Source Fully Protected", June 29, 2010, Big Journalism website, retrieved July 21, 2010
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Jonathan Strong, Documents show media plotting to kill stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, The Daily Caller, July 20, 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Strong, Jonathan, "Liberal journalists suggest government shut down Fox News", July 21, 2010, The Daily Caller, retrieved same day.
  15. ^ Hagey, Keach, "Zasloff responds to Caller story", July 21, 2010, Politico website, retrieved same day.
  16. ^ a b c Gura, David, "Public Radio Publicist Apologizes For Controversial Remarks About Limbaugh", 2:15 p,m., July 21, 2010, "The Two-Way: NPR's News Blog", National Public Radio website, retrieved same day
  17. ^ Carlson, Tucker, "Letter from Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson on The Daily Caller’s Journolist coverage", July 22, 2010, The Daily Caller, retrieved same day
  18. ^ Fred Barnes (2010-07-22). "The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy; Everyone Knew Most of the Press Corps was Hoping for Obama in 2008. Newly Released Emails Show That Hundreds of Them were Actively Working to Promote Him". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
  19. ^ Goldberg, Jeffrey, "Meet the New Journolist, Smaller Than the Old Journolist", blog post, July 21, 2010, The Atlantic website, retrieved same day.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g Strong, Jonathan, When McCain picked Palin, liberal journalists coordinated the best line of attack", July 22, 2010, The Daily Caller, retrieved same day
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Strong, Jonathan, "Obama wins! And Journolisters rejoice", July 21, 2010, The Daily Caller website, retrieved same day
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Baker, Dean, "Journalists Slam ABC Debate Tactics", April 18, 2008, Talking Points Memo, a copy of a petition; Ezra Klein, originator of Journolist, linked to Baker's blog post and wrote that the petition was "a public letter signed by 41 members of Journolist protesting ABC News's conduct during one of the presidential primary debate" (Klein, Ezra, "You shall know them by their work", 9:55 a.m., July 21, 2010), both retrieved July 22, 2010
  23. ^ a b c d e Strong, Jonathan, "Journolisters offended by Keith Olbermann’s ‘misogynistic,’ ‘predictable,’ and ‘pompous’ show", July 23, 2010, The Daily Caller, retrieved same day
  24. ^ Web page titled "Ed Kilgore/Senior Fellow" at the Progressive Policy Institute website, retrieved July 20, 2010
  25. ^ a b Stein, Sam, "Daily Caller Fails To Report That It Too Was Part Of Journolist", July 21, 2010, The Huffington Post, retrieved July 22, 2010
  26. ^ Nate Silver "My Life on the J-List," FiveThirtyEight.com, July 21, 2010, retrieved same day.
  27. ^ Strong, Jonathan, "E-mails reveal Post reporter savaging conservatives, rooting for Democrats", June 25, The Daily Caller, retrieved July 21, 2010
  28. ^ Blog post, "DISPUTATIONS: What If Obama Didn't Need 60 Votes?", October 29, 2009, "The Plank" blog at The New Republic website, retrieved July 21, 2010
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