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Different Angles on the Journolist Liberal News Media Collusion Scandal

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:00:59 +0000

The effects of the colluding, corruption and manipulation of the news as a consequence of the Journolist portal are inestimable on multiple levels but clearly will be long lasting. For many, it reinforces the irrelevancy of the mainstream media which is a de facto propaganda arm for liberals and the Democratic Party.

Though we presented a variety of information on this Journolist scandal on July 23rd, the following editorial by Jonah Goldberg adds a different perspective.

Open Conspiracy is No Longer Merely Ajar

Jonah Goldberg

The Journolist has started to leak like an overripe diaper.

Just in case you've been living in a cave, or if you only get your news from MSNBC, here's the story. A young blogger, Ezra Klein, formerly of the avowedly left-wing American Prospect and now with the avowedly mainstream Washington Post, founded the e-mail listserv "Journolist" for like-minded liberals to hash out and develop ideas. Some 400 people joined the by-invitation-only group.

Most, it seems, were in the media, but many hailed from academia, think tanks and the world of forthright liberal activism generally. They spoke freely about their political and personal biases, including their hatred of Fox and Rush Limbaugh, and their utter loyalty to the progressive cause and Democratic success.

That off-the-record intellectual bacchanalia has started to haunt the participants like an inexplicable rash after a wild party during fleet week.

Last month, David Weigel, a young Washington Post blogger hired to report on conservative politics, ostensibly from a sympathetic perspective, left the post thanks to his damning statements on Journolist (conservatives are racists, Rush Limbaugh should die, etc.).

Now the diaper is coming off entirely. Perhaps stretching the diaper metaphor too far, what's inside Journolist may stink, but it's no surprise that it does. Journolist e-mails obtained by The Daily Caller reveal what anybody with two neurons to rub together already knew: Professional liberals don't like Republicans and do like Democrats. They can be awfully smug and condescending in their sense of intellectual and moral superiority. They tend to ascribe evil motives to their political opponents -- sometimes even when they know it's unfair. One obscure blogger insisted that liberals should arbitrarily demonize a conservative journalist as a racist to scare conservatives away from covering stories that might hurt Obama.

Oh, and -- surprise! -- it turns out that the "O" in Journolist stands for "Obama."

In 2008, participants shared talking points about how to shape coverage to help Obama. They tried to paint any negative coverage of Obama's racist and hateful pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as out of bounds. Journalists at such "objective" news organizations as Newsweek, Bloomberg, Time and The Economist joined conversations with open partisans about the best way to criticize Sarah Palin.

Like an Amish community raising a barn, members of the progressive community got together to hammer out talking points. Amidst a discussion of Palin, Chris Hayes, a writer for the Nation, wrote: "Keep the ideas coming! Have to go on TV to talk about this in a few min and need all the help I can get." Time's Joe Klein admitted to his fellow Journolisters that he'd collected the listserv's bric-a-brac and fashioned it into a brickbat aimed at Palin.

Many conservatives think Journolist is the smoking gun that proves not just liberal media bias (already well-established) but something far more elusive as well: the Sasquatch known as the Liberal Media Conspiracy.

I'm not so sure. In the 1930s, The New York Times deliberately whitewashed Stalin's murders. In 1964, CBS reported that Barry Goldwater was tied up with German Nazis. In 1985, the Los Angeles Times polled 2,700 journalists at 621 newspapers and found that journalists identified themselves as liberal by a factor of 3 to 1. Their actual views on issues were far more liberal than even that would suggest. Just for the record, Ezra Klein was born in 1984.

In other words, Journolist is a symptom, not the disease. And the disease is not a secret conspiracy but something more like the "Open Conspiracy" H.G. Wells fantasized about, where the smartest, best people at every institution make their progressive vision for the world their top priority.

As James DeLong, a fellow at the Digital Society, correctly noted on the Enterprise Blog, "The real problem with JournoList is that much of it consisted of exchanges among people who worked for institutions about how to best hijack their employers for the cause of Progressivism."

