Implications of JournoList

A thought provoking article in BigJournalism.com has this,

The larger issue is the existence of the now-defunct “JournoList,” a listserv group of about 400 left-leaning journalists organized by Klein, the Post’s wunderkind blogger and nakedly partisan health-care advocate, and what it portends for the future of journalism.

Let’s start with this fact: in the old days of “dispassionate” professional journalism, there likely would not have been a place either for Weigel or Klein on a major newspaper, and certainly not on the national level. Both — were they hired at all — would have served several years down on the farm, learning the craft of reporting on the police beat in Boise and at sewer-district commission hearings in Hartford, before getting the call to the Show. Both would have learned that before opinions come facts and that in order to find facts, one must first divest oneself of opinions, in order to properly form them down the line. Weigel and Klein are not only what’s wrong with contemporary journalism, they’re emblematic of what plagues the whole country right now, which is being run by a collection of ardent adolescents, devoid of experience but brimming with fierce rectitude and a burning desire for payback against inherited or imaginary cultural grievances.

The implications of this merely scratches the surface.  If some 400+ "elite journalists" were speaking "privately" on a listserv...it only takes a very small leap to look at the past couple of years of reporting and seeing how quickly the Mainstream Media narrative lined up on various stories.

For example during the debate last summer on  ObamaCare I had found it amazing how rapidly the media narrative coalesced around the "racism" tag for those who opposed ObamaCare.  In a matter of a few days, across the spectrum of print, broadcast and internet reporting the rising Tea Party Movement was branded as racists for opposing the far left agenda being pushed by Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.   I thought at the time that this was very troubling how the talking points being reported in the media began to sound similar regardless of the outlet, whether TV, newspapers and NPR (the defacto liberal radio network).  Much the same thing occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign anytime Hillary Clinton came up with a new attack on Mr. Obama...in short order, the media began a near universal story line.

If the media, has begun to mainstream the use of "opinion journalism" then they have stepped across the boundry lines of reporting and entered into the realm, not just of advocacy, but the de facto dissemination of propaganda.  That's an ugly word in America, but it's one that we have to take a hard look at.  If you have reporters and news outlets advocating a particular  agenda, and doing so 24/7, then they have departed from what has become the accepted norm of journalistic standards.  It also go a long way to explain the genuine hatred for Fox News, the only right leaning media outlet in broadcast news.  Hypocrits usually despise in "the other" what they accept in themselves or their supporters.  If the left has accepted that the mainstream media is "in their court," then they will work overtime to marginalize those outlets that are not. 

While the MSM and those members of JournoList, may not consciously be coordinating their reporting, the evidence is that they in fact are.  Just look at the talking points from last summer's coverage of the ObamaCare debate.  In the NY Times, WaPo, LA Times, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NPR much of the reporting used very similar language and talking points.  This has had the effect of the large majority of the media becoming de facto, if not de jure, the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.  Thus, the huge loss in viewership/readership of much of the media today.  This country isn't a far left, or even middle left, leaning country, it's much more conservative on the whole, than out political "elites" want to admit.  If the media doesn't return to the standard of even-handed reporting, it's unlikely that the majority of left-leaning outlets will  survive...just look at circulation/viewership numbers.  That tells the whole story.

A reasonably non-partisan reporting by journalists is extraordinarily important to our Republic's survival.  Having a majority of media outlets that are merely cheerleaders for one party or the other will eventually destroy our country and change it into a place none of us desire.  Fair and balanced reporting of events is a necessary cornerstone of democracy and without it, ours becomes much less stable...