Paranoia Strikes Deep Pockets

Paranoia Strikes Deep Pockets

Michael Kazin: Paranoia Strikes Deep Pockets

Last week, the Right?s panic about the designs of the ?mainstream media? and its desire to exploit that fear got a little personal for me. For several years, I was a happy member of Journolist–a closed, strictly off-the-record listserv of several hundred progressive journalists and academics set up by Ezra Klein, a talented young writer about politics and policy who now blogs for the Washington Post. We discussed anything newsworthy, from World Cup soccer to John Edwards?s sex life, in sometimes rational, sometimes angry, sometimes hilarious ways.

But last week, Klein decided to close down the operation. Some anonymous killjoy had leaked derisive comments Dave Weigel, who blogged for the Post about all things conservative, had made about Rush Limbaugh and a few other figures on the Right. The Post fired Weigel, and Ezra feared other leaks that would harm the careers of other reporters. Fortunately, Weigel soon got a new job at MSNBC.

Then Andrew Breitbart, one of the Right?s leading cyber-impresarios, leaped into the fray:

?I?ve had $100,000 burning in my pocket for the last three months,? he wrote on Tuesday, ?and I?d really like to spend it on a worthy cause. So how about this: in the interests of journalistic transparency, and to offer the American public a unique insight in [sic] the workings of the Democrat-Media Complex, I?m offering $100,000 for the full ‘JournoList’ archive, source fully protected. Now there?s an offer somebody can?t refuse.?

Consider the premise: Breitbart assumes a bunch of left-leaning writers letting off steam in random ways was actually key to the Complex conspiracy ?at the heart of contemporary American political journalism.? Exposing this cabal would free the citizenry from the lies and distortions that have shackled their minds for decades.

One can view this as evidence of how ignorant conservative activists are about how the media really works. Or one can view it, more cynically, as yet another attempt to throw progressives on the defensive, afraid that the Right truly represents ?the people.?

At least, Breitbart won?t find his rat. The Journolist archive has been deleted.