When we recently saw Newsweek/Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky on TV, several twins came to mind.
First, here’s Tomasky.
His lookalikes include Democratic pundit, Joe Trippi, a young Dustin Hoffman, and ABC’s Steve Portnoy.
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Today we’re in search of the twins for Newsweek/The Daily Beast Washington Bureau Chief Howard Kurtz. We see Daily Beast Special Correspondent Michael Tomasky in him and actor Alan Alda.
Today the bloodbath of Journolist pauses for The Daily Caller‘s superhero edition of Journolist. In this story by Jonathan Strong, certain Journolisters are praised for “integrity” and “civility.”
The “heroes” include: Journolist founder, WaPo‘s Ezra Klein, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, HuffPost‘s Dan Froomkin, The Guardian‘s Michael Tomasky and The New Yorker‘s James Surowieki, who isn’t a full-fledged hero, but gets an honorable mention.
Toobin, Strong, writes, “came across as one of the least caustic members of the list.”
Klein, who sliced up Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson in a post last week, calling a statement Carlson released on the Journolist “sanctimonious” and “evasive”, has by far the shortest amount of praise in the hero version. In fact, the bit on Klein amounts to two sentences, the second of which you can almost read aloud without running out of air. It’s not entirely positive, however. See the first line after the jump…
Read the full story here.
President Obama’s former pastor – Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.
It’s now fairly obvious that the Daily Caller has in its possession the full archive of JournoList – Ezra Klein‘s defunct internet group for liberal members of the media. The list-serv that cost WaPo’s Dave Weigel his job is again in the headlines after the Caller published more emails from the group – this time for somewhat more troubling reasons and with a larger cast of characters. The list of players in this round includes Wired.com’s Spencer Ackerman, Guardian’s Michael Tomasky, Baltimore Sun’s Thomas Schaller, Jonathan Stein of Mother Jones, Slate contributor David Greenberg, columnist Joe Conason, Grist’s David Roberts, and the Nation’s Chris Hayes, Katha Pollitt and Richard Kim.
The latest leaks showcase members plotting to kill stories about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 elections and in some cases, strategically turn the story against Conservatives. One such example is a suggestion made by Wired.com’s Spencer Ackerman to simply call Obama’s opposition “racists”:
“If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them – Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.”
Later, Chris Hayes of the Nation urged MSM members of JournoList to ignore the Rev. Wright issue all together:
“I’m not saying we should all rush en masse to defend Wright. If you don’t think he’s worthy of defense, don’t defend him! What I’m saying is that there is no earthly reason to use our various platforms to discuss what about Wright we find objectionable.”
The response to the Daily Caller’s latest in the JournoList saga has again been overwhelming from both sides of the aisle but my position is that of the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan who said in a post, “I’m glad Journo-list is over. It should never have been begun. I know many of its members are good and decent and fair-minded writers. But socialized groupthink is not the answer to what’s wrong with the media. It’s what’s already wrong with the media.”
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The Guardian launched GuardianAmerica.com today, “a new site designed to meet the needs of the Guardian’s growing US audience,” according to the announcement.
Here are the main points of the release:
Uh, that’s it? We’re probably being pessimistic today (the same way we were when Time’s “The Page” launched) but…what makes this stick out? What makes it special?
Editor Michael Tomasky tries to explain:
I am sometimes asked what, or who, this means we will try to be “like”; the questioner wants an American reference point the better to slot this project into a known category. The only answer is that we will try to be like … the Guardian.
Which means what? Well, the paper was founded in 1821 “to promote the liberal interest” in the aftermath of the Peterloo massacre. Now, I confess that I don’t know what that was. But it sounds bad, and I’ve been around the block enough times to know that journals founded in response to events like massacres tend to be pretty reliable, from my point of view, more or less across the board.
So Guardian America will, yes, promote the liberal interest. Not with a sledgehammer; one of the most important liberal interests, after all, is in free inquiry, debate, scepticism, even about one’s own positions. But I suspect that, among the Americans who like the Guardian, one of the things they like is that the paper expresses its view of the world a bit more openly than American newspapers do.
This will mean looking at the events of the day from a slightly different angle than US papers, and focusing in on some matters that they might ignore, as I have in my interview with Hillary Clinton. It will not mean, of course, that our standards of accuracy and fairness and fealty to fact will be anything but the highest. “Facts are sacred,” said CP Scott, the man whose family placed the Guardian in trust 71 years ago the better to insulate it from the vicissitudes of the marketplace. That they are – and that does not change across either decades or oceans.
(earlier)
A staff email from Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger:
I am pleased to announce that we have appointed the influential US political commentator and journalist Michael Tomasky as editor of Guardian America, our US website. He takes up his post next week, based in Washington DC, and will be responsible for developing the Guardian’s growing online presence in America. Immediate plans for our site include enhanced coverage of American news stories, a greater focus on international stories of key interest to a US audience, and the development of an America-focused front page for guardianamerica.com. Comment Is Free will also expand its US coverage with more comment and analysis on US issues and more US bloggers.
The Guardian has acquired a considerable audience in America over the past five years – second only to the BBC in terms of British news sites. We’re convinced that we can build on this success – recently recognised by the third Webby award of best newspaper website in the world. Michael Tomasky is a highly experienced editor and an increasingly sought after commentator on American politics. We’re delighted he will be leading the Guardian’s next phase of expansion.
Alan
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Contributor
Peter Ogburn
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Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
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