Dear Ezra,
I keep hearing about how smart the policy conversations on JournoList are, and am starting to feel like I’m missing out by not reading them. Could I join?
I realize you and I don’t share the same politics, but I can promise you I have no interest in flaming anyone or even debating (I get enough of that). I’m just interested in knowing what smart progressives are saying. It strikes me that’s the one thing I’m missing in my daily reading.
Please tell me what you think. If it makes you uncomfortable, ask around. I’m pretty sure we know a lot of the same people.
All best,
Tucker Carlson.
Ezra then asked the list, and they basically said not to let him join, because he will just take things out of context and smear people. And lo and behold, the moment he got access to JournOlist, Tucker took things out of context and started smearing people.
Brad DeLong has an example of how distorted the Daily Caller “reporting” has been.
Kristine
They turned him down, and he plotted his revenge.
Such a small person.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
How many birthday party snubs do you think Tucker is getting revenge on here? All the cupcakes he missed (cough), all the pinatas he never swung at, all the bushes he lurked in, watching through all those windows at all those kids at that loser party he totally didn’t even want to go to….
BTD
You are right but I think this is being handled incorrectly.
Tucker Carlson LOVES this polemica.
I strongly recommend that Ezra and others stop writing about Tucker Carlson.
No one actually cares about this.
General Stuck
Carlson’s existence is a testament to the compromised gene pool that seems to fuel America’s overpopulation with stupid humanoids.
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I suspect he identified deeply with the piñata…
demimondian
This is the standard “unless you hit the bully back” situation. Someone needs to sue for defamation. Whether they win or lose, it won’t matter; the very possibility of being called to account will, for the first time, force these thugs to live in a world of law. As things stand now, there is no risk to them for their behavior, and there are infinite rewards.
demimondian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You know what, Jim? I was that kid — the one who got the insulting “party gifts” if I was invited to the party in the first place. Somehow, I didn’t wind up a sociopathic cretin with delusions of grandeur.
The fault was not in his start, dear Literalist, but in himself that he is less than a man.
paradox
When Tucker Carlson is harassing decent people who have done nothing wrong–reporters–I won’t think he’s unimportant or shut up.
Damn I hate this story passionately, such slithering turds of smallness who cannot be shamed or shut up.
Many moons before all this broke right in these spaces I said I didn’t trust Ezra Klein because he set up an exclusion zone and they cause trouble. But Jesus his little chat club warranted nothing of the magnitude of hell he’s got for it since.
Carlson got x4 the hits for this little stunt, so it won’t stop. So tired of these little lizards taking us all down.
Mark S.
At least Treacher didn’t have to get run over again for the Daily Tucker to get 50 hits for the day.
Lev
Jon Stewart was right!
bago
Well, the heir to the Swanson fortune certainly is making a name for himself.
JCT
@Lev: You beat me to it– I was going to suggest a write-in campaign to have Jon Stewart invite that putz Tucker on TDS. It’s been too long since Stewart gave him that atomic wedgie.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I have a hard time even thinking up what kind of e-mails would scandalously expose a bunch of liberal bloggers. “Goddamn that Sarah Palin, I wish I had just one clear shot so I could kill the bitch.” Short of that, why is Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias e-mailing each other about mutual political interests a scandal? Some people have entirely too much time on their hands.
Church Lady
If the people of Journolist want to argue that things are being taken out of context, why not just release the entire archives. Then, everyone will be able to understand the context of the published exerpts and the story will die. As it stands now, it’s going to be a drip, drip, drip kind of thing.
Also, wouldn’t everyone love to know who gave the archives to The Daily Caller?
Pancake
Oh..Boo Hoo Hoo…A bunch of mostly incompetent and burnt out Lefties get caught with their pants down and now it’s the folks that exposed their bare naked asses that are the bad guys. LOL
hilzoy
Fwiw, while people did worry about opening the archives, the reasons for keeping JList as it was that I recall as the most common were: (a) it’s not broke, so don’t fix it, and (b) do we really want to start having to argue about things like the Hockey Stick graph, whether fiscal stimulus ever works, whether FDR caused the Great Depression, etc?
