After having spent over a year of my life and most of my savings trying to spread the truth that the news media single-handedly elected Barack Obama and went on a search and destroy mission to target Sarah Palin (via my feature documentary “Media Malpractice”), I have pretty much stopped even bothering to chronicle this obvious media reality which continues to impact news coverage to this day. Since citing anti-Palin media bias is now roughly like continuing to build the case that O.J. was guilty, I have actually gotten kind of bored with it and left the duty of being outraged to many others more than willing to fill that void.
However, when something is revealed which particularly vindicates my film and where I can shed further light on the historical record, I feel a compulsion to come forward. Such is the case with the Daily Caller’s series last week on the treasure trove of “Journolist” e-mail that was recently uncovered.
While I took great interest in the evidence that liberal “journalists” had conspired to spike the numerous bombshells regarding Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 presidential primaries (my film goes into greater detail on that subject than any other I am aware of, but I can assure you my investigation indicates the entire story there has yet to be fully told), I was most intrigued by part three of the series which dealt directly with the targeting of then Governor Sarah Palin.
Specifically, I felt an “Ah Ha!” moment when the details about the role of Time magazine’s liberal writer Joe Klein were exposed.
I have always had a special suspicion of Joe Klein, mostly because I couldn’t believe he got away with writing the Clinton book “Primary Colors” under “Anonymous,” blatantly lied about not being the author to increase books sales, and then was allowed to go back to being a liberal ideologue masquerading as a respected journalist as if nothing ever happened. So when I read about his special efforts to galvanize his media friends against the V.P. candidacy of Sarah Palin, a giant bell went off in my brain.
I instantly remembered a clip from my film where the night of Palin’s blockbuster convention speech NBC anchor Brian Williams makes the highly unusual decision to read on the air the assertions, mislabeled as “fact,” of a liberal reporter who was urging fellow media colleagues (and fellow “Journolist” members?) to “stand strong” and to report all sorts of negative things (most of which were patently untrue) about Sarah Palin. Who was that media member? The same Joe Klein.
One of the criticisms of the Daily Caller’s investigation into the “Journolist” scandal (if it is even possible for there to be a “scandal” in what is left of journalism these days) is that these were mostly just a bunch of liberal commentators expressing their opinion and that their thoughts didn’t make it into the “mainstream” as actual reporting. This episode with Brian Williams proves that contention to be utterly, and sadly, without merit.
As the “missing link” video below proves, there is no doubt that members of Journolist both tried and succeeded as injecting their opinions (in this case mostly discredited ones) disguised as fact into the mainstream through one of the most widely viewed and respected outlets we have left, at the most advantageous moment possible.
Here is a video of an interview I did with Bill O’Reilly about this incident which includes me showing Gov. Palin the clip and getting her rather prescient response: http://howobamagotelected.com/assets/videos/OReilly.html.
You can find out more about John Ziegler’s film “Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted” at www.HowObamaGotElected.com.
John Ziegler is currently a documentary filmmaker who most recently released a movie on the 2008 election called, “Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.” He has also been in radio talk show host in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Louisville and Nashville. Ziegler has written two books and has appeared live on numerous national television shows including the Today Show, The View, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC.