Ezra Klein: From 'Journolist' To Liberal Activist - Investors.com
Media Bias: In the early days of the Gulf War, pundits marveled at the specter of Iraqi troops surrendering to journalists. Well, now it's even worse: Journalists are giving the Democratic Party its talking points.
The Washington Post's 27-year-old star blogger Ezra Klein has been called "whiz kid," and "brat packer" and a "wunderkind." Now he's actually advising Democratic chiefs of staff, briefing them last week about the supercommittee in Congress, according to a report by Fishbowl-DC on MediaBistro.com.
That means the relatively novel idea that bloggers can be placed on an equal footing with reporters in congressional briefings has been one-upped: Bloggers like Klein are now giving the briefings.
That's because Klein himself sports the imprimatur of one of the most vaunted news organizations in the world, the Washington Post. He's supposed to have the Post's high standards. But instead of reporting the news, even at a slant, as bloggers do, Klein takes bias beyond that. Instead of commenting on news, he makes it.
The problem here is not just that he blurs the lines between journalism and activism. It's that the Post is perfectly content with it, and Klein himself says that such activism is actually part of his media ethos.
Think we are kidding? The Washington Post's executive editor, Marcus Brauchli told the Washingtonian last year that Klein "is a new paradigm," for journalism, and "one we would very much like to replicate."
Amazingly, this is all a matter of the public record.
"I used to have political aspirations," Klein, a former campaigner for Howard Dean, told the Washington Monthly in 2004. "But over time, I found that I enjoy writing far more. More to the point, I think that the creation of a media environment that can sustain and propel progressivism is more important than any single elected official," he said. "The media is as effective and important an agent for change as the legislative bodies, and I think it's where I'm happiest and most effective."
With an attitude like that, is it any surprise that Klein has been actually briefing Democrats?
This isn't all that arises out of Klein's refusal to adhere to basic journalistic values.
Klein is famous for starting the secretive political-media members-only clique of some 400 journalists, political operatives, White House staffers, think tankers and lefty economists such as Paul Krugman known as JournoList. Until it was shut down by exposure from the Daily Caller and BigGovernment.com, the JournoList group discussed talking points to create a media echo chamber, tried to falsely smear opponents as racists, and cooked up ways to take Fox News off the air.
Oh and, as for IBD: "... the more appropriate reply is to just warn people against ever reading the editorial page of Investor's Business Daily," Klein wrote.
That's rich, given that Klein has made crazy statements about Sen. Joe Lieberman promoting the deaths of thousands because he opposed ObamaCare, and his sophomoric assertion that "the Constitution is over 100 years old."
No wonder MediaBistro made repeated warnings to him about his pompous arrogance, and top blogger Mickey Kaus derided his "hectoring naivete."
Klein is a rogue, doing what he wants with no consequences from the Post, taking media standards down with him. As a journalist, it's one thing to have an ideological agenda, quite another to work hand-in-glove with a political party and openly advocate its agenda.
http://news.investors.com/Article/593047/201111281852/ezra-klein-goes-from-journolist-to-liberal-activist.htm
Media Bias: In the early days of the Gulf War, pundits marveled at the specter of Iraqi troops surrendering to journalists. Well, now it's even worse: Journalists are giving the Democratic Party its talking points.
The Washington Post's 27-year-old star blogger Ezra Klein has been called "whiz kid," and "brat packer" and a "wunderkind." Now he's actually advising Democratic chiefs of staff, briefing them last week about the supercommittee in Congress, according to a report by Fishbowl-DC on MediaBistro.com.
That means the relatively novel idea that bloggers can be placed on an equal footing with reporters in congressional briefings has been one-upped: Bloggers like Klein are now giving the briefings.
That's because Klein himself sports the imprimatur of one of the most vaunted news organizations in the world, the Washington Post. He's supposed to have the Post's high standards. But instead of reporting the news, even at a slant, as bloggers do, Klein takes bias beyond that. Instead of commenting on news, he makes it.
The problem here is not just that he blurs the lines between journalism and activism. It's that the Post is perfectly content with it, and Klein himself says that such activism is actually part of his media ethos.
Think we are kidding? The Washington Post's executive editor, Marcus Brauchli told the Washingtonian last year that Klein "is a new paradigm," for journalism, and "one we would very much like to replicate."
Amazingly, this is all a matter of the public record.
"I used to have political aspirations," Klein, a former campaigner for Howard Dean, told the Washington Monthly in 2004. "But over time, I found that I enjoy writing far more. More to the point, I think that the creation of a media environment that can sustain and propel progressivism is more important than any single elected official," he said. "The media is as effective and important an agent for change as the legislative bodies, and I think it's where I'm happiest and most effective."
With an attitude like that, is it any surprise that Klein has been actually briefing Democrats?
This isn't all that arises out of Klein's refusal to adhere to basic journalistic values.
Klein is famous for starting the secretive political-media members-only clique of some 400 journalists, political operatives, White House staffers, think tankers and lefty economists such as Paul Krugman known as JournoList. Until it was shut down by exposure from the Daily Caller and BigGovernment.com, the JournoList group discussed talking points to create a media echo chamber, tried to falsely smear opponents as racists, and cooked up ways to take Fox News off the air.
Oh and, as for IBD: "... the more appropriate reply is to just warn people against ever reading the editorial page of Investor's Business Daily," Klein wrote.
That's rich, given that Klein has made crazy statements about Sen. Joe Lieberman promoting the deaths of thousands because he opposed ObamaCare, and his sophomoric assertion that "the Constitution is over 100 years old."
No wonder MediaBistro made repeated warnings to him about his pompous arrogance, and top blogger Mickey Kaus derided his "hectoring naivete."
Klein is a rogue, doing what he wants with no consequences from the Post, taking media standards down with him. As a journalist, it's one thing to have an ideological agenda, quite another to work hand-in-glove with a political party and openly advocate its agenda.
http://news.investors.com/Article/593047/201111281852/ezra-klein-goes-from-journolist-to-liberal-activist.htm
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