Second place looms large and it is quite an honorable — or maybe onerous — award on our top ten most left-biased working American journalists list. Amusingly our number two guy even graduated from a school that foretold his future work. From the bowels of New York’s exclusive Hackley School comes our number two most left-biased journo, Time Magazine’s Joe Klein.
Klein is another one of those far left writers that imagines himself to be unconventional in his politics when the truth is he is a left-winger all the way down the line without a scoshe of non-conventional thinking.

For instance, in his book, The Natural, of his politics Klein wrote, “… the conventions of journalism prevent me from fitting too neatly into one political niche (although as a columnist for the New Yorker and Newsweek my predilections are obvious).” Far from not “fitting too neatly” into the left’s “niche,” that niche fits him like a glove. For the better part of thirty years, Klein has been revealing his ill-fitting niche to the reading public and we couldn’t be more grateful for his niche-like, nichieness.
So let’s start by finding an example of Klein supposedly being nicheless, shall we? How about in 2007 when Klein attacked the left-wing blogosphere as being too vitriolic. Did that piece show that he was able to criticize his own? Did it show he isn’t just a knee-jerk leftist?
Unfortunately, a closer look at his piece proves wrong any notion that Klein could be even handed in criticism. After Klein scolded and finger pointed at the wild-eyed left-wing blogs that were at the time criticizing him, he ended up blaming it all on Bush and Cheney anyway. It was Bush’s fault, you see, because he and his side had started the mud slinging and name-calling and the left-wing blogs were just retuning the bile tit-for-tat.
Yes, Klein was actually contending that political mudslinging was invented by George W. Bush and the right only as late as the early 2000s. I guess he was asleep all during the 1980s when the political left was excoriating Ronald Reagan on a daily basis. For that matter, Klein must not know much history because the election of 1800 was a bit raucous, too!
That’s some niche he has there!
Of course, the very idea of a Joe Klein scolding others for being too vitriolic is a laugher in itself. The examples of Klein’s venomous pen are legion. Just to name a few: in 2007 he claimed that our effort in Iraq amounted to “ethnic cleansing”; in May of ‘09 Klein said that columnist Charles Krauthammer was a bad writer because Charles couldn’t see the world he was writing about since he is in a wheelchair; in January of 2010 Klein called all the American people “too dumb to thrive” because they opposed Obama’s wild spending spree; in February he attacked the “nitwit populists of the right“; and in April he called Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck seditious just for having an opinion that stood opposite to the Kleinian “niche.”
As to the latter, it appears that “sedition” is Klein’s favorite epithet to throw at anyone that disagrees with him. Like most leftists, he just can’t stand opposing views. Not only did he call Beck and Palin seditious this year, but in 2009 he leveled that charge at Senator Tom Coburn and also in 2009 he decided that Fox News was “border-line seditious.” Apparently all you have to do to qualify for sedition these days is merely to disagree with Obama or Joke Line… uh, I mean Joe Klein.
For eight long years Klein suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS), too. But his recent claim that the BP oil spill is Bush’s fault shows that he has not sought treatment for the sickness. On Chris “Tingles” Matthews’ show, Klein oddly proclaimed, “This is more Bush’s second Katrina than Obama’s first.”
Perhaps no one has pointed out to Klein that Bush has been gone from Washington for some time?
Then there’s Klein’s well-worn anti-Israel sentiment that is liberally sprinkled throughout his career. Recently, for example, he scolded the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for having the temerity to criticize The Obammessiah and before that he even hinted that American Jews that criticized Obama were somehow un-American. In a Time blog posted titled “Unacceptable Non-Apology,” Klein warned the American Jewish community that while he’s around there can be no opprobrium of The One.
I’d hope that all American Jews, on both sides of the two-state issue, would agree that an insult directed at the Obama Administration is an insult directed at us all…and that AIPAC members, who I’m sure see themselves as Americans first, will behave accordingly.
Hmmmm. One wonders if Klein ever imagined that criticizing George W. Bush was somehow “an insult to us all”? One doubts it.
Sadly Joe Klein is just not very good at political analysis. Once again on the Chris Matthews show Klein revealed his utter lack of acumen at political analysis and claimed that the Democrat left-wing had no power in the Party, yet the “maniacs” on the right were in full control of the GOP.
But there’s a big difference here between the Democratic and Republican parties. In the Republican Party, the base is the right wing. In the Democratic Party, the base isn’t the left wing. The base is African-Americans, a lot of Hispanics, trade union people, and so on. You have a bunch of bloggers on the left, but I don’t think that they carry the same weight as the maniacs on the right do with the Republican Party.
What nonsense! Howard Dean, one of the most vitriolic left-wingers in American politics, actually became the Democratic Party Chairman! The GOP has no one in power as far right as Howard Dean was far left. And George Soros, MoveOn.org, and Markos Moulitsas of the DailyKos have been programming the Democrats for nearly a decade now. The right has no moneyman nor website with nearly as much power in GOP circles as those folks do for the Dems. This all seems like willful ignorance on Klein’s part.
While he may be a failure as a serious political analyst, Klein recently tried his hand at movie reviewing. Sadly he was no more successful at that than he is anything else.
Klein took in a showing of the left-wing fantasy pic “Avatar,” and came home rearin’ to write about it. Why, the film was a wonder to behold, Klein decided. Why was it so good? Because “the Americans were the bad guys,” Klein gushed. He was thrilled that the audience was supposed to be “rooting against the humans.” Best of all, Klein was orgasmic with the hopes that due to the film’s simple-minded environmental theme it would “ripple in all sorts of lovely, little enviro-theistic ways.” At least he had it right that the “dialogue was awful” and “the characterizations were crude.”
Stick to your day job, Mr. Klein. Better yet, just retire. But even if he leaves the field of journalism today, Joe Klein has secured for himself the dubious distinction of the number two slot on our most left-biased journalists list.
Congrats, Joe. If I can borrow a phrase, nobody messes with Joe, ya know?
There’s only one more spot to fill, so please check back tomorrow for left-biased journalist number one as our series comes to an end.






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30 Comments
"From the bowels of New York’s exclusive Hackley School comes our number two"…
This sez all you need to know about this out of touch, irrelevant non entity…
I'm going with Tom Friedman NYT for the top spot.
I love this series. And I have to tentatively agree with HPD on Friedman. Although… the competition could prove to be pretty tough. And Friedman is a known opinion columnist, so that may not qualify for the list. Either way, #1 is a dark, dark place to be on this "Journolist".
Hmm. I gotta go with Matthews or Olbermann, with a nod to the big O. But the there's Ms. Clift and Andrew Taylor and Bob Herbert and the list goes on and on.
Hats off, Mr. Huston. A commendable series.
Mr. Huston could have done the Top 50 and still would have needed alot more spots.
Joke Line looks like an escapee from MunchkinLand.
We represent … the journolist guild, the journolist guild …
He's both a mental midget and an actual midget. Too bad dwarf tossing went out of fashion.
I think all the liberal journalist's on the list could be considered #2. At least the crap they write amounts to nothing more than a pile of feces.
Hey Foamy
If Cynthia Tucker and Eleanor Clift can scratch and claw their way on to this shameful list,
Little Tommy "Mr Science" Friedman, should be a shoe in….
One way ticket to Cuba
I can't believe I forgot Joe Klein. How is he even respected?
Joe Klein is an idiot. There is no one dumber than a dumb guy who thinks he's smart. I saw Joe laugh at those who doubt evolution by pointing to the Grand Canyon as proof. Erosion is not Evolution , Joe. The Morning Joe crowd didn't seem to notice. After that I realized this guy is an idiot.
Like bad Barry Manilow love songs, how do you pick the worst ?
But it is fun, and hopefully Todd will do a "dishonorable" sub-list of A-Z
The Journalist "pinhead of the day" feature…
But wait a few weeks, I'm running out of nasty stuff to say about these brown nosers
To think there are at least 5 million good Conservatives out of work, while this bunch spews drivil from a keyboard and gets paid for it… Life sure ain't fair..
Jack-offs like this guy are one of the reasons that journalists have lost so much public trust and esteem. They are doing irreparable harm to what was once considered a noble profession.
The more their bias is revealed to the general public, the less print they sell, all the while moaning about how they don't understand why they're losing readership, even as they continue to insult the intelligence of half of their customer base on a daily/weekly/monthly basis with claims of being "fair and impartial".
That they cannot comprehend this is a sign of how truly sheltered and insular they are; they live their lives in an echo chamber where dissent is crushed with social ostracism and derision.
Journalists are on the fast track to join or surpass the lawyers and politicians in the sewer as one of the least trusted professions.
Thank god we have the new media.
Propagandist is what he is.
I have to disagree on this one. I LOVE Joke Line!
Without his elitist attitude and one-sided mental midgetry, I'd be deprived of many, MANY hours of laughing hysterically whenever Glenn Beck takes ol' Joey out to the wood shed!
Just Beck's imitation — with that mandatory smoking pipe — can have me holding my sides and laughing until my head aches!
