The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Oh, Joy! Guess What the Journolisters Had to Say About Sarah Palin?

Posted on | July 22, 2010 | 55 Comments

Jonathan Strong is back with more delightful disclosures of progressive groupthink:

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. . . .
The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.
The conversation began with a debate over how best to attack Sarah Palin. “Honestly, this pick reeks of desperation,” wrote Michael Cohen of the New America Foundation in the minutes after the news became public. “How can anyone logically argue that Sarah Pallin [sic], a one-term governor of Alaska, is qualified to be President of the United States? Train wreck, thy name is Sarah Pallin.” . . .
“What a joke,” added Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker. “I always thought that some part of McCain doesn’t want to be president, and this choice proves my point. Welcome back, Admiral Stockdale.” . . .

(For younger readers, that’s a reference to third-party candidate Ross Perot’s not-ready-for-prime-time running mate in 1992.)

Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News who was covering the campaign, sent a quick thought that Palin’s choice not to have an abortion when she unexpectedly became pregnant at age 44 would likely boost her image because it was a heartwarming story.
“Her decision to keep the Down’s baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America, I think,” Donmoyer wrote.
Politico reporter Ben Adler, now an editor at Newsweek, replied, “but doesn’t leaving sad baby without its mother while she campaigns weaken that family values argument? Or will everyone be too afraid to make that point?” . . .

(Paging Dr. Andrew Sullivan, OB-GYN!)

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged [in his message to the list] came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote. And indeed Klein’s article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters.

You can read the whole thing. It has been pointed out that most of the people participating in Journolist were not straight-news reporters. Toobin and Klein are pundits easily recognized as purveyors of liberal arguments. So in a way this is kind of like what might happen if some liberal got hold of Bill Kristol’s e-mail caches from 2002 and tried to portray that as evidence of a Zionist neocon Fox News warmonger conspiracy — “Protocols of the Learned Elders of PNAC.”

Nevertheless, the Daily Caller’s Journolist revelations are valid evidence that the synchronicity of liberal media messaging during the 2008 campaign was not altogether coincidental.

UPDATE: Best Headline of the Day:

Salon Editor-in-Chief Accuses
Conservatives of Distorting Facts, Then
Has to Apologize for Distorting Facts

That shows classic Ace of Spades HQ influence. Not as good as this headline, but still very good. More relevant to Journolist, Ace gets in a couple of shots at Dave Weigel:

When Dave (“Who?”) Weigel wanted to bash conservatives about Palin, he asked why we were freaking out over Joe McGinnis invading her privacy, because “any journalist” would jump at that chance.
See, that’s the problem Dave: No they wouldn’t. How do I know this? Because they haven’t. Bill Clinton’s a big, important figure to write biographies about; how come no one’s renting the apartment across the street from his wink-wink “executive offices” in Harlem and peeking at him to see who visits him?
Same with Hillary. There are a lot of interesting subjects who’d sell a lot of biographies — and for all of them, the lurid promise of exxxtra special access!!! Spy footage!!! would sell even more copies.
So why, Dave, if this is something “all journalists” would jump to do, do they not… actually… do… it?
It’s because you’re wrong. Not “all journalists” would do this about their subjects. Not because they don’t want to sell more books. But because the peer disapproval from their like-minded liberal colleagues discourages them from spying on Hillary Clinton.
And they do it to Palin because none of them care if Palin’s privacy is invaded; in fact, they applaud it. Because she is “The Other.” She is inhuman — and you can treat her worse than an animal.

What Ace is saying — and you should definitely read the whole thing, because I’m hoping for the Ace-o-Lanche here and don’t want to be accused of not throwing the maximum traffic his way — is that there is a partisan double-standard in coverage. That is, in itself, neither new nor shocking. But reporters aren’t forced to confront their own biases because except for The Other (i.e., someone who can be automatically dismissed as a down-the-line Fox News/GOP shill) no one will call bullshit on them.

If all politicians with an “R” beside their names are presumed to be fundamentally illegitimate and unworthy of high office,  that premise supports a syllogism with certain conclusions, including:

  • Covering the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign with the idea of helping the candidate who seemed most able to defeat the Republican in November.
  • Covering the 2008 Republican presidential primary campaign with the idea of helping the candidate who seemed easiest for Democrats to defeat in November.
  • Covering the anti-Palin accusations of ax-grinding Alaska gadfly bloggers (Dennis Zaki, Jesse Griffin, et al.) as if they were legitimate news stories, while attempting to shut down coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
  • Treating the motives of Tea Party activists with an attitude of hostility and suspicion not applied to, inter alia, SEIU.

