Daily Caller Exposes 'Journolist' Attempts to Kill Stories About Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Daily Caller Exposes 'Journolist' Attempts to Kill Stories About Rev. Jeremiah Wright


The Daily Caller is out today with another big story, highlighting the Journolist -- a now defunct listserv where hundreds of liberal journalists and academics would collaborate and share information.

Today's column reveals that in 2008, several liberal journalists on the list were overtly discouraging others from covering the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story -- his incendiary remarks were an embarrassment for the Obama presidential campaign -- and, in at least one case, plotting to undermine the reputation of conservative journalists.

Arguably, this is the most disturbing section from the story:

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."
Later, the Daily Caller quotes Ackerman as writing:
I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It's not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright's defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find 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.
This is the second time The Daily Caller has made news by revealing e-mails posted on the Journolist. The first time, Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel was exposed for mocking conservatives. Interestingly, prior to moving to the Post, Weigel worked with Ackerman at the Independent. (Weigel resigned from the Post after the Journolist story surfaced.)

After the Weigel affair, popular conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart offered to pay a $100,000 reward to anyone who would turn over transcripts from the Journolist. Interestingly, just before the Daily Caller broke this second story, Breitbart rescinded the offer.

Is there more to come on all this?