« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

I’ve Made David Shuster Cry

Could MSNBC Be Any More Defensive About This Email List?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 17th, 2009 at 10:11 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

First, you’ll have to remember David Shuster does not like me very much. Back during campaign season, David Shuster tried to ambush Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). He tried to launch a left wing smear against her and got his own data wrong. After you guys all called MSNBC, he was forced to do an on-air apology to Rep. Blackburn. So he doesn’t like RedState or me.

That probably explains this email I found in my spam.

Erick Erickson,

I don’t know who you are or how you get your information. Clearly, you can’t be bothered to do some actual reporting and check it out. None the less, I have never participated in any e-mail list serve to collaborate with anybody outside of NBC News to form news stories. Furthermore, until I was directed to your blog, I had never even heard that there might even be a list-serve for bloggers, policy guys, and journalists to collaborate on-line.

Please correct your posting. And next time you want to publish an allegation that involves me, how about e-mailing me first? Journalism 101, remember? To that end, please name your “source” of your posting so everybody knows who burned you. Or, did you just make up the info yourself?

David

I don’t know who you are

I’m the guy who got enough people to call MSNBC to complain about your stunt with Blackburn that you were forced to issue an on-air apology.

I have never participated in any e-mail list serve to collaborate with anybody outside of NBC News to form news stories.

So, what you are saying then is that the left-wing blogosphere has become part of NBC News?

until I was directed to your blog, I had never even heard that there might even be a list-serve for bloggers, policy guys, and journalists to collaborate on-line.

So, David is apparently admitting he doesn’t keep up with the news, particularly the hot news of the day?

I don’t think so. I think he’s full of it and now on the defensive just like all the other lefties running for cover after this story broke. He does not want to be accused of collaborating with the left when we all know there is no way he comes up with hit jobs like he pulled on Blackburn by himself.

Journalism 101, remember?

Journalism 101 — is that where they teach you to throw a dead soldier’s name around for points on television and then get your facts wrong? Is it, David?

please name your “source” of your posting so everybody knows who burned you. Or, did you just make up the info yourself?

I’ve got credible people who have knowledge of the list telling me you are on the list. I believe you are on the list. Put another way, I believe you have more incentive to lie about not being on the list than those telling me you are on the list have incentive to lie to me.

And if they have gotten confused as to which list you are on, then you aren’t on the journalist list, but the activist list.

*Ezra Klein emails to say Shuster is not on the list and the person telling me Shuster is on the list is lying to me. How about we get a list of who all is on the list and we’ll know for sure who is lying? The guy emailing me may be fallible, but he has never lied to me before on stuff and he’s damn well connected to these lefty reporters.

Tags: ,
Get Alerts

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • bk

    Just do it the MSM way and say “There are those who say that you are on the list. Can you disprove that? … I thought not, so it must be true.”

  • usrbinperl

    publish the address of the listserv box… your faithful will tell you exactly who’s on that list ;)

  • http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

    Because I’d encourage that.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Somebody on that listserve now will figure out a way to cash in.

  • spainishirish

    I can’t believe Shuster or MSNBC even would bother to issue a denial. The “network” has been so transparently biased that it almost has crossed the line into in-kind (and illegal) campaign contributions for years. I want to check it out first, but apparently the parent company GE’s poor financial shape has not been forgotten recently, and therer’s your quid. If real enterprise journalism still existed, I imagine we would find the email list serve has existed for much longer than has been exposed.

  • spainishirish

    nt

  • briefsynopsis

    Great Smack down, however, I sincerely hope you got played! Because if there is even a little smoke to this fire,… then we are faced with spotting the left, and then overcoming, a 15 +/- percentage point deficit come 2010.

    doable, but daunting

  • USNJIMRET

    so he’s already not watched by hardly anyone possessed of a functioning brain anyway.
    2. So he’s a lefty, which kind of went with 1.
    3. The only people who might, might mind you, believe that he isn’t a lefty, don’t watch MSNBC, so his protests aren’t being seen anyway.
    Why bother?

  • Dave_in_Fla

    It can’t be that hard to infiltrate and get added, then post a few hundred juicy tidbits publicly. It’s been obvious for at least 4 years that there is a common set of talking points being generated, thanks to the daily use of common terms.

    How long till someone decided to go for the big money and sell out? Not like they generically have a strong moral compass to suppress the urge.

  • http://www.AmericanThinker.com Hammer2008

    So in this case, David Shuster does not need to be featured in this:

    http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.parcoltop11.35513.ImageFile.jpg

  • NeoKong

    Now I will have to find another word.
    Ooch…

    Ahh…yikes!

