The now closed down JournoList, has caused considerable controversy in recent weeks. According to its opponents, JournoList teamed up some 400 prominent “progressive” journalists in an effort to smooth Barack Obama’s path to the White House.

There have been accusations that “Journolitstas,” deliberately sought to downplay Obama’s association with the Marxist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and tried to smear conservatives or opposing journalists as “racists.”

This post looks at 106 reported “Journolistas” to look for connections or common threads.

Of the known “Jounolistas” and organizations listed below, many can be linked back to two interrelated groups Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S.’s largest Marxist-based organization and the D.S.A.’s “brain,” the Washington DC-based, far left “think tank,” the Institute for Policy Studies.

Between them, D.S.A. and the I.P.S. dominate or influence several organizations affiliated to JournoList, including:

• The American Prospect – Founded in 1990 by D.S.A. affiliate Robert Kuttner. Current editor-at-large, is leading D.S.A. member Harold Meyerson.
• Mother Jones – Includes D.S.A. member Adam Hochschild on its Board of Directors, plus some D.S.A. affiliated staff and contributors. Hochschild was a supporter of Progressives for Obama.
• Economic Policy Institute – Led by D.S.A. member Larry Mishel and I.P.S. affiliate Jeff Faux and several D.S.A. affiliated board members. This organization has contributed at least three officials to the Obama Administration, including Obama economic adviser and ‘Journolista’ Jared Bernstein.
• Center for American Progress – Several staff and officials are affiliated with D.S.A. and the I.P.S. Writing of the Center’s relationship to the Obama Administration, former Weather Underground terrorist leader and Progressives for Obama supporter Mark Rudd said “There’s a whole govt. in waiting that Podesta has at the Center for American Progress. They’re mostly progressives, I’m told…”
• The Nation – Edited by I.P.S. trustee Katrina vanden Heuvel, who presides over an editorial board which includes D.S.A. members Norman Birnbaum, Barbara Ehrenreich (also an I.P.S. trustee) and Deborah Meier, plus I.P.S. affiliates Tom Hayden and Roger Wilkins.
• In These Times – Created by I.P.S. and run mainly by D.S.A. members and affiliates. Based in Chicago, I.T.T.’s board of editors includes former Weather Underground terrorists and Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
• Progressives for Obama – Established by D.S.A. members Barbara Ehrenreich, Tim Carpenter and Bill Fletchers, Jr. Ehrenreich and Fletcher are also I.P.S. affiliates, as were two more of P.F.O.’s six founders: Tom Hayden and Danny Glover.
• Campaign for America’s Future – Founded in 1996, by several dozen D.S.A. members and I.P.S. affiliates, C.A.F. is a major coordinator of the U.S. “progressive” movement. In recent years it has organized several major Take Back America and America’s Future Now! conferences in Washington DC – which are attended by the cream of the U.S. progressive movement, including Barack Obama himself.

Apart from the D.S.A./I.P.S. connections, leftist institutions like The New Republic and the New Century Foundation are well represented. There are two known connections to George Soros‘ Open Society Institute.

Many major newspapers are also represented, as is national public radio, CNN and a host of leading “progressive” blogs and websites and leftist media “watchdog” Media Matters.

…(read more)…