POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Day three’s installment of “as the narrative turns”

Palin sining with US troops in Kuwait

Or maybe I should call it the truth about Sarah and the Press.

It's been pretty satisfying watching the initial revalations of the shadowy cabal of propagandists who belonged to Ezra Klein's left-wing glee club, journolist.  At long last there is proof of what many have suspected all along; that some members of the press chose to completely throw away any pretense of journalistsic ethics and instead undertake the shaping of slanted public meta-narative that they hoped would benefit their preferred politcal candidates and further their liberal ideology.  And, while some of published correspondance has been marginally amusing, especially Spence Ackerman talking tough about roughing up political opponents, or the cabal simultaneously hand-wringing about fascistic bullying Rethugs! while wondering if the FCC could shut down Fox news by simply not renewing their license, on the whole it has been disturbing to see the documentation of a group actively trying to subvert the institution of the fourth estate for political purposes.  As Andrew Breitbart remarked, the reporters at Pravda weren't such insufferable assholes as the journolist crew.

And, as Cap'n Ed muses, journolist is the gift that keeps on giving; kind of like the twelve days of Christmas:

On the first day of JournoList, Daily Caller gave to me … a plot to spike the Wright stuff.  On the second day of JournoList, Daily Caller gave to me … demands for government intervention with Fox News, and a plateful of irony from accusations of fascism.  On the third day, however, Daily Caller catches mainly opinion journalists offering and soliciting opinions about John McCain’s choice of running mate, Sarah Palin, in exactly the terms that people discussed in public as well

That's a pretty good point, and one that inderectly refutes Matt Welch's critique:

The real spade-work on the JournoList trove is not just fishing for a single chunk of Drudge-bait, but tying an off-the-record listserv conversation with a coordinated flurry of on-the-record commentary.

Well, I think that Jonathan Strong has accomplished that with today's installment, where he explored jounolist's reaction to Palin being chosen as his running mate.

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. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. 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.”

Not a wise argument, responded Jonathan Stein, a reporter for Mother Jones. If McCain were asked about Palin’s inexperience, he could simply point to then candidate Barack Obama’s similarly thin resume. “Q: Sen. McCain, given Gov. Palin’s paltry experience, how is she qualified to be commander in chief?,” Stein asked hypothetically. “A: Well, she has much experience as the Democratic nominee.”

Daniel Levy of the Century Foundation noted that Obama’s “non-official campaign” would need to work hard to discredit Palin. “This seems to me like an occasion when the non-official campaign has a big role to play in defining Palin, shaping the terms of the conversation and saying things that the official [Obama] campaign shouldn’t say – very hard-hitting stuff, including some of the things that people have been noting here – scare people about having this woefully inexperienced, no foreign policy/national security/right-wing christia wing-nut a heartbeat away …… bang away at McCain’s age making this unusually significant …. I think people should be replicating some of the not-so-pleasant viral email campaigns that were used against [Obama].”

I recall the experience argument being weakly advanced for the first few days following her nomination, and this same discussion being played out amongst the televised punditry; until, that is, they had satisfied themselves that it was indeed a bad tack to take.  Then, of course, they decided to make the attacks more personal:

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?”

No Ben, as it turns out nobody was afraid to make any points that they thought might successfully diminish Palin in the eyes of the public; especially Andrew Sullivan, with a deranged obsession regarding his own fatuous theory that Palin merely pretended, publicly, that Trig was her child in order to cover up her daughter Bristol pregnancy outside of marriage.

At any rate, the piece goes on to document the crew feverishly working on coordinating their attacks.  They speak about framing the nomination as a cynical, sexist, act by McCain meant to steal the feminist constituency, already upset over Obama's shabby treatment of Hillary, away from the Democrats; another of the "Hardball" meme's that were repeated during campaign 2008.  And, perhaps more disturbing, they would contact list memebers to get the "latest talking points" prior to TV appearances.  You know, to make sure that they had the latest iteration of the narrative.  But as Cap'n Ed observes,  considering that many of the more active participants were known to have a left-wing bent, this all comes as no real surprise.

Perhaps the most embarassing revelation in today's installment is about Joe Klein, a self righteous uber-liberal shill who writes for Time magazine.

Klein, who displayed an independent streak in other circumstances (“anybody who knows me knows I do my own thinking,” he said in a Wednesday interview), seemed to exude more partisanship that day than usual.

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged 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. Klein praised Palin personally, calling her “fresh” and “delightful,” but questioned her “militant” ideology. He noted Palin had endorsed parts of Obama’s energy proposal.

Seems like Joe has some explainin' to do, eh?  I wonder how many other essays of his have been influenced by the journolist talking points?  I wonder if Richard Stengal is even concerned about this, or, does he already know.  One things is probably certain, Time can't afford to lose any circulation over a scandal like this.

And, rightly speaking, this is truly a scandal.  Surely, some want to dismiss it our of hand, and never let it see the light of day.  Indeed, the only MFM coverage I've seen of it so far has been dismissive.  So it will be important for us to communicate this to our peers who might not be aware of, or keeping up with, all the developments.  We all will have to go above the heads of the recalcitrant media, and use every opportunity to push the corruption of the MFM out there; be it at the water cooler, casual gathering, or family function.  I suggest that every time you hear some discussion of Obama H8ting Reich-Wingerz exposed by the media, that you casually ask if the story is by, "One of the journolist writers  that were colluding in order to portray their desired opinion as thoughtful and factual ?"

So, read the whole piece, and stay tuned to the Daily Caller for each new installment.  According to the author, during a radio interview with Lou Dobbs, there is a lot more to come.  So keep abreast of developments, and have plenty of popcorn on hand.  My intuition is that it will only get better.

Rocketman