The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy

A wonderful essay from Fred Barnes at the Wall Street Journal regarding the expose of liberal journalists on JournoList who worked to make sure that certain negative stories about Barack Obama got covered up. Before I get to the meat of the article, I have to relay one particular item that seems relevent due to the recent stories about racism within the NAACP and the fact that ThinkProgress.org found it necessary to edit a six minute video down to a few seconds in order to produce a piece of propaganda that had been intended to make the Tea Party look racist.

Here is what Fred wrote:

What was particularly pathetic about the scheme to smear Mr. Obama's critics was labeling them as racists. The accusation has been made so frequently in recent years, without evidence to back it up, that it has little effect. It's now the last refuge of liberal scoundrels.

Italic emphasis mine. Those two lines show why the Tea Party has been under attack. It is not because they are racist. It is because their message of lower taxes, reducing wasteful government spending and getting government out of our private lives is resonating among mainstream America. The progressive left finds this to be a huge threat and therefore must resort of making false accusations in an attempt to discredit the Tea Partiers.

Now, about that JournoList. Here is what Fred wrote:

JournoList contributors discussed strategies to aid Mr. Obama by deflecting the [Reverend Wright] controversy. They went public with a letter criticizing an ABC interview of Mr. Obama that dwelled on his association with Mr. Wright. Then, Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent proposed attacking Mr. Obama's critics as racists. He wrote: "If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them—Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares—and call them racists. . . . This makes them 'sputter' with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction." No one on JournoList endorsed the Ackerman plan. But rather than object on ethical grounds, they voiced concern that the strategy would fail or possibly backfire.

And this:

I think JournoList is—or was—fundamentally different, and not simply because one of its members proposed to make palpably false accusations. As best I can tell, those involved in JournoList considered themselves part of a team. And their goal was to make sure the team won. In 2008, this was Mr. Obama's team. More recently, the goal seems to have been to defeat the conservative team. Until JournoList came along, liberal journalists were rarely part of a team. Neither are conservative journalists today, so far as I know. If there's a team, no one has asked me to join.

Ethics in journalism from outlets like the Washington Post or New York Times? Not from what I have seen.

Thank God we have an Internet and alternative means of getting good, accurate information that the major media outlets cannot censor or cover up.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy
Fred Barnes
Wall Street Journal
July 22, 2010