Again, I say, such behaviors are logical consequences of the premise that the Republican Party is inherently illegitimate. If you are a young liberal whose formative political experiences were the Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 Florida recount, the 2004 “Swift Boat” campaign, etc., then it may be very easy for you to buy into the belief that Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes — the “Right-Wing Noise Machine” — are the only reason Democrats lose elections. And because you don’t ever want those nasty Republicans in charge again, you consider it a matter of humanitarian philanthropy to move heaven and earth to stop Fox News and other conservative voices from influencing the mainstream media narrative.

Thus, the young Journolisters refuse to recognize any basic wrong in their efforts, because to undertake such a reappraisal might lead them to reconsider the validity of their political worldview.

What Ace calls the “Otherization” of conservatives is basic to liberal belief. Remember, I was an ethusiastic partisan Democrat who never questioned that affiliation until I was well into my 30s. Given this personal background, I want to believe that it is possible to change hearts and minds, to persuade Ezra Klein and his smart young friends to re-evaluate their political commitments.

And if they choose instead to remain loyal liberals, then we should emulate Ronald Reagan — another ex-Democrat — in saying that the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they need their heads smashed through a plate-glass window.

Uh, your mileage may vary.

UPDATE II: From the comments, on the “distinction without a difference” between pundits and reporters, which is not fully perceived by many TV viewers:

When Jeffrey Toobin is pontificating on CNN (when he’s not cheating on his wife), my elderly family members view him as another straight news reporter.

Or, at least, as a political analyst, rather than as a partisan hack. And this is an important point about television as a medium. I’ve remarked that the best spokesman the Obama campaign had in 2008 was the Allstate Man. If you don’t get that point, you should read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Meanwhile, Jimmie Bise takes a snapshot of the bleeding mess that is Journolist, and I remind people that “smart” is not a partisan affiliation.

Category: Media Bias, Sarah Palin

Comments

55 Responses to “Oh, Joy! Guess What the Journolisters Had to Say About Sarah Palin?”

  1. Virginia Right! News Hound for 7/22/2010 | Virginia Right!
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 7:04 am

    […] Oh, Joy! Guess What the Journolisters Had to Say About Sarah Palin? […]

  2. The WyBlog
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:31 am

    Thursday Thoughts…

    Speaking of the Lame-Stream Media, another day, another JournoList revelation. The anti-Palin demogoguery was coordinated from the minute John McCain announced her as his running mate. Instead of reporting the facts, reporters went into full-on “campa…

  3. Jim Jamitis
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:52 pm

    It still amazes me that “reporters” who appear at least intelligent enough to learn how to navigate the internet can simultaneously view a one term governor as unqualified to be president whilst casting palm fronds in the path of a less than one term senator who never acted as the chief executive of ANYTHING in his life.

    They are irony personified.

  4. Jim Jamitis
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:52 am

    It still amazes me that “reporters” who appear at least intelligent enough to learn how to navigate the internet can simultaneously view a one term governor as unqualified to be president whilst casting palm fronds in the path of a less than one term senator who never acted as the chief executive of ANYTHING in his life.

    They are irony personified.

  5. Mary Rose
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

    Liberal “journalists” are losers. There really is no other way to say it. They are pathetic parrots who cluck around doing the circle jerk while pretending what they say is important and that people really care.

    When you have an idiot who incites racism by covering his own keister with self-congratulatory baby burp while promoting 1984-style groupthink; you have bigger problems than worrying if your column is going to be noticed by The Nation. You have successfully traveled through the wall that separates reality from Michael Moore fantasy.

    Whenever I think of these idiots, those who promote harassment and character assassination because they forgot that journalist’s job is to report, I think of high school losers who never understood why they were picked on all the time. Who never understood that whining and pushing their constant flow of brain-farts just wasn’t that attractive to the female segment of their classmates. Who never comprehended that focusing constantly on revenge-killings in their stunted world makes for an inability to see truth when it appears as a crowd waving “Taxed Enough Already!” signs.

    I need no further proof that journalism, as I knew it decades ago – is dead. No need to drag the corpse around; although I do admit it is fun to whip out the mirror occasionally to show them their own decay in all its glory.

  6. Mary Rose
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:53 am

    Liberal “journalists” are losers. There really is no other way to say it. They are pathetic parrots who cluck around doing the circle jerk while pretending what they say is important and that people really care.

    When you have an idiot who incites racism by covering his own keister with self-congratulatory baby burp while promoting 1984-style groupthink; you have bigger problems than worrying if your column is going to be noticed by The Nation. You have successfully traveled through the wall that separates reality from Michael Moore fantasy.

