The JournoList Bruhaha

I have bee reading leaked excerpts with amusement. Equally amusing has been the reaction fro many conservatives. Yes, I do find spiking stories about Jeremiah Wright’s anti-Semitism and racism in order to help elect Barack Obama journalist malpractice. I also think joking about a government takeover of FOX news I order to silence the conservative viewpoint is grossly unprofessional for supposed objective journalists to be doing in a semi-public forum. Nevertheless, conservatives need to remember three points:

First, journalism attracts progressives, not conservatives. Journalism is a low paying, frivolous job. Particularly in these days of instant gratification through the internet, news becomes old almost instantaneously. Coservatives have no patience for such things. We want to build and produce things that will last while getting paid handsomely for it. So journalists are going to be mostly progressives.

Second, because journalists are almost all progressives, they are going to talk about progressive ideas with each other. Remember, no one fancies himself more savvy than a journalist does. When they get together I their circle jerk, they are goig to convince themselves their progressive ideas are the only true solutions to the world’s problems and push their agenda.

Finally, journalists have always covered for progressives. They kept quiet about JFK’s affairs. They helped hide FDR’s polio damage. They do not cover Robert Byrd’s history with the KKK. It is not just politicians, either. You hear next to nothing about Marti Luther King, Jr. between his “I Have a Dream Speech” and his assassination because I that time, he was inciting blacks to resist the Vietnam draft. It is not until someone is not progressive enough to suit them--i.e. Bill Clinton--that they will go after him.

In spite of all this, life goes on. Do not oversell the impact of this alleged progressive conspiracy with progressive journalists. As log as you have a decent crap detector, it is not all that important.