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FishbowlDC Defends Publishing Weigel Emails: “We Have A Vested Interest”

by Michael Triplett | 3:26 pm, June 25th, 2010

» 9 comments

As the controversy over Dave Weigel’s resignation from the Washington Post unfolds, the people at the center of the Weigel storm are Betsy Rothstein and Matt Dornic, two media bloggers for Mediabistro’s FishbowlDC who launched the beginning of Weigel’s end.

It was Rothstein’s story about leaked e-mails from Journolist that forced Weigel to issue a mea culpa the day before his resignation. While it’s unclear how long Jonathan Strong of the conservative Daily Caller had other e-mails, it was Rothstein’s reporting that put the attention on Weigel.

In an e-mail to Mediaite, Rothstein defended FishbowlDC’s decision to write about the leaked e-mails, saying “this is serious for a blogger who covers conservatives. We have a vested interest in knowing and informing that a conservative beat journalist has a clear and angry opposition to the subject of his reporting.”

When pressed on whether there were second thoughts about reporting on e-mails leaked from a private listserv where the participants are expected to maintain confidentiality, Rothstein said she had no concerns. “We are not a member of JournoList. It’s not law. It’s a club,” she said. “It’s private to the members. Once the contents of messages are extracted, they are not private.”

While not speculating on the motivations of the leaker, Rothstein said that the leaker ran the risk of attracting the wrath of Journolist members but that FishbowlDC wasn’t obligated to abide by Journolists’ confidentiality.

Rothstein–a former gossip columnist for The Hill–and Dornic have taken a hard, traditional journalism stand in going after Weigel’s transgressions. In a post about an e-mail Weigel sent to conservative staffers, Rothstein and Dornic said:

We at FishbowlDC question why Weigel continues airing his political laundry. If you’re a reporter, you’re supposed to be objective. We shouldn’t know if he voted for Ron Paul, President Obama or David Hasselhoff. If you’re going to be reporting on any political movement, you are supposed to take an unbiased position.

That set-off a quick response from new media public intellectual Jay Rosen, who tweeted: “So @FishbowlDC has decreed in its clownish stupidity that there is only one way to be trusted as a reporter, “bystander.”"

Dornic–who has spent his career in public relations before joining the blog–has been forced to defend his position that Weigel overstepped the boundaries when it came to venting his frustrations with the people he covers. Dornic called for Weigel’s firing just moments before the resignation was announced.

In the end, Rothstein rejected Mediaite’s assertion that there bad blood between FishbowlDC and Weigel based on a series of especially relentless posts in the last two weeks. She told me she’d never met or seen Weigel until last night at a Huffington Post party. By the way, she reports he refused to shake her hand.

Betsy Rothstein, Dave Weigel, FishBowlDC, Jay Rosen, Matt Dornic, The Hill

http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

Perhaps the FishBowl site has taken down a medium-large fish and they can add a notch to their belt, but as I commented elsewhere, I have no idea why the fellow resigned.

Maybe there’s some other dirt that we don’t yet know, but from what I’ve seen on the MediaBistro and Tucker Carlson’s sites, it’s not worthy of resignation and one would think that a person of conviction would’ve defended their position.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Stears/30802426 Joshua Stears

“We have a vested interest in knowing and informing that a conservative beat journalist has a clear and angry opposition to the subject of his reporting.”

…so only people that are in agreement with conservative actions can be a journalist covering the subject? Seems pretty fair to me. Guess anyone that doesn’t agree with Dems (Fox News, Big everything, etc) should stop covering the White House and all the other Dems out there.
notsofast

“this is serious for a blogger who covers conservatives. We have a vested interest in knowing and informing that a conservative beat journalist has a clear and angry opposition to the subject of his reporting.”

And libs would see nothing wrong with this.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Stears/30802426 Joshua Stears

The tried and true no thought required response, “The [insert opposite party here] would do the exact same thing”. While I don’t have a problem with wanting to know where someone stands in their beliefs, it doesn’t mean they can’t do the job. The fact is they vilified someone for not towing the party line and caused him to have to leave his job. A job that, imo, he did fairly well. He made mistakes, as does everyone in journalism at some point, but overall he was a pretty good journalist…again imo.
http://SailRabbits.com Magister

@Jopshua Stears: Apparently if you cover city government or Congress, you must love every thing the institutions do and every personality involved. No exceptions. If back in the day, DC was your beat, you had to defend Marion Barry and never utter a disparaging word and if you’ve graduated to Capital Hill, you must be in awe of Congress and never make fun of Rep. Hairstyle.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Dornic/591117788 Matthew Dornic

I find it hilarious that you would describe me as “in the center of the Weigel storm” when the only time I’ve published Dave Weigel’s name was today. I did not report on any piece of this story until I received confirmation that he resigned – at which point I wrote all of two sentences:

“FishbowlDC has confirmed that WaPo conservative-beat blogger Dave Weigel has resigned after a slew of his anti-conservative comments and emails surfaced on FishbowlDC and Daily Caller over the last two days.

A spokesperson for the Post said the paper will not offer additional comments but confirmed that the writer’s resignation was accepted.”

Wow. How highly controversial I’ve been…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Dornic/591117788 Matthew Dornic

Oh and thanks for neglecting to contact me for comment even though you’ve thrust me into “the center of the Weigel storm.”
sdygtbdh

Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!
Thomas G Williams

POINTS to consider this was a media on media hit piece, there were violations of privacy and invasions into the unrelated private life of DAVE, the sources involved are not the most ETHICAL or even , this has become another one of those I am more conservative conservative than you things, and when a discredited and fired from multiple media outlets TUCKER gets involved then its game over, and when its the FISHBOWL and its people trying to claim legitimate standing when they have been proven to be nothing more than a partisan abuser of the media and its ethics…..well thats not the kettle calling the pot black it is the FIRE claiming that WATER is a partisan plot to destroy FIRE and that the fire extinguisher is a thug waiting to attack when no one is looking.