01:16 pm
What Exactly Did CAP Think Bloggers Do?
I don’t always agree with Matt Yglesias, and frankly, I sometimes find him a bit pretentious. But most of the time, he is a thoughtful contributor to the debate, particularly on foreign policy and transit issues.
On Saturday, he posted some observations on Third Way, which describes itself as “non-profit, non-partisan think tank. . .advancing a 21st century progressive agenda.” He said some nice things about them, but also said this:
But their domestic policy agenda is hyper-timid incrementalist bullshit. There are a variety of issues that they have nothing whatsoever to say on, and what policy ideas they do have are laughable in comparison to the scale of the problems they allegedly address. Which is fine, because Third Way isn’t really a “public policy think tank” at all, it’s a messaging and political tactics outfit.
Apparently, Yglesias’s boss at CAP wasn’t too happy with those comments:
This is Jennifer Palmieri, acting CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Most readers know that the views expressed on Matt’s blog are his own and don’t always reflect the views of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Such is the case with regard to Matt’s comments about Third Way. Our institution has partnered with Third Way on a number of important projects - including a homeland security transition project - and have a great deal of respect for their critical thinking and excellent work product. They are key leaders in the progressive movement and we look forward to working with them in the future.
I like CAP. They do a lot of great work. Members of their staff (in a non-CAP capacity) have done a great job of helping the Obama transition be as successful as it has. They have helped build a progressive infrastructure that at last can compete with that built by the right. And as a former NGO executive (albeit of an organization much smaller than CAP), I know what can happen when a staff member goes off the reservation and causes the organization embarrassment. I’m sympathetic with Palmieri’s predicament.
But that doesn’t mean I think she did the right thing.
I once had a staff member who said something on a personal blog that got picked up in conservative media outlets. What he had to say angered some board members and donors. I explained to them that he was not speaking for the organization, and that the organization did not agree with what he had said. But I defended his right to say it, and made it clear that it would not have any impact on his work. And I certainly didn’t go on his blog and issue a clarification.
What Jennifer Palmieri did here was both wrong-footed and just plain wrong. If you have a problem with something someone employed by you says, you take it off-line and you make sure that s/he understands what they did isn’t consistent with your stated policies. You can even issue a statement such as the one she made, albeit either as a press release or in a letter to the offended party.
But the last thing you want to do is interfere with the free speech rights of someone on your staff — especially since what he said is neither inappropriate, hateful, or harmful in any way. It’s opinion. It’s exactly what you hired him to do — it’s not like Yglesias ever hesitated to express his thoughts before he came to CAP.
If Palmieri doesn’t want CAP bloggers to express such opinions, she shouldn’t have blogs. Or she shouldn’t hire folks who are known to have strong opinions. But for crying out loud, she shouldn’t humilate someone just because they did something that you find inconvenient.
In addition, CAP has now created a precedent. What happens the next time one of their bloggers says something that makes someone unhappy? Will this become a regular feature of Think Progress blogs? Will this mean that anyone can demand such a clarification? Or does CAP only do that for friends? Would CAP had done the same thing if Yglesias had made similar comments about the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation? I doubt it.
Palmieri may have mollified her thin-skinned friends over at Third Way, but she just unleashed a major storm on the blogosphere. As a result, both she and Third Way can now count on a level of villification that will make Yglesias’s fairly mild comments look harmless in comparison.
Which, of course, is what they were.
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