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Mar 17 2009, 11:12 am
Several of you have asked me; here's my answer: no -- I'm not one of the privileged reporters/commentators who were asked to join the semi-secret JournoList group. Had no idea it existed until today. Which either makes me clueless, sheltered, an outsider, or privileged, depending upon your point of view.
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Knowing about a couple of these but not a member of any of them (oh my, someone broke the first rule of Fight Club), they're entirely innocuous, exist on both sides (guess Goldfarb's not cool enough to get an invite?), and absolutely not newsworthy. The feigned outrage at National Review (and I expect elsewhere) is hilarious if anticipated. The leftwing conspiracy is obviously orchestrated by a few hundred twenty-somethings over the Internet.
Impressions mean a lot. I thought it was outrageous that Rahm and his former cohorts had frequent conference calls to compare notes. With one being a major network personality (Stephanopolous) it called some credibility into question...on the other hand if I want to know what might be going on in the White House ABC would be the logical place to go.
But now, with this release of information, it would seem that there is something to accusations of collusion by the media. Whether true or not it is not the point, it is the impression of impropriety that looks bad.
I am not naive enough to think journalists don't talk. I used to be a local TV reporter. My wife used to be a local radio reporter. We used to have parties with all of the local media at them. It was what we did when we were young. You can bet there was comparing of notes that went on at these functions. But it wasn't the norm and it wasn't in secret.
Want a real scare...take a look at David Baldacci's new book "Whole Truth" and see what can be done by a few people and the Internet.
One of the most glaring problems in American journalism is groupthink. To create a network that actually facilitates this is appalling.
Yet in a way I'm envious of these club members. It would be fascinating to be privy to the meme formulation and coordination that was obviously going on during the last presidential election cycle -- even if it was unintentional. (I hope one of the list members decides to grow a backbone and publish the emails they received during this period.)
Clearly, it would be a black mark on the integrity of any journalist to be a member of this list. For this reason, the roster of members needs to be exposed to the disinfecting sunshine of public scrutiny. We need to know the names of the journalists we can't trust.