Glenn Reynolds writes in the Knoxville News today about the Journolist, Controversy proves collusion among liberal journalists:
Like most email lists, much of the content was profane or sophomoric – like [Eric] Alterman’s reference to Bush supporters as “f***ing Nascar retards,” public radio producer Sarah Spitz’s expressed desire to stand by laughing as Rush Limbaugh expired from a heart attack, or blogger Spencer Ackerman’s fantasies about shoving conservative pundits through plate-glass windows. Such explosions might raise doubts about these figures’ objectivity or ability to cover news honestly, but overall they are more embarrassing than incriminating.
Let’s remember that these people were the cream of the crop of our elite academic and journalistic institutions, people who regularly sneer at the supposed crudeness of Tea Party supporters.
These private e-mails revealed the phoniness of the persona the Journolistas presented to the public.
In March 2009, after the first leaks of Journolist e-mails, I pointed to the Liberal Ugliness Revealed On The JournoList:
What the JournoList reveals is that so much of liberalism as perpetuated by liberal bloggers and columnists is a facade, a veritable Potemkin Village of humane emotions hiding an ugly truth of egotistical anger and an obsessive need to attack others to prove to their own self-worth. And all this is gleaned from a single JournoListic thread.
Who is Eric Alterman, the person referenced in Reynold’s column as calling Bush supporters “f-ing NASCAR retards“? He is a “Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism” at Brooklyn College and one of the most prominent liberal thinkers, writing for The Nation, among other liberal publications.
As to Alterman, in my post in March 2009 I quoted one of his e-mail exchanges in which he argued that the real nastiness among the Journolistas should kept off-list “because we respect the importance of civility here.”
So calling people “f-ing NASCAR retards” was not even the worst of it, just the worst of what they put on the Journolist.
And by the way, Alterman regrets the choice of words but not the concept.
As it turns out, the leak of the Journolist archive revealed not just what the Journolistas said in private, but also who they are.
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