Ezra Wails: "I didn't believe there was anything to hide."

It's clear Ezra Klein is getting some lip from former Journolist members who are uneasy at how many of their "intemperate moments and inartful wording", as Ezra puts it, will be published at the Daily Caller. In this morning's release, Journolist members bag on Keith Olbermann for being "misogynistic", "predictable", and "pompous".

So Ezra writes his final note (no really, this time he means it really will be the last one, uh huh) on the Journolist issue by questioning Tucker Carlson's credibility. Apparently, Tucker asked to join Journolist before the Daily Caller's first Weigel piece, but Ezra -- after polling his fellows -- declined.

Somehow, Ezra thinks this makes the Daily Caller's reporting on Journolist unreliable because "[Tucker's] known about evidence that substantially complicates his picture of an international media conspiracy." The evidence being referred to is that Ezra considered letting Tucker join, even though that would mean giving him access to the archives.

Well, ...wait-- Ezra wants us to believe that Tucker's credibility is low because Ezra didn't actually give him access to Journolist and he got the listserv archive another way? That sounds a lot like journalism. Nobody is denying that the emails reprinted in the Daily Caller are accurate. Nobody is saying that the Journolist members outed by the Daily Caller didn't actually belong to the group.

Ezra is saying, "if we'd let him join it would have proven we weren't trying to hide anything." Except you didn't let him join, did you, Juicebox? Your members thought that letting outsiders into the clubhouse would be a bad idea.

Ezra minimizes the Daily Caller reports on Journolist by saying the reprinted emails are just "intemperate moments and inartful wording out of context to embarrass people." That's easily solved, of course. Ordinarily, to defeat out of context attacks, all you have to do is provide the context.

So, where is it, Ezra? You lament that the Daily Caller has jumped to 200,000 daily page views because of its Journolist reporting. You complain that the pieces lack context. And you're sitting on the context the whole time. You could give a blow to Tucker (who probably had to give something of value to get access to the Journolist archives), put an end the Daily Caller's new traffic bump, and put the emails in their proper "context" -- if only you were brave enough to release the Journolist archives.

Ezra writes, "I didn't believe there was anything to hide." Well, prove it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:45 AM

| Access Comments