J.R. Dunn: JournoList and the Leftist Mentality

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When Tucker Carlson published a few of the JournoList discussions on The Daily Caller, he put a spotlight on what had previously been one of the darker inner sanctums of the left. But more than that, says J.R. Dunn in an American Thinker commentary, the exposé provided a glimpse into the workings of the the JournoLeft's minds:

In a way, the JournoList scandal is old news. It's something long suspected on our side of the aisle, something we've occasionally seen brief glimpses of (as in the identical slogans and taglines that just happen to appear in stories, columns, and headlines with amazing synchronicity).

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And the JournoList scandal has confirmed -- or rather, reaffirmed -- a number of things concerning the legacy media.

The first is their stifling sense of moral superiority. These people truly believe they are moral paragons, fully qualified to act as guides to the Neanderthal rabble, even if they have to cheat, lie, and manipulate to do it. Signs of this are found throughout the e-mails, no matter what the ostensible topic. Sara Mead (Aug 30, 2008, 12:24am) asserts, "I'm not at all a fan of Palin, either, but as liberals and decent human beings, we should be respectful in how we refer to people with disabilities." Even if we're using them as a club to beat the opposition, evidently.

Katha Pollitt (Sept 8, 2008, 3:11pm) moans that the Dems are simply "too lofty" to get down in the gutter with the GOP. (The inclusive "we" is used throughout when referring to JournoList, the Democrats, or the Left in general.)

Harold Pollack (Aug 30, 2008, 11:43am) piously recommends turning to the Talmud for guidance -- in a lengthy posting trying to justify the "Trig is really Bristol's kid" story. Hillel and Maimonides would no doubt have approved.

The second point is that they truly believe all their own propaganda. The U.S. is run by "racists" (as one of them states bluntly), and Bush is the reincarnation of Hitler. The Republicans are throwbacks out to force Americans into serfdom. This is Gospel Truth, so solid it requires neither evidence nor debate. The world works exactly like an Oliver Stone movie, and in no other way.

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(Reading the original posts, by the way, is well worth it. Page after page of people earnestly pretending that they're not doing exactly what they're doing -- that is, distorting the news. Founder and chief guru Ezra Klein is particularly adamant: No message discipline here, he insists. We're just a discussion board! Then you get this, from veteran lefty academic Todd Gitlin [Sept 8, 2008, 9:37pm]: "On the question of liberals coordinating, what the hell's wrong with some critical mass of liberal bloggers & journalists saying the following among themselves: McCain lies about his maverick status. Routinely, cavalierly, cynically. Palin lies about her maverick status. Ditto, ditto, ditto. McCain has a wretched temperament. McCain is a warmonger. Palin belongs to a crackpot church and feels warmly about a crackpot party that trashes America ..."

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They know the truth. They are fighting on behalf of a "better world," so no crime exists for them. They are absolved before they even act.

So any action is justified. Attacking Sarah Palin's family. Calling for FOX to be shut down. Giggling as you imagine Rush Limbaugh's death. Or these immortal words from Spencer Ackerman, written in the world's leading democracy in the first decade of the third millennium: "[F]ind a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically." (Obviously, as anybody who has seen a photo of little Spencer is well aware.)

Read J.R. Dunn's full op-ed at American Thinker.

- JP