POLITICO on Journolist (Ben Smith)

Politico ^ | July 21, 2010 | Ben Snith

[Red Steel]

I was surprised to read on The Daily Caller yesterday that a POLITICO colleague of mine was among those who “participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.”

The phrase, which came without evidence in a story about the listserv Journolist, has drawn POLITICO into some conspiracy theorizing and earned us a drubbing on Fox News. But my colleagues and I can’t quite figure out what the Caller’s Tucker Carlson is talking about.

POLITICO executive editor Jim VandeHei tells me he “asked Tucker Carlson to clarify his story that POLITICO reporters were not involved in the Wright string (he didn’t)” or “to present evidence one of our reporters was directly involved (he didn’t, other than to say Avi [Zenilman] made some disjointed remarks).”

So I asked Zenilman, my former assistant on this blog, who left POLITICO in November 2008, what he’d written. He dredged up the e-mails, which came in response to others’ angry comments about ABC’s moderation of a presidential primary debate. (Carlson also sent them to VandeHei.)

"Actually, I remember Stephanopolous moderating two really good debates on Sunday morning in the primary season,” Zenilman, now a freelancer, most recently for Capital New York, wrote in one e-mail. “People — moreso (sic) conservatives — got really pissed with CNN for how they handled the GOP YouTube debate; not just the unvetted pro-Hillary gay general, but the fact that all the questions were these absurd gods gays guns immigration questions.”

Those weren’t terribly interesting e-mails (much less “outpourings of anger”), or disjointed, though Avi also wrote one truly disjointed remark: “Romney’s lawn.” So “participated in outpourings of anger” seems to mean “said unremarkable things to angry people.”

[Red Steel]

Smith on his webpage is getting skewered by comments like a grilled kabob.

[digger48]

I thought I was Bens name on the list too.

[digger48]

SAW!!!

[CIB-173RDABN]

Unlike the fantasy of a “right wing conspiracy”, there is now evidence in their own words of a left wing conspiracy, and yet, they still deny their bias.

Once again Rush nailed it. The media for the most part is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the Democrats.

[treetopsandroofs]

Had to scroll WAY down to find some moron “skewering” right wingers essentially saying, “I’ll bet you think this is some Muslim plot, too”.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Laughing at the POS!

[Red Steel]

You did see his name as one of the JournOlistas.

[downwdims]

He’s on the List

[thecabal]

3rd article rebutting JournoList that I’ve seen today. Coordinated counterattack anyone?

[DeusExMachina05]

Comment section was disabled after many posts in the negative toward him. LOL.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I like how Ben claims he was a passive listener on journolist. However, when you have journalists conspiring through e-mails about how to cover up the Reverend Wright story during the campaign, don’t you think that’s newsworthy Ben? I thought you guys would walk over your own grandmother to get a story, no matter who it’s about. That’s what I’ve always been told Ben, why didn’t you report on that story?

[downwdims]

Unless they just locked them, they are enabled. I will keep the tab open and we can save them here if you want

[Oceander]

"Unlike the fantasy of a “right wing conspiracy”, there is now evidence in their own words of a left wing conspiracy, and yet, they still deny their bias.

Once again Rush nailed it. The media for the most part is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the Democrats."

Very true, but as someone pointed out on another thread, right now it's mostly us conservatives who are talking about it and a lot of so-called "independents" and the general public don't know what's going on. As such, we need to spread the word beyond those who've been talking about it so far and get the information into the general public's ken.




(Please feel free to hotlink to the image where ever you believe it's appropriate, so we can get more people asking, "what's journolist?" and finding out the truth about the so-called "mainstream media.")

[digger48]

Gee, I guess he shouldn’t have been so surprised to see one of his colleagues on the list, then.

This kinda explains the co-ordinated comments to articles on conservative websites. Townhall, WSJ, etc. Within just minutes of an article being posted, a talking point liberal shows up to be one of the first to comment on it.

Always thought to be Soros, Mor-on.org types. Now the possibility that these comments were orchestrated and written by others in the media.

[Rational Thought]

Of course it is.

[paudio]

Perhaps we need to start print bumper stickers with words like "I only read articles by NON JOURNOLIST members"

[downwdims]

It was discussed on hillbuzz during the election that there is an army of people being paid to scour the web and comment on things and spread disinformation.

They said it was Obama’s machine (The Non-Campaign Campaign per the Journolist), but at this point who knows

[Servant of the Cross]

Ben - you’re busted. Big time!

[libs_kma]

Now that they’ve been caught red-handed I guess more screams of racism are about to come out about random “right-wingers”...it’s the only page in their playbook.

[sbMKE]

Can’t be - the Dems were the first to cry “Astroturf!”

Axelrod, please correct the record.

[wintertime]

The comments were worth the time to read.

Now...As for me, I waiting for the e-mails to surface where the **CONSERVATIVE** media conspired to suppress any reporting on Obama’s eligibility. Gee! I knew the mainstream media were traitorous Marxists to the core. That the **conservative** media has had a black out on Obama’s suppressed records just sets my teeth on edge.

Please, God, let this conservative conspiracy unravel so that the stinking, rotting, disgusting gangrene can be exposed.