That was the theory behind Journolist: An insulated space where the lure of a smart, ongoing conversation would encourage journalists, policy experts and assorted other observers to share their insights with one another [….] At the beginning, I set two rules for the membership. The first was the easy one: No one who worked for the government in any capacity could join. The second was the hard one: The membership would range from nonpartisan to liberal, center to left.
Backstory here.
Sorry to be off topic Kate, but I’m here at the wildrose alliance party convention in red deer and I thought you and your readers might be interested in how things are going.
Danille Smith will make her opening speech in about ten minutes.
I’m no head counter but mayonnaise a lot people here!!!
The official number of paying delegates is over seven hundred and many aren’t expected until the policy meeting tm
Ezra is bummed because somebody violated the secret handshake of the LiberalJournoList. You had to be approved to to know the Society’s secrets and they approved a MOLE.
Journalists are so thin skinned they luminesce when you hold them up to the light. They demand transparency from everyone in business and government but prefer to hide themselves in the shadows. This wasn’t about asking each other what questions to ask. If that were the case Ezra and company would WANT to learn from a conservative what questions should be asked of liberals in power. But they were more interested in advancing a partisan agenda. They wanted the power to influence events in a “progressive” manor without all the messiness of running for office.
Drat hit the post button by accident.
… Tomorrow. The general public is being allowed in for danielles speech for a ten dollar per fee so I suspect there are quite a few of those.
We already have had our first crisis – not enough thundersticks for everybody. There are lots however and they are being used heartily as the crowd gets wound up for the speech.
Quite a diversity of people here and more than a few AB PC members – decades long members – who I know and are surprising me with their presence.
Scuttlebutt has it that the CBC press members were only expecting 250 people and were agog at the size of the crowd. I have that from someone I trust completely but could never quote unfortunately.
More later if you wish…
This is a fired-up crowd… I doubt the PC convention held in the very same place less than a year ago was in the same mood….
The very first order of business was a moment of silence for a Mountie killed in Alberta. Then a salute to the military. Very and emotional as the speaker had only recently returned from afstan.
Hahahah …. I’ll just savour some schadebfreude here for a while.
As the broadcast media concern themselves with the uber issue of a freaks year ago death …. the print media expose themselves aas a clique of gossips … eating there own excrement.
Fridays can be pretty damned good if you pay attention..
Here’s some breaking news… The person introducing the keynote speaker is GUY BOUTILIER MLA for fort Mac. Until tonight he was sitting as an independent. Not anymore.
Personally I have always seen him as center-left and an odd fit. Perhaps I am wrong.
Yeah, that broke at 9 a.m. when he was on the Rutherford show.
It’s been on TV all day, too.
Syf:
Didn’t have the radio on all day. Thanks.
Took a look around the room – standing room only. Outside of a hockey rink this is the biggest room in town and it’s pretty-much full
First section of DSs speech uses the words fight and battle several times.
Next segment uses the “we’ve had enough” liturgy. That’s why everyone in the room is here.
Some pretty pointed remarks on AGw and carbon capture.
Lots of reference to property rights too.
A very stout Defence of the oil sands. Very well recieved.
Asking Ezra Klien to find a conservative “journo” is like Ezra Levant asking Mansbridge to find an unbiased CEEB “journo”. I just hope ALL the print MSM doesn’t die off before me.I still need fish wrappers and birdcage liners.
Healthcare up next – fish in a barrel
Soft terms implying challenges to Canada health act perhaps, perhaps not. Certainly an expression of determination that AB will lead in innovation not “hang back”
Similar comments on education.
Legislated budget parameters. We have a spending problem not a revenue problem.
Just finished her speech. She really seems to enjoy the feedback from the crowd.
Well done.
Eleven hundred people there for the speech is official estimate. There were eight hundred seats by my count and they were almost all in use and at least a couple hundred standing.
Gord, thanks for destroying the topic with a dozen posts on a regional issue that’s absolutely zero to do with anything being discussed.
You don’t think saving up those “gems” for a post in Reader Tips would have been more appropriate?
If you can’t afford to have anybody find out what you -really- think… you might be a liberal.
Dang, it just SUCKS when people find out you’re nothing but a hate-filled little bile sac, eh? We feeeel your pain, Mr. Klein.
Reader tips was a day old when I was posting.
