Prominent left-wing journalists get together and collaborate on story ideas at a secret online gathering place called JournoList, the Politico reports.

Members deny that the listserv is some kind of left-wing cabal but given that Eric Alterman of sleaze factory Media Matters is a member they’re probably lying:

POLITICO contacted nearly three dozen current JList members for this story. The majority either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests — and then returned to JList to post items on why they wouldn’t be talking to POLITICO about what goes on there.

In an e-mail, [American Prospect writer Ezra] Klein said he understands that the JList’s off-the-record rule “makes it seems secretive.” But he insisted that JList discussions have to be off the record in order to “ensure that folks feel safe giving off-the-cuff analysis and instant reactions.”

One byproduct of that secrecy: For all its high-profile membership — which includes Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman; staffers from Newsweek, POLITICO, Huffington Post, The New Republic, The Nation and The New Yorker; policy wonks, academics and bloggers such as Klein and Matthew Yglesias — JList itself has received almost no attention from the media. [...]

The story identifies Klein as the creator of JournoList.

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