    Whenever I think of these idiots, those who promote harassment and character assassination because they forgot that journalist’s job is to report, I think of high school losers who never understood why they were picked on all the time. Who never understood that whining and pushing their constant flow of brain-farts just wasn’t that attractive to the female segment of their classmates. Who never comprehended that focusing constantly on revenge-killings in their stunted world makes for an inability to see truth when it appears as a crowd waving “Taxed Enough Already!” signs.

    I need no further proof that journalism, as I knew it decades ago – is dead. No need to drag the corpse around; although I do admit it is fun to whip out the mirror occasionally to show them their own decay in all its glory.

  7. Mary Rose
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 1:01 pm

    BTW, someone at Ace’s blog commented on the fear that motivates these poseurs. Boy, doesn’t that just go along with the high-school mentality.

    “I neeeeeeeed to be liked! Please like me! Please notice that I hate all the same people you do! Please notice that I, too, make blanket assumptions about ‘The Others’ because we all know how stuuuupid they are! But I’m smart! You’re smart! Here inside our Super Secret Squirrel Hole, we’re ALL smart!”

    My, gosh. Can you see the madness behind their eyes? Creepy and fascinating at the same time.

  8. Mary Rose
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 9:01 am

    BTW, someone at Ace’s blog commented on the fear that motivates these poseurs. Boy, doesn’t that just go along with the high-school mentality.

    “I neeeeeeeed to be liked! Please like me! Please notice that I hate all the same people you do! Please notice that I, too, make blanket assumptions about ‘The Others’ because we all know how stuuuupid they are! But I’m smart! You’re smart! Here inside our Super Secret Squirrel Hole, we’re ALL smart!”

    My, gosh. Can you see the madness behind their eyes? Creepy and fascinating at the same time.

  9. Stinky
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 1:11 pm

    “It has been pointed out that most of the people participating in Journolist were not straight-news reporters.”

    Yes, and Ed Morrissey is one of the people who keep getting hung up on that. News flash to political geeks and beltway insiders: to the vast majority of the population that is a distinction without a difference, and the Journolist members know that. When Jeffrey Toobin is pontificating on CNN (when he’s not cheating on his wife), my elderly family members view him as another straight news reporter.

  10. Stinky
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 9:11 am

    “It has been pointed out that most of the people participating in Journolist were not straight-news reporters.”

    Yes, and Ed Morrissey is one of the people who keep getting hung up on that. News flash to political geeks and beltway insiders: to the vast majority of the population that is a distinction without a difference, and the Journolist members know that. When Jeffrey Toobin is pontificating on CNN (when he’s not cheating on his wife), my elderly family members view him as another straight news reporter.

  11. Andrew Sullivan
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 1:39 pm

    We will destroy her. I live for it.

  12. Andrew Sullivan
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 9:39 am

    We will destroy her. I live for it.

  13. News that isn’t news « The Tiger on Politics
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 9:43 am

    […] Actually, there’s one more thing. Robert Stacy McCain points it out — Republicans are viewed as inherently […]

  14. section9
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 9:53 am

    Methinks this is only the appetizer, the bon bon that Tucker and Strong have rolled out. Now that they have a Palin headliner, they are guaranteed more hit count and more anticipation for tomorrow’s Palin story.

    Basically, I suspect that this will all confirm Ziegler’s General Unified Theory of Palin Hate when applied to the Media. The hairsplitting that Morrissey applied in his post over at HA doesn’t really make sense, given the fact that the opinion interchange between Opinion Journalists and regular beat scribes is an established fact that you, Stacy, have probably seen up close. They were all going to take her down if they could.

    Ziegler wasn’t exactly the best messenger, but he was among the first to come up with it. Still and all, the fact that Sarah Palin is the Leader of the Opposition today is a testament to her strength of character, not their weakness and craven duplicity.

  15. section9
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 1:53 pm

    Methinks this is only the appetizer, the bon bon that Tucker and Strong have rolled out. Now that they have a Palin headliner, they are guaranteed more hit count and more anticipation for tomorrow’s Palin story.

    Basically, I suspect that this will all confirm Ziegler’s General Unified Theory of Palin Hate when applied to the Media. The hairsplitting that Morrissey applied in his post over at HA doesn’t really make sense, given the fact that the opinion interchange between Opinion Journalists and regular beat scribes is an established fact that you, Stacy, have probably seen up close. They were all going to take her down if they could.

    Ziegler wasn’t exactly the best messenger, but he was among the first to come up with it. Still and all, the fact that Sarah Palin is the Leader of the Opposition today is a testament to her strength of character, not their weakness and craven duplicity.

