The Journolist Hangover

It's been a while since the whole sorry Journolist debacle was first unearthed and reported by the Daily Caller. But the effects will linger.

Thursday night, I was watching Anderson Cooper interview Journolister Jeffrey Toobin about the Charles Rangel scandal. Toobin downplayed the charges against Rangel, referring to them as "penny ante" stuff.

For the record, Toobin has been named as a "hero[]" of Journolist. What's more, conservative Bill Kristol has characterized the Rangel case in similar terms.

But when Toobin did it, I had to wonder for a minute whether this was some "meme" that lefty journo-strategists wanted to sell to the American public, rather than simply thinking "Hm. Interesting."

That's the damage that Journolist has done to its participants' reputations. If I were a left-leaning journalist who hadn't participated, I'd certainly be pushing for the names of all participants to be disclosed so that my motives in offering opinions would be crystal clear.