Tea Party grizzlies vs JournoList wolf pack

Fred Barnes's WSJ op ed today got us to thinking about the difference between liberal and conservative journalists. Twittering about it this afternoon, we came up with the metaphor of wolf pack behavior for the JournoList folks on the left side of the aisle. Working as a team, they select their quarry and close in for the kill in a coordinated attack from all sides. Sarah Palin is calling them "sick puppies." But what animal works best as a metaphor for journos on the Tea Party side of the aisle? See below for some answers.

"My experience with other conservative journalists is that they are loners," writes Fred Barnes in "The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy" in today's WSJ. Getting his readers up to speed on JournoListGate, a vaguely bemused "Freddie the Beadle" reluctantly acknowledges there's something rotten in the state of American journalism:

Not to say there's a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism …

The first call I got after the Daily Caller unearthed the emails involving me was from Karl Rove. He said he wanted to talk to his "fellow racist." We laughed about this. But the whole episode was also sad. I didn't sputter at the thought of being called a racist. But it was sad to see what journalism, or at least a segment of it, had come to.

 

"Grizzlies are generally loners, but they are still North America’s most social bear. They gather at food sources and often forage in family groups," according to the Bronx Zoo website. Sarah Palin's metaphor for common-sense conservative women — "Mama Grizzlies" fiercely defending their young — resonates beyond female political candidates to become a perfect metaphor for everyday fellow Americans and social-networking citizen journalists like the Tea Partiers, both women and men, who are entering the political fray to battle the fear-and-smear machine that would douse the lights of the Shining City Upon a Hill.

Lone grizzly vs. wolf pack. Individualism vs. collectivism. The metaphors fit. On the other hand, a case can be made, as we've done before, for social networkers as flocks of birds wheeliing and swooping in unison. As with Adam Smiths "invisible hand," individual choices add up to something that redounds to the benefit of the larger community:

"Individuals, but moving in a single entity. And the reason for this behavior? Well, thousands of eyes looking for predators on the roost site. Nothing could escape their gaze, no raptor could surprise this soaring mass of bird flesh … The birds are also maneuvering for position, social position."

SAD isn't going to do it, Fred. Think of the Mama Grizzlies and Papa Bears: First you get MAD, and then you strike back. Special Forces Commander Dan Riehl has the goods at Human Events in a take-no-prisoners "Defense of Andrew Breitbart." Read it, Mr. Barnes, and take heart.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: The Anchoress links under "Unrelated Weekend Fare."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Tom Knowles]

Not wolves--more like a pack of rabid poodles.

[goomp]

I like Tom's metaphor.

[Gayle Miller]

The charge of racism is being used into the realm of insanity and as happens with so many overused epithets, it will become irrelevant. Then what will the race baiters do?

I well remember the reaction of a number of black legal secretaries at a law firm where I once worked because one of the firm's attorneys, a very very handsome young black man, was dating a white woman. When I told them they were behaving in a racist fashion, they were mightily offended. But it's the simple truth.

When are we going to start assessing people (not judging them) by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin? When are people of color going to stop expecting bad behavior to be overlooked because their ancestors were once horrendously oppressed! YOU are responsible for your own actions people! When you claim slavery as an EXCUSE that's all it is - an EXCUSE. It isn't a valid reason.

Hell's bells - I sound like my mother!

[Teresa]

Wolves are intelligent creatures. Calling the "journolistas" a wolf pack is insulting to wolves everywhere.

So let's take stock shall we:

1. You have a HUGE group of people all over the place (all over the world right?).
2. And you have everything in writing.
3. And you have it in a venue where it will never ever disappear distributed to everyone. (everyone on the list could possibly have a copy of everything not to mention the listserv itself)
4. AND then you feel free to spout off all kinds embarrassing vitriolic comments about anyone who isn't part of your group-think without a single thought to how it might look if it ever hit the front page of the NYT

Like it's private? Like no one except this group of people will ever see it? Really?

That's rank stupidity in my book.

How many of them have written about people who have had embarrassing emails ending up on the front page of the news and even going viral around the world on the net? They are supposedly "journalists". They publish embarrassing things about the rest of the population all the time to bring in an audience.

And yet they still felt a listserv was a great place to spit their venom? It would've been less conspicuous and never even cause more than a ripple in the news cycle to have gotten on television in prime time and said it to a camera.

Yes, the wolves have been maligned.