I emailed the reporter, Michael Calderone, who wrote the JournoList piece and asked him to respond to criticism that the existence of the list was hardly a surprise, per John’s earlier post. He was kind enough to respond:
Obviously, I’m aware there are other lists. But the point here is that JList serves as a far more comprehensive gathering of left-of-center opinion writers, mainstream reporters, bloggers, policy people, and academics than any I’ve come across before. As someone writing on the intersection of media and politics, I hoped to provide a window into how ideas–large and small–can be discussed daily in an informal, OTR way before making their way into the public conversation through blogs and print publications.
Considering that JList has never been profiled in two years, and includes hundreds of members-including several current and former Politico reporters-we thought it was worth covering. Not to mention, in the past couple weeks the issue of publishing from an OTR listserv came up regarding the Charles Freeman nomination. Given that, I fail to see why that’s such a terrible thing to want to note on a political news site.
I realize a lot of people here trash the Politico, and I don’t think it’s perfect, but they are generally much better about responding to readers than anywhere else I know of. Calderone, who runs a good blog on media there, deserves credit for responding here.
Response from the Politico’s Michael CalderonePost + Comments (80)