For a liberal activist that's forgivable, I guess. But academics? Reporters? Editors? Even liberal opinion writers aren't supposed to "coordinate" their messages with the mothership.

The conservative movement at least admits it is a movement (even though conservatives outnumber liberals 2-1 in this country).
Establishment liberalism, not just in the press but also in the White House, academia and Hollywood, holds power by refusing to make the same concession. "This isn't about ideology. ... We just call them like we see them. ... We don't have an agenda."

The open conspiracy that perpetuates that lie is far more pernicious than any chat room.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/07/23/open_conspiracy_is_no_longer_merely_ajar/page/full

Obama’s Multiple Layers of Protection Includes A Corrupt Press

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:05:52 +0000

CNN Anchors Call For A Crackdown on Bloggers (Who Oppose Their Ideology and Agenda)

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:05:08 +0000

If you can stomach the elitist arrogance and condescension exuding in the video below, you will see liberal news media members in action on CNN discussing the "desecration" of the internet caused by bloggers. Not by pornography, hate sites or terrorist created ones. No, blogs that express points of view that are at odds with the far-left, out of touch news media. Just people exercising their rights of free speech, dissemination of information and opinions.

As we discovered with the Journolist scandal, these media members want to completely control the transmission and availability of information ... with a very liberal/progressive angle.

CNN Anchors Call For Crackdown on Bloggers

The News Media’s Double Standard Disease

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:03:30 +0000

Instead of reporting all relevant stories in order to inform the public, the media have become fervent supporters and cheerleaders for Obama and the Democratic Party. Instead of their role as anticipated by the Founding Fathers to protect the people from the government and expose malfeasance, they countenance nearly all behavior by liberal politicians and function as a de facto wing of the Democratic Party – a P.R. one.

This collusion with and protection of the favored Obama and Democrats is corrupt, pernicious and threatens the survival of capitalism and democracy in this country. Unless more Americans wake up to this reality and strongly react, our future looks abysmal.

One-Sidedness Now Epidemic In Newsrooms
By Larry Elder 05/04/2010

Obama Double Standard Disease: an affliction that causes the media to ignore, rationalize or trivialize to defend, support and advance the tax-the-rich, spread-the-wealth, expand-the-government agenda of the president and his party.
This stands in stark contrast with media treatment of those who refuse to embrace the left-wing, America-bullies-world, dissenters-are-racist, pro-amnesty, gay-marriage-is-a-right, pro-Roe worldview.

ODSD is pandemic. Here are just a few cases.

When the economy recovered under President George W. Bush, the major media pronounced it a "jobless recovery." Now, despite unemployment stalled at 9.7% for several months, the same media call it a "surprising" or "unexpected" recovery.

Obama urged passage of an $800 billion "stimulus" package to prevent unemployment from reaching 8%. Post-stimulus passage, unemployment reached 10%. Consider how the media would have treated Bush had he given varying predictions about, and then varying accounts of, the number of jobs supposedly "created or saved" — a laughably unprovable yardstick.

Obama brazenly claims that under his policies, 95% of "working Americans" received a "tax cut." But nearly half of American workers pay absolutely nothing in income taxes. And after exemptions, tax credits and other deductions, the Obama tax cut even exceeded many workers' payroll taxes. How does a check, given to someone who pays little or no taxes, become a "tax cut"?

The National Rifle Association backed the 2000 presidential candidacy of George W. Bush. Describing the organization's relationship with Bush as "unbelievably friendly," an NRA official said a Bush victory would mean "a president where we work out of their office." The media pounced.

Typical of the coverage was a Washington Post article with this headline: "The NRA Brags That They'll Work Out Of President GW Bush's Oval Office." The Post pointed out that the NRA gave more than $500,000 in 1999 and 2000 to the GOP and expected to spend between $12 million and $15 million more on the 2000 election.

