Friday, July 23, 2010
On February 18, 2010, I wrote a post titled Progressive Bloggers In The Wizard of Oz, about a trip by several "progressive" bloggers to meet at The White House with Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Joe Biden.The post carried a photo of serious-looking faces reflecting what I believed -- tongue in cheek -- was "the moment they realized that they were not going to get to meet with the 'chief economist to President Barack Obama.'"
Boy, was I wrong. It was more like a reunion. Of Journolistas.
The "Chief Economist to Vice President Joe Biden" was none other than Journalista Jared Bernstein, who -- thanks to a post at Volokh Conspiracy (via Instapundit)-- I just learned was an adviser to the Obama campaign in 2008 when he was active on the Journolist:
One question that has arisen in the last week is how closely JournoList members, not only discussed how to shape the news to advance the fortunes of Barack Obama, but coordinated with the Obama campaign. Jared Bernstein’s position as an unpaid adviser and surrogate shows that there was at least one direct link between JournoList and the Obama campaign.In attendance for the meeting at the White House were fellow Journolistas Matthew Yglesias (Think Progress), Tim Fernholz (American Prospect) and Chris Hayes (The Nation). One of the other bloggers in attendance was Oliver Willis, whose name has not surfaced on the Journolist, but who works for Media Matters, so he is practically an Honorary Journolista.
So... An Obama campaign operative interacted on the Journolist with sympathetic media types in the run-up to the election, and then rewarded favored Journolistas with a visit to the White House.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Update: Jennifer Rubin notices the lack of diversity on the Journolist (something I also noted in my February post): "The angry white men and the hate-filled political marionettes aren’t on talk radio. They’re on Journolist."
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