  16. Dave C
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:03 pm

    General Unified Theory of Palin Hate..

    That’s good. I’m borrowing that.

  17. Dave C
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:03 am

    General Unified Theory of Palin Hate..

    That’s good. I’m borrowing that.

  18. Ben (The Tiger)
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:19 pm

    It never even occurred to me before I turned 23 that Republicans were anything but a bunch of evil, evil people. Conservative Republicans, even worse.

    (How I squared that with my generally kindly views of the presidents of my childhood, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, I do not know. Still, there it was.)

  19. Ben (The Tiger)
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:19 am

    It never even occurred to me before I turned 23 that Republicans were anything but a bunch of evil, evil people. Conservative Republicans, even worse.

    (How I squared that with my generally kindly views of the presidents of my childhood, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, I do not know. Still, there it was.)

  20. keyboard jockey
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:31 pm

    This is what passes for Journalism in America Today?

    There is a poop test “Sinkers or Floaters”

    I vote Sinkers.

  21. keyboard jockey
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:31 am

    This is what passes for Journalism in America Today?

    There is a poop test “Sinkers or Floaters”

    I vote Sinkers.

  22. Polichinello
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:51 pm

    Further on the opinion writer distinction, when you read an opinion journalist’s column, aren’t you supposed to be read his opinion and not a party line? It might not be an ethical violation on the lines of outright plagiarism, but there’s a still a problem.

  23. Polichinello
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:51 am

    Further on the opinion writer distinction, when you read an opinion journalist’s column, aren’t you supposed to be read his opinion and not a party line? It might not be an ethical violation on the lines of outright plagiarism, but there’s a still a problem.

  24. Andrew Sullivan
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:53 pm

    I know more about Sarah Palin’s hootchie and her daugher’s son Trig than anyone. Even Sarah and Bristol Palin and the Johnston family who are in denial about the truth about Trig.

  25. Andrew Sullivan
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:53 am

    I know more about Sarah Palin’s hootchie and her daugher’s son Trig than anyone. Even Sarah and Bristol Palin and the Johnston family who are in denial about the truth about Trig.

  26. Dave C
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 3:23 pm

    Wasn’t Helen Thomas a columnist (toward the time of her demise) who sat in the front row of the White House Press briefings?

  27. Dave C
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 11:23 am

    Wasn’t Helen Thomas a columnist (toward the time of her demise) who sat in the front row of the White House Press briefings?

  28. SteveM
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

    >”It has been pointed out that most of the people participating in Journolist were not straight-news reporters.”

    That’s true.

    Some of them were professors of journalism at Columbia University.

  29. SteveM
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 11:25 am

    >”It has been pointed out that most of the people participating in Journolist were not straight-news reporters.”

    That’s true.

    Some of them were professors of journalism at Columbia University.

  30. The JournoList Diaries, Day 3: JournoListers Discover Hentai, Fail at Geek.
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

    […] Japanese tentacle porn correctly. Sheesh. And they call themselves elite.UPDATE: Stacy’s massive post on the newest revelations is a must-read. No Japanese tentacles are involved. /**/ Tags: JournoList, Media Bias, Random […]

  31. Charles Johnson
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 4:36 pm

    I joined the He Man Palin Haters club and I like it.

    And I denounce myself as a raaaaacist for borrowing from that white supremacist Hal Roach.

  32. Charles Johnson
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:36 pm

    I joined the He Man Palin Haters club and I like it.

    And I denounce myself as a raaaaacist for borrowing from that white supremacist Hal Roach.

  33. Keith Olbermann
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 4:38 pm

    I sirs am also a member of the He Man Palin Haters Club. And I must say I find being around Andrew and Charles quite stimulating.

  34. Keith Olbermann
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

    I sirs am also a member of the He Man Palin Haters Club. And I must say I find being around Andrew and Charles quite stimulating.

  35. smitty
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

    Hey, let’s cut the Stockdale bashing, RSM.
    That man, if anything, had too much sack for public office.

  36. smitty
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 12:51 pm

    Hey, let’s cut the Stockdale bashing, RSM.
    That man, if anything, had too much sack for public office.

  37. Another (Non) Shocker: Documents Reveal Journalists Conpiring to Derail Palin Fall of 2008 « Nice Deb
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 1:10 pm

    […] The Other McCain Oh, Joy! Guess What the Journolisters Had to Say About Sarah Palin? […]

  38. slarrow
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 6:48 pm

    I liked the conclusion about the AllState man. I’ve said for two years that Barack Obama didn’t run for the job of president, he auditioned for the role. That’s the way he planned his campaign, and that’s how the American public reacted. They thought they were getting President Palmer, and in a way they did. That is, they got someone who looked a lot better reading lines than he did doing real work.