Some of you may recall that I did similar posting at the federal cp convention in wpg and kate had no problem with it.
There is an extreme double standard where conservative beliefs are considered hateful and liberal views must be tolerated no matter how infamous.
While we can easily reach a general consensus that racism, Nazism, and corporate exploitation are bad, leftists are immune from embracing support for terrorism, admiration for communism, and condonation of violence by minorities and union thugs.
There’s nothing a leftists loves more than the sound of his own voice. A close second is the admiration of like-minded people for what they say.
Research has shown that expressed views become more extreme among like-minded people. Leftists seek these venues because they crave external validation to assauge their cognitive dissonance.
As for Weigel, it’s more proof that the most dangerous thing for a liberal is to plainly say what they really believe. They feel content only when they can express their abominable views to people who won’t express immediate scorn and contempt.
Journolist: completely pathetic and cowardly.
“Gord, thanks for destroying the topic with a dozen posts on a regional issue that’s absolutely zero to do with anything being discussed.”
Hardly a ‘barn burner’ of a topic being interrupted.
Thanks for your enthusiasm to post the updates Gord…..and I’m from Ontario.
The CBC and Toronto Star would never pull stunts like this Wiegel, would they?
Thanks for the updates Gord. Hopefully this spreads.
I’d rather you didn’t, Gord. I was out all evening or I’d have nipped this thread in the bud. It should be saved for reader tips.
Yet another example of someone being stupid and putting stuff in writing. People just can’t seem to learn that once you send an email or post on a discussion forum under your real name that it can potentially be shared with the whole world. If you want to have a discussion where you might make comments that wouldn’t look good if they got out, have it in a noisy bar and make sure no-one is recording the meeting.
The journolist discussion forum would have been more balanced if it included conservatives and libertarians, but then there seem to be very few of those in the MSM.
I don’t really have a problem with journolist. We all seek out people of the same opinions. We just want to know there’s someone in the vast lonely void we can connect with and agree on songs we can goosestep to.
That said I wish Klein would just admit it’s less of a edifying and enlightening experience and more like a echo chamber that gets progressively more radical over time. This is how an evening with a book club ends with police helicopters and 15 counts of arson.
Gord, thanks for destroying the topic with a dozen posts on a regional issue that’s absolutely zero to do with anything being discussed.
You don’t think saving up those “gems” for a post in Reader Tips would have been more appropriate?
Posted by: Yukon Gold at June 25, 2010 10:21 PM
I guess some people have a different idea of what ‘destroyed’ and ‘regional’ means than I do.
Gord, your posts didn’t bother me in the least…thanks.
I recall a situation at CBC after Heather Mallet wrote a juvenile screed about Sarah Palin . The then CBC boss could not find a right-leaning writer on their staff.Things are the still the same,unfortunately we ALL pay for the CBC.
You know, after freakin’ near 20 years of being called a Nazi because of my -very well supported- stance on gun control, my heart bleeds for this liberal. Really!
Lets face it, if you’re a Conservative or even just a conservative on the web, you use a pseudonym to protect your career. Because of intolerant, hatey haters like Ezra Klein and frickin’ David Weigel who wants the only non-liberal news source in America to set himself on fire.
Kate McMillan or Kathy Shaidle would get instantly fired out of any bank, hospital or business of over 100 people in North America because of their web sites. They don’t care because they’ve accepted that reality and dealt with it by being self employed. There’s not many freaky Liberals out there wanting flames on their helmet or their car, right? I’d get fired likewise, were I dumb enough to put my name on The Phantom Soapbox. Anonymous posters prove that.
That sword of Damocles hanging over one’s head does not make for a pleasant work environment let me tell you. Because of the ENDLESS lies and disinformation of these journalists.
As I say, my heart bleeds. It bleeds because these men still don’t understand what just happened. His views are POISONOUS, but he thinks he’s a victim of enemy action by meanie partisan Republicans. He thinks it should be ok to harbor this kind of poison in your heart, so long as you sugar-coat it in public.
Sorry boys. Wishing guys dead because they won’t echo the talking points fax-of-the-day like you do, that ain’t according to Hoyle, know what I mean.
I would have read the Washington Post article, but there was an advertisement that kept getting in the way. So a made a note not to read the Washington Post online anymore. I realize they need to make money somehow, but these online intrusive adds are getting out of hand.