The Service Employees International Union, to elect Obama and other Democrats in 2008, spent $85 million. And in support of corporate bailouts, ObamaCare and higher taxes to "spread the wealth differently," SEIU President Andy Stern said, "Western Europe, as much as we used to make fun of it, has made different trade-offs which may have ended with a little more unemployment but a lot more equality."

NBC's Matt Lauer did not ask Obama about the incredible willingness of the SEIU — his biggest financial supporter — to accept fewer jobs for "a lot more equality." CBS' Katie Couric did no story on the union's admission that higher taxes mean fewer jobs. No Washington Post editorial page asked how Stern's "trade-off" of fewer jobs squares with what Obama said about the importance of creating jobs: "That's the single most important thing we can do."

Acorn strongly endorsed Obama. The group's CEO, Bertha Lewis, gave a speech at the winter conference of the Young Democratic Socialists. She said: "Any group that says, 'I'm young, I'm Democratic and I'm a socialist,' is all right with me.

"You know, that's no light thing to do, to actually say, 'I'm a socialist.' ... Right now, we are living in a time which is going to dwarf the McCarthy era. It's going to dwarf the internments during World War II. We are right now in a time that is going to dwarf the era of Jim Crow and segregation.

Did the media ask Obama about Lewis' lunatic attack on those who disagree or about her open embrace of socialism? Did the media ask if Obama cared to comment on his promise, made during the campaign, to allow Acorn to "shape the agenda" of his presidency? Did they ask why Obama dismisses critics who call his agenda "socialism" — even as one of his biggest backers uses that very word?

ODSD ravages the country. It guarantees a pass is given to an administration that refuses to use the term "Islamofascism"; that offends traditional allies like Israel and new ones like Poland and the Czech Republic; that apparently accepts a nuclear Iran; that ignores government's role in the housing meltdown while blaming Wall Street "greed"; and that makes appeals to voters along racial lines.

It means the harmful consequences of the exploding welfare state get ignored, trivialized or disputed. It means "experts" hand-picked by the media overwhelmingly support the administration's income-equality agenda. It means that inconvenient news stories questioning "bigger and better" government or showing another side are downplayed, underreported or dismissed.

The Obama Double Standard Disease is a pre-existing illness — not covered, even under ObamaCare.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532253

Democrats and News Media Intentional Malignment of the Tea Parties: What They Want You To Believe Versus Reality

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:05:42 +0000

Democrats and News Media Intentional Malignment of the Opposition Free Speech Part 2: What They Want You To Believe Versus Reality

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:00:53 +0000

Ideology Blinds The Media

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:05:16 +0000

A New, Bold, Confident and Articulate Conservative: Congressional Candidate Lt. Col. Allen West

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:05:06 +0000

Americans by the millions vehemently oppose what our Federal government is doing to America. Obama and Congressional Democrats are essentially perpetrating a bloodless coup including abrogating many of our rights and freedoms while legislating numerous ways to take more of our hard earned money. Adding insult to injury, they also denigrate us at any opportunity possible.

Such arrogant elitism along with fiscal recklessness and a host of other issues has precipitated the genesis of the Tea Parties, increasingly outraged and vocal opposition by even average Americans who previously had no interest in politics.

Obama, the Democrats and the news media arrogantly portray those Americans who use their democratic First Amendment right to peacefully oppose their radical policies as fringe elements, racists, terrorists and many other derogatory epithets.

We must continue and even elevate the decibel level of discourse and disagreement.

One individual who is garnering increased recognition both in Florida where he is running for Congress and across the country is Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. He is a successful self-made man who is outstanding public speaker - motivating, intelligent, well informed and sincere.

And the antithesis of Obama’s robotic, cold and monotone ones.

Below are two videos of Lt. Col. West in Action. A third video captures the typical media race baiting but with the individual responding with the quintessential answer.

Congressional Candidate Lieutenant Colonel Allen West speaking at the America Freedom Tour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Oct. 21, 2009


Lieutenant Colonel Allen West West Palm Beach Tea Party Speech April 15, 2010

White NBC Reporter Confronts Black Man at Tea Party Rally


Such a question intending to degrade this individual and the Tea Parties is reprehensible and entirely typical of the far-left biased and corrupt news media.

They would never think to ask a white person a similar question if they largely surrounded by  crowds of blacks - it would be considered to be racist. A clear double standard.



How The News Media and Democrats Paint The Tea Parties and Anti-Government Protesters
admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 09:05:59 +0000




America’s New Elitist Ruling Class of Democrats
admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:00:24 +0000
America under Obama is devolving into the Russia of the early 1980’s as most recently evidenced by the audacious and manifestly corrupt passage of the Obamacare legislation which also excludes Obama, members of Congress and their staffs from having to use it. They will continue to have available to them a gold-plated plan with freedom of choice.
The rest of America won’t – we will either have to wait for it or die waiting.
And Obama doesn’t intend to end his pursuit of increasing control and domination by the Federal Government over the lives of us Americans.
America's New Nomenklatura 

Investors Business Daily       03/29/2010
Government: With the passage of health care reform and the ongoing boom in federal hiring, it's becoming increasingly clear that America is now run by a new, privileged class of bureaucrats.
For those who remember the old Soviet Union, it was a grim place — at least for average citizens. But not so for those in government. Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government — the nomenklatura.
This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated federal government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.
Take the just-passed health care bill that carefully excluded the White House, congressional leaders and their staffs from having to live under the reforms' restrictions.
"President Obama will not have to live under the Obama health care reforms, and neither will the congressional staff who helped to write the overhaul," said Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. "The message to the people at the grass roots is that it's good enough for you, but not for us."
The hypocrisy of these officials and the contempt they show for average Americans is bad enough. But Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public can also go to jail or be fined up to $250,000 for not buying insurance. And the government is spending $10 billion to hire 16,500 new IRS agents to make sure they don't escape the new system.
Under current budget plans, this won't end soon. With $45 trillion in new government spending planned over the next decade, this new privileged governing class can only grow.
Today, as we witness a massive shift of resources from the private to the public sector, the only place adding jobs is government. Since the start of last year, the federal government has added 81,000 jobs. By contrast, private-sector payrolls have shed 4.71 million.
Big government is the place to be these days. Federal workers are some of the country's best-paid, earning far in excess of their counterparts in the private sector. A recent report in Politico.com, for example, noted that 2,000 congressional staffers now have incomes in excess of $100,000, and that 43 make the $172,500 maximum.
But the bureaucrats — that silent, permanent government that now exceeds 2.8 million in number — make out just as well.

USA Today recently looked at federal pay vs. private pay in 2008 for specific occupations ranging from airline pilot and cook to computer manager and registered nurse. What they found was more than a little disquieting for those in the private sector.
The average federal worker that year took home on average $67,691 in salary, compared with $60,046 in the private sector — a difference of $7,645. Not that much, you say? Well, that was before benefits are factored.
The average government worker gets a whopping $40,785 a year in health care, pension and other benefits compared to $9,882 for a private worker. The difference in total compensation widens to $38,548 a year — for the same job with the same duties.
Anyone who has visited the slow-moving Post Office, talked to the surly and often hostile IRS agent or even gone to the local DMV to spend time in waiting-room hell can tell you that pay gap doesn't represent productivity, training or ability.
What it does represent is the new Nomenklatura — the privileged apparatchiks who now run our government and with it, sadly, much of our lives. This is very much a result of years of "progressive" thinking that has pushed the Democratic Party sharply leftward across the political spectrum.
Since the Civil War, the so-called Progressive Movement's dream has been to exalt bureaucratic expertise and control over free-market efficiency. With the new administration, their dream has become our nightmare.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=528809