  39. slarrow
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

    I liked the conclusion about the AllState man. I’ve said for two years that Barack Obama didn’t run for the job of president, he auditioned for the role. That’s the way he planned his campaign, and that’s how the American public reacted. They thought they were getting President Palmer, and in a way they did. That is, they got someone who looked a lot better reading lines than he did doing real work.

  40. Thrasymachus
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 7:16 pm

    Admiral Stockdale may not have been Mr. Smooth TV Debate Guy but he was a giant of a man far more qualified to be Vice President or even President than anybody running that year, and way past his former subordinate John McCain.

  41. Thrasymachus
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 3:16 pm

    Admiral Stockdale may not have been Mr. Smooth TV Debate Guy but he was a giant of a man far more qualified to be Vice President or even President than anybody running that year, and way past his former subordinate John McCain.

  42. Rich Fader
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:55 pm

    My impression of Stockdale from what I’ve read and heard about him is that, well, that night at the debate was not a fair representation of his talents.

    I saw an item on this on FR while I was waiting to renew my license at the DMV and, well…that e-mail digest merely makes official what was fairly obvious, unofficially, to anybody paying a bit of attention to the ’08 campaign. Bastards.

    As to the straight news/opinion divide, I am neither a lawyer nor a journalist, but I thought even the opinion guys were supposed to have a reasonable concern about whether they had the facts straight before they went popping off.

  43. Rich Fader
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

    My impression of Stockdale from what I’ve read and heard about him is that, well, that night at the debate was not a fair representation of his talents.

    I saw an item on this on FR while I was waiting to renew my license at the DMV and, well…that e-mail digest merely makes official what was fairly obvious, unofficially, to anybody paying a bit of attention to the ’08 campaign. Bastards.

    As to the straight news/opinion divide, I am neither a lawyer nor a journalist, but I thought even the opinion guys were supposed to have a reasonable concern about whether they had the facts straight before they went popping off.

  44. Bob Belvedere
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:00 pm

    I second Smitty’s remarks: please leave CMOH awardee and philosopher Stockdale out of this.

  45. Bob Belvedere
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 6:00 pm

    I second Smitty’s remarks: please leave CMOH awardee and philosopher Stockdale out of this.

  46. JournoList: Aiding and Abetting THE Narrative – UPDATED « Obi’s Sister
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 6:54 pm

    […] on JournoList’s hyperventalation over McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. Stacy comments further on the suspicious “synchronicity of liberal media […]

  47. Estragon
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 6:01 am

    Well, Stockdale certainly had a record of achievement, leadership, and courage that far exceeds the sum total of achievements by Obama, Biden, and both Clintons put together.

    As far as the hope of redemption for “Ezra Klein and his smart young friends,” I wouldn’t hold my breath. They aren’t bedazzled by rhetoric or emotion into believing false things, they know darned well what they advocate cannot stand truthful scrutiny and that’s why they conspire to derail that scrutiny, just as the climate fakers had to “hide the decline” which called into question their whole premise.

    They can never be persuaded, they can only be defeated again and again until they slink back under their rocks.

  48. Estragon
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:01 am

    Well, Stockdale certainly had a record of achievement, leadership, and courage that far exceeds the sum total of achievements by Obama, Biden, and both Clintons put together.

    As far as the hope of redemption for “Ezra Klein and his smart young friends,” I wouldn’t hold my breath. They aren’t bedazzled by rhetoric or emotion into believing false things, they know darned well what they advocate cannot stand truthful scrutiny and that’s why they conspire to derail that scrutiny, just as the climate fakers had to “hide the decline” which called into question their whole premise.

    They can never be persuaded, they can only be defeated again and again until they slink back under their rocks.

  49. Randy Rager
    July 24th, 2010 @ 1:41 am

    Keep trying to downplay it. Your every attempt is just fuel to the fire.

    Ye Gads, but you Leftwingnuts are fucking idiots! Are you capable of thinking past the end of your wee little noses, or does the concept of “actions have consequences” COMPLETELY escape you?

  50. Randy Rager
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 9:41 pm

    Keep trying to downplay it. Your every attempt is just fuel to the fire.

    Ye Gads, but you Leftwingnuts are fucking idiots! Are you capable of thinking past the end of your wee little noses, or does the concept of “actions have consequences” COMPLETELY escape you?

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