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Media Deliberately Misreported George Zimmermann Case from Earliest Moments »
June 24, 2013
Out: JournOList
In: WeigOList
Groupthink.
Indeed, Journolist's only casualty was Dave Weigel's gig at the Washington Post; and then, almost immediately after departing, he founded a new listserv, one dedicated to promoting his writing. Ironically, Weigel's listserv morphed quickly into something Journolist wasn't: a forum in which writers of all political shades and depths talk to each other. Full disclosure: I'm on the list, but I mostly lurk.
To Cox, conversations among journalists are a necessary weapon against "groupthink," which she describes as "the biggest threat to freedom of the press." What she means is that by exchanging ideas, journalists can work together to resist conventional wisdom and the orthodoxies of those in power. Yet Cox does not seem to realize that such coordination among journalists also often creates its own form of media groupthink.
Given that the last list was given mostly to protecting Barack Obama -- thinking up ways to push the Reverend Wright story out of the media, for example -- one has to suspect of the new list of being fairly similar in tone.
Dave Weigel was asked if he'd be asking anyone from Breitbart to join the list. He said he had no such plans at the moment.