Journolist Docs Show Media Covered for Obama on Jeremiah Wright

How stupid is the media in America? Stupid enough plot to cover up the story of a presidential candidate’s radical reverend – in writing.

The Daily Caller obtained Journolist documents showing members of the US media did exactly that. Some even suggested calling Obama’s opponents racists for bringing up his America-hating spiritual mentor of twenty years.

According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”

They also discussed intimidation tactics they would employ to make sure other journalists and news outlets shut up.

Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.

“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.

Tomasky approved. “YES. A thousand times yes,” he exclaimed.

The article goes on to note that Jared Bernstein, who was later hired on as Joe Biden’s top economist, also got in on the action. I wonder if that was a job requisite. The plan worked, for a short time. Then Jeremiah Wright started shooting off his mouth again.

Read the full article for more details.

Tags: Biden, Jared Bernstein, Journolist, obama, racism charges, Reverend Jeremiah Wright