Karl Marks: Who is the real Jonathan Karl?

By Mustang Bobby

It's a right-wing tactic to attack the messenger, but in the case of Jonathan Karl, he does have a resume that suggests he might be a tad inclined to see things from a right-wing point of view:

Karl came to mainstream journalism via the Collegiate Network, an organization primarily devoted to promoting and supporting right-leaning newspapers on college campuses (Extra!, 9-10/91) -- such as the Rutgers paper launched by the infamous James O'Keefe (Political Correction, 1/27/10). The network, founded in 1979, is one of several projects of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which seeks to strengthen conservative ideology on college campuses. William F. Buckley was the ISI's first president, and the current board chair is American Spectator publisher Alfred Regnery. Several leading right-wing pundits came out of Collegiate-affiliated papers, including Ann Coulter, Dinesh D'Souza, Michelle Malkin, Rich Lowry and Laura Ingraham (Washington Times, 11/28/04).

The Collegiate Network also provides paid internships and fellowships to place its members at corporate media outlets or influential Beltway publications; 2010-11 placements include the Hill, Roll Call, Dallas Morning News and USA Today. The program's highest-profile alum is Karl, who was a Collegiate fellow at the neoliberal New Republic magazine.

After a stint at the New York Post, Karl soon found his way to CNN, but he was still connected to ideological pursuits; he was a board member at the right-leaning youth-oriented Third Millennium group and at the Madison Center for Educational Affairs -- which, like the Collegiate Network, seeks to strengthen young conservative journalism. After moving to ABC in 2003, Karl contributed several pieces to the neo-con Weekly Standard, such as his April 4, 2005 article praising Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as out to "make her mark with the vigorous pursuit of the president's freedom and democracy agenda."

Karl's high profile at ABC demonstrates that conservative messages can find a comfortable home inside the so-called "liberal" media.

Does that mean that he can't be a fair and objective reporter when it comes to doing his job?  Not at all. A lot of journalists work for news organizations that have a political point of view but still are able to do their job without seeming to inject their point of view into their work. (Of course, to hear the right-wingers tell it, all journalists are left-wing shills for Saul Alinsky, Noam Chomsky, and George Soros, but send a kid to college on a scholarship from National Review and he's the soul of objectivity.)

It's not what he thinks but how he acts that matters, and so far Mr. Karl's response (see here) tend to lend credence to the notion that in the case of Benghazi his background and job history do matter.

In his case, you wonder why he's not working as the head of the Washington bureau of Fox News.

(h/t to digby)

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)