JournoList As The Voice Of The State Media

If you believe in freedom of the press, you need to pay attention to this story and be sure to access the Gateway Pundit link at the bottom of this post.

Michael Calderone describes JournoList as "an off-the-record on-line meeting space." JournoList founder Ezra Klein says not to worry because his creation is "just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely." But JournoList is not for everyone. Only liberals/leftists need apply. So what happens when The Washington Post hires a reporter - Dave Weigel - to cover conservative politics and it turns out the guy is a liberal and JournoList member who really loathes conservatives? For one, Weigel's vicious off-the-record list remarks get leaked and he's finished, at least at the Post. (Does anyone care that he has a new job at MSNBC? I suppose their viewer should be pleased.)

Today, Andrew Breitbart entered the picture with $100,000 to anyone who can produce the JournoList archive. I can only imagine what other lefty list members, over 400 of them, have said in their off-the-record discussions. Will Breitbart find a willing seller? We'll have to wait and see as the tension builds.

There is one obvious lesson emerging from this story and virtually every journalist should know it. That lesson is: there is no such thing - really never has been - as "off-the-record" speech. I'm surprised that they could be caught in their own trap. Perhaps they've been overwhelmed by the evolution of journalism in the Internet Age. And something quite sinister could emerge from JournoList as well if its archive finds the light. That is the confirmation of "evidence that this group of prominent leftists work together to organize and promote their agenda in the state-run media." Jim Hoft has the story at Gateway Pundit.