    Hmmm…..ZOWIE!
    Damn…(sigh)

    I got nothing.

  • spaceman_spiff

    Lets see, how do they say it in France? Oh, yea. Touche!

    Revenge is a dish best served cold.
    –Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    The free ride is over.

    When they lie about you, call them on it. Loudly.
    When they get in your face, get right back into theirs.
    When they try to change the subject, don’t let them.

  • jimmuy8

    Because there are people who are in positions to know inside stuff in the GOP that are on it. Or are directly connected to those that are.

    That’s my guess.

    Guess # 2:

    One other set of names that is on this list: Big name Democrat donors, the kind of people who are getting nice, fat bailouts or plush appointments right now.

    This list isn’t limited to journalists and bloggers–there is money behind it . . .

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    We’re in a war for survival. We can’t cede any more territory. Nor can expect the Democrats to do our work for us.

  • http://dezignworx-ae.com tsquare

    All that hot talk gets me worked up…

  • IJB

    Note the exact wording:

    “None the less, I have never participated in any e-mail list serve to collaborate with anybody outside of NBC News to form news stories.”

    That’s a very specific “denial” – he’s claiming that he’s never generated a “news” story from the mail list. That doesn’t say anything about editorial content, nor anything about “non-news” stories, nor anything about *choice* of which stories MSNBC would choose to go with.

    The word is “form” – IOW, nebulous.

    “Furthermore, until I was directed to your blog, I had never even heard that there might even be a list-serve for bloggers, policy guys, and journalists to collaborate on-line.”

    Right, because to Shuster, they’re not any of those things, they’re just “like-minded friends and colleagues” who “discuss” things.

    He probably doesn’t even think he’s done anything wrong, and probably doesn’t believe that he’s been influenced in anyway. (Lefties are all really good at the kind of self-delusion where they all convince themselves they’re not all followers and herd animals, when they all are.)

    Now, if he’d said, “I’ve never, ever been on *any* mailing list”, that would be a lot more definitive.

    Nice try, David Shuster.

    But, result: FAIL.

  • paulincolo

    my guess is that shuster isn’t on the list as klein says, because… wait for it…..wait for it……

    he was on the list, and has now been taken off, so that neither can be called a liar. wow, this is easy, maybe I will become a leftist liberal.

    oohh, let me try another….. did you know that NBC discovered the dangers of GM trucks exploding gas tanks (course that is after they rigged with a bomb).

    or a more recent version on those racist rednecks:

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2006/04/inside_the_sausage_factory_how.html

    I will say it is curious why they are so defensive and so secretive about this list. Its not like people don’t know the lefties coordinate their “news” stories and its not illegal.

    My guess#2 is that there are people in the administration and the DNC on this list.

  • http://fairfaxgardener.blogspot.com ddstrain

    of the GOP sitting there leading with their chin for the past 8 years. The Left has lied, twisted words, mangled context and used a propaganda machine that would shame Goebbels.

    When they spew slogans (all they have), retaliate with facts (what they fear).

    Tally-Ho

  • Alitheia
  • Martin Knight

    Pretty soon, Klein would be telling us it was all a figment of our imaginations – the list never existed or he’s the sole member of the listserv who sends stuff to himself..

    What I’m pretty certain of is that there are a lot of “anonymous” members of that listserv, people whose identities only the administrators of the JList know, and I’d strongly bet that some of them are Democratic communications staffers on the hill, White House staffers, news show producers on the networks, supposedly straight news reporters, and their editors.

    I would bet anything that Bill Keller is on that list under an assumed name.

    In other words, any list of members Ezra Klein would produce or have mysteriously “leaked” is certain to be doctored.

  • spainishirish

    “I get lots of unsolicited email.”
    “Anyone can be ‘placed’ on a list.”
    “If I were on the list it didn’t form my news stories.”
    “I’ve reviewed recent emails and it is not impossible I was on the list.”

    The next step will be to minimize the topic:

    “Even though I apparently was on some sort of list it didn’t influence me.”

    Finally, attack the source:

    “This claim about that my being on an email list is nothing more than right-wing paranoia.”

    I re-read the Politico account, and again think the next shoe to drop will be how long this has gone on. Two years? My guess is since Bush v. Gore. As pointed out above, we’ll get details after someone decides to cash in.

  • Jwt4412

    The list exists… it has journos on it.

    So it isn’t Shuster or Ober…. it’s their producers, writers and researchers… same result.

  • itrytobenice

    There will be a few Martin Knights and Moe Lanes but there will also be Thomases, c17wifes and Jadeds. Some will be incognito because to be discovered would be too bad and they know it. Those are the names I want.