BTD
@paradox:
Meh. 4 x. a small amount is still not a big deal. This is interesting to a very select few.
In other words, this is punching down. Way down. Ezra is much bigger and more important than Tucker Carlson. He can successfully ignore him.
This is not a Shirley Sherrod story.
Generally I am not a fan of not hitting back, but this time, I think it is the right play.
Honestly, who takes Tucker Carlson seriously? His media career has basically been a spiral downwards, not upwards.
Soon enough, Ezra will be a regular columnist in the deadwood WaPo (if it still exists) and is already a regular TV face. Tucker Carlson runs the Daily Caller, who no one ever thought about until this stupid story.
gwangung
@Church Lady:
Like it did with Climategate? Riiiiiiggghhhhht.
eemom
From 24/7 firebagger flame wars over Sherrod, to 24/7 scrutinizations of Fucker Tarlson’s Phantasy Blogiverse, the nightmare continues.
Shalimar
@Pancake: Spoken like a true sociopath. It’s all a sport and your team is always right regardless of what they do.
JCT
@eemom:
Boy between this and the Newt flaying at Wonkette my monitor screen is dust.
Jeffro
o/t but still: Rachel Maddow is once again handing Bill O’Reilly and Fox News their collective a$$es…she sure is somethin’
hilzoy
And about “why not release the entire archives?”: every person who posted there did so with the understanding that while someone might leak something, we were all pledged to keep it confidential. Posting the threads would require getting everyone’s permission, at least if you do it the honorable way. Imagine that you’re trying to decide whether or not to publish a series of emails written by 400 or so of your closest friends, none of whom wrote those emails on the understanding that they’d be made public.
If you want to see the kind of editing that’s going on, check here. (Publishing that exchange only required permission from two people, so it’s easier.)
r€nato
You have one side which believes in advancing its arguments through debate, reason, logic and facts.
You have another side which believes in advancing its arbuments with smears, lies, character assassination, taking statements out of context, and ratfucking.
I get SO FUCKING ANNOYED with the ‘both sides do it!’ argument. Bullshit.
This is not Democrats vs. Republicans. This is decent people vs. malicious, ignorant, selfish, vindictive assholes.
r€nato
@Shalimar: That’s the way the reptile brain thinks. Some of us are more evolved than that; others – like Pancake, Breitbart and Carlson – have proven that devolution is a valid theory.
paradox
For what’s worth, BTD, I don’t plan to blog about it again, as I said this morning I’ve usually got far better things to do. But I will be watching.
Ezra did the right thing by punching back here, at least.
If I keep watching and no one fights back over some latest idiotic outrage that harms innocent folks I will be the fuck back with it.
Liberals have got to learn to fight. If we have learned any bitter lessons over the years, surely that has to be one of the most primary.
Take care, brother.
r€nato
@Jeffro: In the universe where reality, facts and truth matter… yes, she wins hands down.
Sadly, a significant minority of the nation lives in the right-wing reality distortion sphere, where facts, reason, logic and decency are for pussies.
beltane
@BTD: You are right. Poor little Tucker is angry he wasn’t invited to the party with the popular kids. He has made sure he won’t be invited to the next party either. If you ask even well informed people about this, the response will be “Journo-what? Who cares.”
If Carlson wasn’t the product of two rich people copulating, he would probably a bartender at a Chile’s somewhere.
BTD
@hilzoy:
Do not give Carlson the satisfaction.
Besides, if you think these Daily Caller stories are a problem, releasing the archives won’t stop him. Hell, the release will be a story. Not only would it be wrong, given the ground rules, it would be stupid.
I do wish Carlson would be ignored.
