For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.
Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?
Not at all, says Ezra Klein, the 24-year-old American Prospect blogging wunderkind who formed JournoList in February 2007. “Basically,” he says, “it’s just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely.”
Those participating use the online conversations for research for their own pieces.
“It’s sort of a chance to float ideas and kind of toss them around, back and forth, and determine if they have any value,” said New Republic associate editor Eve Fairbanks, “and get people’s input on them before you put them on a blog.”
Indeed, the advantage of JList, members say, is that it provides a unique forum for getting in touch with historians and policy people who provide journalists with a knowledge base for articles and blog posts.
Yglesias, who writes an eponymous blog hosted by the Center for American Progress, noted that “the combined membership has tentacles of knowledge that reach everywhere,” adding that “you can toss out a question about Japan or whatever and get some different points of view.”
Alterman said it’s important that there are “people with genuine expertise” on the list.
“For me, it’s enormously useful because I don’t like to spend my time reading blogs and reading up-to-the-minute political minutia,” he said. “This list allows me to make sure I’m not missing anything important.”
In other words, the listserv is used to chew the fat, get supporting information and bounce ideas off other (receptive) professionals. Honestly, there's nothing wrong with any of this. People do this professionally all the time, usually over a mug of beer at the local dive.
What is a bit disturbing is the private, secretive way this is set up. Conservatives don't have anything nearly so organized (frankly, there doesn't seem to be much that conservatives have got well organized), but clearly they need to. Still, the fact that JournoList exists provides more proof that the "leftwing conspiracy," for better or worse, does exist. It also explains why certain memes seem to circulate so quickly through the leftosphere.
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