February 12th, 2014
It’s been interesting that, in all of the many, fawning pieces about Ezra Klein written in the last few months, I haven’t seen anyone ask him about the second thing he’s famous for: JournoList. The RCP guys finally brought it up during their drivecast with Klein, but since it’s video and not print, I suspect it didn’t get the attention it deserved, because his answers didn’t exactly close out the topic. Breitbart went to the trouble of making a transcript of the exchange:
They ask Klein about JournoList, the email group Klein ran several years ago that often served to coordinate coverage among left-leaning members of the media. Does such a group still exists, Cannon wonders?
Klein evades the question throughout. His first response is to rebuke Cannon for believing in “conspiracy theories”–never mind that the original JournoList was, in fact, the rare case of a conspiracy theory being true.
Then he says, “I’m not involved anymore, and if there’s–I think there still might be–there are a shit-ton of email listservs around this town,” before contending, bizarrely, that JournoList never coordinated anything.
“I hated JournoList by the end,” he adds, “I hated it so much. I spent all my time moderating flame wars on the list.” Klein mocks the idea that journalists, who want to be the first to break a story, would coordinate stories.
Cannon retorts: “You underestimate how partisan some of our colleagues are.” Klein disagrees: journalists are “cynical.”
Cannon tries once more: does JournoList still exist?
Klein: “Oh–I don’t run anything like that.”
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