Kryptik
@BTD:
I think it’s hard for Ezra not to talk about this, since this is basically a direct attack on his legitimacy. And I’m not sure ‘ignoring’ Tucker will work, because it’s already proven that he’s getting more attention for it even without others talking about it. He has no incentive to stop. And not at least trying to fight back against it is very unlikely to end the attacks on Ezra. Ignoring a cancer like Tucker Carlson way too often just allows it to fester until it’s too late.
beltane
This post deserves to include that douchey looking picture of Tucker in his white pants and Sperry Topsiders that John put up a couple of months ago.
r€nato
Remember that time some gay guy made a pass at Tucker and he beat the shit out of him?
LOL sure he did. What a vengeful, petty little prick.
BTD
@Kryptik:
Firing back does not stop it. The audience Carlsonis catering to does not care that Ezra is owning him in terms of reason and facts. Firing back raises the prominence of the nonsense.
This is punching down. Not smart imo.
I understand why Ezra wants to fire back but I recommend, FWIW (nothing) that he stop it.
Jennifer
FWIW, over at my place I’ve posted the shorter on Fox, Breitbart & the MSM’s rationalizations about how the Sherrod deal was all the White House’s fault.
beltane
@r€nato: And he bragged about beating the shit out of him. You’d think he’d be flattered that someone out there wanted to associate with him; it appears that not too many people do.
His site should be renamed the Daily Call Boy. It makes more sense.
scarshapedstar
What else would anyone expect from that smarmy little shit?
r€nato
@scarshapedstar:
I expect (and hope) someday Tucker is found expired wearing two wetsuits and a dildo up his ass.
matoko_chan
im still happy.
and Ezra is quite dishy but Tucker is a nancy boy that probably wears depends at nite.
i bet he doesn’t get many dates.
RSR
Please, Ezra. “Could I join?” I’ll give you my drinkbox every day. And you can push me in the mud when the pretty girls come by. And I’ll wear a bowtie.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@BTD:
@hilzoy:
No need to be coy, it’s cool here in the BJ comment section. I have the coordinates of the Venezuelan FARC camps here, and I have a wink and a nod from Raul C. about safe passage for the rendering flight you two were concerned about. Oh, and the Chinese watch will be ready at midnight.
Solidarity, comrades.
SIA
This is the caliber person we’re dealing with here.
Tucker Carlson is a dick. A very little one, but a dick all the same.
Jeffro
Ok, true…but tomorrow my significant minority will have a heckuva better argument at the water cooler.
This tribalizm thing, I likes it!
ruemara
@r€nato:
this to infinity.
Violet
@beltane:
Yep. The name “The Daily Caller” always sounded a bit hooker-ish to me. It’s a crap name.
Shalimar
@BTD: It doesn’t matter whether it stops it or not. Out of context quotes could affect Klein’s future employment opportunities if someone with hiring authority is paying attention and he should fight back, especially since the facts so far have been on his side. The same applies to other people who are directly slimed by the Daily Caller stories. I agree with you that everyone else should just let all of this go and not give Carlson the attention.
And Another Thing...
It’s been kind of fun watching Carlson’s “career” crater. He flunked off all three cable “news” stations and was reduced to Dancin with the Stars. Now he’s manufacturing dirty linen.
What a whore…er.. actually he’s more of a gigolo…or rent boy.
mcd410x
come on kiss the gun
guaranteed for fun
Gregory
What integrity?
silentbeep
@Church Lady:
Ezra Klein already answered that question as to why he won’t release the archives: he made an agreement with everyone on that list, that anything that was said on journolist was off-the record. That agreement still stands in his eyes.
Cliff
I cannot tell you how…absolutely…..shocked and appalled…I…zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz………..
Joseph Nobles
This reminds me of a group of foul 9/11 Truth advocates who are convinced they’ve unearthed actual evidence that the plane seen flying toward the Pentagon actually flew over it. Idiots, in other words. Every once in a while, some of them will gang up and head into places like Democratic Underground or JREF and do their little shtick. I’m really thinking of the time they’d scored some Internet radio appearance or something and needed debunkers to debate. So they showed up, tossing the attitude, hamming it up. We just let the nuts slide on through.
That’s what Tucker on JournOList reminds me of.
El Cid
I think they should create a new JournOList and just send e-mails back and forth about what a completely pathetic fuck the loser frat boy Tucker Carlson is.
