From JournoList to activist, it appears that WaPo‘s liberal blogger Ezra Kleinis once again blurring the lines between being a journalist and trying to sway politics. In what appears to be at a minimum a breach of journalism ethics, Klein spoke to a group of Senate Democratic Chiefs of Staff last Friday about the Supercommittee, just days before the Committee announced its failing. “It was kind of weird,” said a longtime Senate Democratic aide, explaining that while people “enjoyed it” and gave it “positive reviews” this sort of thing is far from typical.
A longtime Washington editor who deals with Capitol Hill regularly also said this is not the norm: “”I have never heard of a reporter briefing staffers. It’s supposed to be the other way around. This arrangement seems highly unusual.”
Klein’s speech to high-level Democratic aides was in the Capitol, closed door and off the record. It lasted 30 minutes. “I think they thought it was very helpful,” said the aide. “I think it’s unusual. What’s more common is to get someone like Paul Begala or a White House staffer. To get a journalist to talk is a little unusual.”
A little? Is Klein an editorialist, WaPo’s opinions-are-easier-than-facts equivalent to Keith Olbermann? Or is he a journalist, as he would like for his readers to believe, hiding behind the false veneer of objectivity in the hopes people will pass off his propaganda as truth?
When Democrats remark on the weirdness of it all, that says something.
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