These people lost any creditablity when they did this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1103384/posts In an effort to galvanize the message Kerry wants to deliver in the time remaining, he convened a powerful roster of journalists and columnists in the New York City apartment of Al Franken last Thursday. The gathering could not properly be called a meeting or a luncheon. It was a trial. The journalists served as prosecuting attorneys, jury and judge. The crowd I joined in Franken’s living room was comprised of:
Al Franken and his wife Franni;
Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker;
David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker;
Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine;
Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek;
Jeff Greenfield, senior correspondent and analyst for CNN;
Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times;
Eric Alterman, author and columnist for MSNBC and the Nation;
Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist/author of ‘Maus’;
Richard Cohen, columnist for the Washington Post;
Fred Kaplan, columnist for Slate;
Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate and author;
Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist for Newsweek;
Philip Gourevitch, columnist for the New Yorker;
Calvin Trillin, freelance writer and author;
Edward Jay Epstein, investigative reporter and author;
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who needs no introduction.
We sat in a circle around Kerry and grilled him for two long hours. In an age of retail politicians who avoid substance the way vampires avoid sunlight, in an age when the sitting President flounders like a gaffed fish whenever he must speak to reporters without a script, Kerry’s decision to open himself to the slings and arrows of this group was bold and impressive. He was fresh from two remarkable speeches – one lambasting the PATRIOT Act, another outlining his foreign policy ideals while eviscerating the Bush record – and had his game face on. He needed it, because Eric Alterman lit into him immediately on the all-important issue of his vote for the Iraq War Resolution. The prosecution had begun
I know it sounds all tin-foil hattish and so on, but one of my email addresses was mistakenly added to a mailing list for a "group" that meets regularly in Manhattan. The address apparently resembles one for an actual intended attendee.
Anyway, the mailing list organizer doesn't understand "BCC", and this group includes a number of names I immediately recognized as leading media and political types. Further research showed that they all were such figures. The group meets to discuss various topics that either are or soon become "hot". It's fascinating to get this glimpse of the machinery that manufactures what you hear about via the mainstream press. I have no doubt that this group is merely one of several that do this sort of crossover all the time. In fact, I've long been aware of the "cocktail party" circuit in places like Manhattan and DC, but it's really odd to see it plainly laid out.
There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but do you imagine that reporting and editorial decisions aren't influenced by this sort of thing?