And then Carlson could threaten to get some friends and beat them up in a bathroom stall, ’cause he’s all macho & shit.
Paul
@And Another Thing…:
Let’s not forget his short-lived stint on PBS.
I’ve truly hated Tucker Carlson from this moment on:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/16/15584/3798
Fucking sociopath.
WereBear
I can’t believe no one has congratulated John on the oxymoronic beauty of his title. Kudos!
And Another Thing...
@Paul: Holy shit. That is a truly damning post. It’s a link I’m saving. Thank you.
Paul
@And Another Thing…:
I remember watching the weasel pushing this line and nothing in that post is out of context.
Mpls
The Breitbarting of Weigel, Ezra and all the JournoListers is just part and parcel of the massive right-wing smear machine.
demimondian
@And Another Thing…: Tucker Calrson is blessed with the integrity, creativity, and talent of Milli Vanilli
pablo
Trust fund kid works hard to prove himself…..to whom, I’m not sure.
Objective Scrutator
Isn’t Tucker Carlson hated by, uh, everyone? I can’t think of a single person, be they conservative, libertarian, liberal, Dadaist, Heliocentrist, etc. who has linked Tucker Carlson approvingly.
Honestly, did anyone give a shit when Crossfire was canceled?
someguy
I hear he rapes puppies.
Or raises them. I wasn’t quite clear on that.
And Another Thing...
@demimondian: Except that they could dance.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
The continuing media death of the zombie Carlson is more painful than the endless death of Generalissimo Franco.
But, if it ever ends and Carlson is declared actually media dead, it will have been worth it.
mclaren
Here’s the translation:
John Blevins (fka publius)
I do hope people click through and read DeLong’s link. And you should watch the video I linked to. I watched again today for the first time in a year and a half. And, yes, it was still touching to see how moved an elderly black volunteer was to meet and work for Obama.
That Daily Caller list of quotes makes us look like a bunch of sobbing sycophants – and leaves out the historical discussion taking place. That’s pretty much the story for every excerpt on DC.
But I think maybe Yglesias said this — you shouldn’t have to lie to your readers to convince them. It’s amazing what contempt people like Tucker and Breitbart have for their audiences.
Viva la Balloon Juice
Darkrose
Wait…someone still uses Listproc?
Ryan
RE: His integrity:
I think Grover Norquist drowned it in a bathtub.
JCT
@Ryan: And the evidence that he ever had any integrity is what?
Bender
Context?
You idiots, Ezra is sitting on a mountain of “context,” and he’s terrified to release it (By the way, I’d LOVE to hear the magic words that change the context for “pick somebody…and call them a racist” and “fucking NASCAR retards!”). He’s figured out that releasing the full archives would be waaaaaay worse than the clips. First cogent notion he’s ever had…
Look, journalists are not bright people, and these guys are as not bright as any of them. Are they not aware of how the internet works? Everything can go public in a heartbeat.
Oh, and you forgot: non-story, nontroversy, and heavily edited.
scarshapedstar
Bender,
Dave Weigel was fired from the WaPo because of comments he made before he worked at the WaPo. That’s what most people consider ‘context’. It was withheld by right-wing smear artists.
It’s kinda like how Shirley Sherrod was fired from the USDA because of an anecdote about something she did (or, more accurately, didn’t even do) before I was born, when she worked at a nonprofit. That’s what most people consider ‘context’. It was withheld by right-wing smear artists.
Or like how ACORN was destroyed based on selectively edited (and dubbed-over!) tapes that appeared to depict a guy in a pimp suit asking advice on how to run a brothel, when he was in fact wearing business attire and asking for advice on how to protect a young woman from a violent pimp. That’s what most people consider ‘context’. It was withheld by right-wing smear artists.
So just shut the fuck up already. Even most wingnuts are sick of liars like you. You’re like, I dunno, a guy exposing his centimeter-long dick to kindergarteners, and the cops let it slide because even the kindergarteners just laugh at you, but you keep on doing it.