JournoList

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Obama Administration connections

Pajamas media commentator Ed Driscoll, commented on Journolist's connections to the obama Administration in a july 25, 2010 column;

"Jared Bernstein. an Obama campaign adviser was also a member of the JournoList:

Jared Bernstein, chief economist for Vice President Joseph Biden, served in 2008 as an economic adviser to the Obama campaign. At the same time, he was a member of JournoList, the controversial progressive email list.

Bernstein’s bio at Politico, which appears not to have been updated since 2008, states: “He is an economic adviser to the Obama campaign.”

He was known to many for his regular appearances on the financial channel CNBC. His primary employer in 2008 was the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor progressive think tank, but according to his bio when appointed to the Obama-Biden Administration, he also was a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office.

Reached today at the Office of the Vice President, Bernstein revealed that his position with the Obama campaign was as something called a “surrogate.” “I was not paid by the campaign,” he explained. “They would call me from time to time to represent their positions, that side of the debate.”

Asked when he left JournoList, Bernstein replied, ‘‘I think I left the list around the time I came here.” Bernstein was announced as Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to the Vice President-elect on December 8, 2008.

One question that has arisen is how closely JournoList members, not only discussed how to shape the news to advance the fortunes of Barack Obama, but coordinated with the Obama campaign. Jared Bernstein’s position as an unpaid adviser and surrogate shows that there was at least one direct link between JournoList and the Obama campaign.

Bernstein’s serving on the Economic Advisory Panel of the CBO appears to violate Ezra Klein’s first rule for JournoList:

At the beginning, I set two rules for the membership. The first was the easy one: No one who worked for the government in any capacity could join.

It would appear that Bernstein’s presence on the list violated Klein’s first rule, since he met the test of working “for the government in any capacity.”

Official campaign, non-official campaign — close enough for (literally in this case) government work.

A commenter notes another Obama official who was on the JournoList. Reader “Hydrangea” wonders why “people keep forgetting that Peter Orszag was also a Journolister.” Orszag is President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget Director.

In March of 2009, Ezra Klein wrote:

“Journolist is meant to serve a very specific purpose that’s actually related to my experience building this blog. The work of this site has always been to illuminate standard political reporting with expert policy commentary. In that, I’ve been helped by the many experts who have adopted the medium as their own: Mark Thoma, Brad DeLong, Paul Krugman, Matthew Holt, Peter Orszag, Andrew Gelman, Larry Bartels, Dani Rodrik, John Sides, among others. As a journalist, it’s hard to always know who to call or which questions to ask. The joy of those blogs is that I don’t have to guess what experts think is important: They simply explain what they think is important and I can use, or follow-up on, the information.?”"

Update: Ezra is now denying that Orszag was on the JournoList. So release the full list of members, and let us know who was. Shouldn’t President Obama’s “Non-Official Campaign” staff be even more open and transparent than the administration that it continues to serve?"

High powered help

Of those listed by Ezra Klein above;

• Larry Bartels, Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Director, Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, Princeton University.
• Brad DeLong, Department of Economics, U.C. Berkeley
• Andrew Gelman, Professor of statistics and political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University
• Matthew Holt, Health care strategist
• Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University
• Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama
• Dani Rodrik, Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• John Sides, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at George Washington University
• Mark Thoma, Professor of Economics Department of Economics · University of Oregon

Reported members

The following names, are reported members of the now-defunct JournoList listserv:

• Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
• Ben Adler – Newsweek, POLITICO
• Mike Allen – POLITICO
• Eric Alterman – The Nation, Media Matters for America - possibly a former Guardian Associate and possible writer for the Maoist-oriented Guardian, September 1989-1990's ; Also, 2010, writer for The Nation magazine; Professor of Journalism, City University of New York -POLITICO op. cit. An Eric Alterman is listed as the "Circulation Director" for the "Guardian" in the issue of June 17, 1987, p. 19 as well as in the December 9, 1987 issue, p. 19.
• Marc Ambinder – The Atlantic
• Greg Anrig – The Century Foundation
• Ryan Avent – Economist
• Dean Baker – The American Prospect
• Nick Baumann – Mother Jones
• Josh Bearman – LA Weekly
• Steven Benen – The Carpetbagger Report
• Jared Bernstein – Economic Policy Institute
• Michael Berube – Crooked Timber (blog), Pennsylvania State University
• Lindsay Beyerstein – Focal Point (blog) (formerly Majikthise)
• Joel Bleifuss – In These Times
• John Blevins – South Texas College of Law
• Sam Boyd – The American Prospect
• Rich Byrne – Playwright and freelancer
• Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic
• Jonathan Chait – The New Republic
• Lakshmi Chaudry – In These Times
• Isaac Chotiner – The New Republic
• Michael Cohen – New America Foundation
• Jonathan Cohn – The New Republic
• Joe Conason – The New York Observer
• David Corn – Mother Jones
• Daniel Davies – The Guardian
• David Dayen – FireDogLake
• Brad DeLong – The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkley
• Ryan Donmoyer – Bloomberg
• Kevin Drum – Washington Monthly
• Matt Duss – Center for American Progress
• Eve Fairbanks – The New Republic
• Henry Farrell – George Washington University
• Tim Fernholz – American Prospect
• James Galbraith – University of Texas at Austin
• Todd Gitlin – Columbia University, former leader of SDS Students for a Democratic Society, longtime Professor of Journalism, New York University
• Ilan Goldenberg – National Security Network
• Dana Goldstein – The Daily Beast
• Merrill Goozner – Chicago Tribune
• David Greenberg – Slate
• Robert Greenwald – Brave New Films
• Christopher Hayes – The Nation
• Don Hazen – Alternet
• Michael Hirsh – Newsweek
• John Judis – The New Republic, The American Prospect
• Michael Kazin – Georgetown University
• Ed Kilgore – Democratic Stategist
• Richard Kim – The Nation
• Mark Kleiman – The Reality Based Community
• Ezra Klein – Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect, 2010 Business Section columnist, Washington Post; American Prospect blogger; formed [[JournoList, February, 2007}
• Joe Klein – TIME columnist
• Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University, economics, world affairs, and Pulitzer Prize winner (neo-marxist)
• Lisa Lerer – POLITICO
• Daniel Levy – Century Foundation
• Alec McGillis – Washington Post
• Scott McLemee – Inside Higher Ed
• Ari Melber – The Nation
• Seth Michaels – MyDD.com
• Luke Mitchell – Harper’s Magazine
• Gautham Nagesh – The Hill, Daily Caller
• Suzanne Nossel – Human Rights Watch
• Michael O’Hare – University of California, Berkeley
• Rick Perlstein – Author, Campaign for America’s Future
• Harold Pollack – University of Chicago
• Foster Kamer – The Village Voice
• Katha Pollitt – The Nation
• Ari Rabin-Havt – Media Matters
• David Roberts – Grist
• Alyssa Rosenberg – Washingtonian, The Atlantic, Government Executive
• Alex Rossmiller – National Security Network
• Laura Rozen – Politico, Mother Jones
• Greg Sargent – Washington Post
• Noam Scheiber – The New Republic
• Michael Scherer – TIME
• Mark Schmitt – The American Prospect
• Adam Serwer – The American Prospect
• Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun(columnist), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor), FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)
• Julie Bergman Sender – Balcony Films
• Walter Shapiro – PoliticsDaily.com
• Nate Silver – FiveThirtyEight.com
• Jesse Singal – The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
• Ben Smith – chief writer/columnist for the POLITICO
• Sarah Spitz – NPR
• Adele Stan – The Media Consortium
• Kate Steadman – Kaiser Health News
• Jonathan Stein – Mother Jones
• Sam Stein – The Huffington Post
• Jesse Taylor – Pandagon.net
• Steven Teles – Yale University
• Mark Thoma – The Economist’s View (blog), University of Oregon (professor)
• Michael Tomasky – The Guardian
• Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker, writer for The New Yorker magazine - POLITICO
• Rebecca Traister – Salon (columnist)
• Cenk Uygur – The Young Turks- note Uygur has denied that he was a member of JournoList
• Tracy Van Slyke – The Media Consortium
• Dave Weigel – Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
• Moira Whelan – National Security Network
• Scott Winship – Pew Economic Mobility Project
• Kai Wright – The Root
• Holly Yeager – Columbia Journalism Review
• Rich Yeselson – Change to Win
• Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly, blogger, POLITICO
• Jonathan Zasloff – UCLA
• Julian Zelizer – Princeton professor and CNN contributor
• Avi Zenilman – POLITICO
• David Brock - Founder of Media Matters
• Megan Carpentier - Associate Editor at TPM Media
• Andrew Gelman - Professor of statistics and political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University
• Peter Orszag - White House Budget Director
• Dani Rodrik - Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• John Sides - Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at George Washington University.
• Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal
• Brian Beutler - The Media Consortium
• Shannon Brownlee - Author, New America Foundation
• Will Bunch - Philadelphia Daily News
• Lark Corbeil - Public News Service
• Adam Doster - In These Times
• Gerald Dworkin - UC Davis
• Kathleen Geier - Talking Points Memo, wife of Rick Perlstein
• Arthur Goldhammer - Harvard University
• Jaana Goodrich - Blogger
• James Johnson - University of Rochester
• Foster Kamer - The Village Voice
• Charlie Kireker - Air America Media
• Robert Kuttner - American Prospect, Economic Policy Institute
• Ralph Luker - Cliopatria
• Robert Mackey - New York Times
• Maggie Mahar - The Century Foundation
• Dylan Matthews - Harvard University
• Sara Mead - New America Foundation
• Rodger Payne - University of Louisville
• Nico Pitney - Huffington Post
• Joy-Ann Reid - South Florida Times
• Lamar Robertson - Partnership for Public Service
• Rinku Sen - ColorLines Magazine
• Matthew Shugart - UC San Diego
• Paul Starr - The Atlantic
• Matt Steinglass - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
• Paul Waldman - Author, The American Prospect
• J. Harry Wray - DePaul University
• D. Brad Wright - University of NC at Chapel Hill
• Ari Berman - The Nation
• Dan Froomkin - Huffington Post, Washington Post
• Andrew Golis - Talking Points Memo
• Annie Lowrey - Washington Independent
• Mike Madden - Salon
• Michael Roston - Newsbroke
• Felix Salmon - Reuters
• Kate Sheppard - Mother Jones
• James Surowiecki - The New Yorker
• Ben Brandzel – MoveOn.org, John Edwards Campaign
• Josh Orton – MyDD.com, Air America Media
• Sara Robinson – Campaign For America’s Future
• Ann-Marie Slaughter – Princeton University

References

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