Fallows and Crook say the "scandal" is silly. Clive:
The idea that 400 journalists, academics and assorted hangers-on could plot to do anything, even if they agreed they wanted to, is laughable.
Jim:
In the other listservs I know -- about China, software, aviation, defense, cybersecurity, etc -- some people's careers could be gravely damaged if their least judicious single sentences were used against them out of context years later. I really, really hate to see that done to young people now. "Have you no sense of decency?" is the right question for Andrew Breitbart. It's also the right question for the Daily Caller, whose editor (Tucker Carlson) asked for membership in the dreaded Journolist -- and was turned down -- just before it began seriatim publishing of damaging and out-of-context quotes against young writers.
I didn't know Tucker had tried to join, which makes this even more school-yardy. And I agree with Jim's disdain for leaking private airing of views. Where I remain discomfited is that this list-serv was not around a specific, specialized subject, like the ones Jim cites - but around an entire political philosophy which already dominates too much of the elite media. It is this tendency to groupthink and exclusivity that concerns me. Which is why I'm glad this thing has been killed off.