Yep, without Joe, Glenn would never have done his awesome elitist snob imitation and my life would be a tad less exciting and fun.
God bless ya, Joey. Glenn and I love you.
Just in case anyone is interested, in my home Joe Klein is known as a "suck weasel."
I don't think there is anyone out there that thinks Klein is a journalist so I would suggest that you expose some of the least known liars that might still have a following.
Very well said. Klein IS willfully ignorant. It's no surprise that he would be "rooting against the humans." It's what he does.
"Joe Klein" in his native Germany would be known as "Little Joe."
I think America is suffering from all these Germans who are pretending to be something else.
I smell National Socialist whenever I think of Klein and his ilk.
He probably plays the Horst Wessel Lied every morning in his shrine to his god.
Whenever I think of Klein…I have to take a #2. Sounds about right.
There are so many more possibles for number one, I think the list should have been longer.
I already recommended Dana Milbank for the list. I think he's one of the most dishonest, left-biased writers out there. And, while I think he sometimes does do opinion columns, he also writes articles for the WaPo front page. Even after he took a whole segment out of a Dick Cheney quote, replacing the missing part with ellipses and thereby changing the meaning of the VPs words to the opposite of what he said. And he still kept his front page gig. Appalling.
I can't wait for tomorrow to see who the #1 jerk is.
Time Magazine had Obama's ugly face on their cover so many times, I had to cancel my subscription…
no doubt Joe would have a made a fine 'kapo' in one of the Nazi extermination camps http://www.nndb.com/people/408/000044276/
Todd, I don't even have to read the articles any more. Your rouge's gallery is so entertaininmg that I hang on every word, however. My only problem is, the closer to #1 you get, the more I would argue that your choices aren't really journalists at all. Klein is definately a #2 though. Excuse me. I need to use the head. I feel a Klein coming on……
I think Joe Klein, David Brooks and Frank Rich at the NYT all started out as theater critics. They seem to select snarkiness as the greatest skill at the NYT because they seem to like people who are creative at tearing people up rhetorically.
Problem is none of them are great intellectuals or have expanded educations. It's all theater, literally. They are all undergraduate degreed, but that is it. An ivy league undergrad degree (Brooks) is almost worse, it just means that daddy had the money, but sonny had no brains.
Krugman is a smart economist but a sell out who contradicts his own textbook to shill for Obama, and has already staked his entire reputation on the late-lame- Keynes and will go to his grave yelling for more stimulus.
Friedman has a masters degree but he's really only expert on Middle Eastern issues and has gone a little nuts. He now thinks we should be more totalitarian like communist China. Which is strange, since he lives the life married to a billionaire heiress of a capitalist whose money came from American strip malls. Sure, he'll make do, but what about us?
They all look and act like weasels because they are, except for Brooks, who is the token conservative who is really a
liberal who pretends to be a conservative.
Ahhh, I was wondering whether this conceited ass would make his way onto the list. You know, I remember Glenn Beck talking about running into him at that Time 100 dinner and the man sounds as rotten (if not more) as described in the list. As I see his name pop up on the list of JournoListers I can't help but imitate that goofy chortle and corncob pipe Glenn uses when he reads Klein's shlock.
If anyone's curious, this is Glenn recounting the event: http://www.therightscoop.com/time-100-glenn-beck-...
If I knew nothing else about Klein, the insult to Krauthammer and his paralysis would be enough for me to no longer afford him an ounce of respect. Loser.
What do Joe Klein & Jennifer Aniston have in common? They both starred in the 1993 movie "Leprechaun"!
Joke Line!
That was the line of the entire series–at least, so far!
'
Great pick!
Joke Line is the pits. This pathetic little is no more a journalist than Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck. In fact Joke Line is more partisan and less fair than the two commentators who are upfront about their beliefs. JokeLine is beyond discredited with Palin and Beck Derrangement that is impossible to view him as anything other than shill/hack. Journolist outted Joke Line and it is clear Joke Line is not as smart as he thinks he is. Glenn Beck would eat him alive. Joke Line is a dimwit and rips on Palin and Beck. Joke Line is no Sarah Palin. Joke Line can't even write a column that make senses let a lone run a large state and raise 5 Kids! Sarah Palin is a Super Woman, while Joe Klein is a Joke Line!
louis
Glenn Beck would eat him alive. Joke Line is a dimwit and rips on Palin and Beck. Joke Line is no Sarah Palin. Joke Line can't even write a column that make senses let a lone run a large state and raise 5 Kids! Sarah Palin is a Super Woman, while Joe Klein is a Joke Line!
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