What’s funny is that the Post thought Weigel was a conservative. Well, OK, maybe at the Post, he was.

I only made it a third of the way thru the Daily Caller story before the site crashed. must have too much traffic.

From what I read, Weigel has no business writing a column on Conservatives. He obviously hates them (from what I read of the emails).

Glad he was exposed, and glad he resigned!

Why in the hell would the WashPost hire a rabid anti-conservative to report on conservatives? Did they not know his leanings? It doesn’t make sense.

What happened to Freedom of the Press. You criticise the jokers as appear’s to be, the next thing you find out you have to leave your job, that’s crap. And the same jokers would point out what Chavez is doing, but they are doing the same thing in a more polite way without recognising it. MSNBC suspended Donny deush for criticising Olberman, Ms Thomas had to leave because they didn’t like wht she said, Contributor’s on FOX and MSNBC news have their Microphone cut off when they don’t hear. And you don’t get an invite back when Fox thinks you are too much to handle. All of these jokers remember Freedom of the press only when it suits them.

Hey Kam, he resigned, he wasn’t fired. Do you know what freedom of the press is? It’s the gov’t that can’t control it, not the market place. I can send you a copy of the constitution if you want.

Yet another example of the free market working.

no body wants your copy of the confederate constitution, or the other one you have with all the GOOD PARTS cut out.

try one that is REAL: http://www.usconstitution.net

@MichelleF
You can keep it to yourself. Apparently you can’t comprehend the statement. When large groups/lobby intimidates an organisation it does have effect. The last time I checked the elected representatives in the congress are answering to Lobbyists not the electorate, so don’t give me the free market crap. It’s ran by the same group. And did I not tell you not to refer to my comments, you are a distraction. I’ve got a memo for ya, 90% of elected officials answer to lobbyist.

yay

I’ve been reading this site for a while, but this is the first time I’ve been compelled to register and comment. The sheer insanity of this non-story. Dave Weigel has been and continues to be a solid journalist. He was as much at Reason, the Washington Independent and even at WaPo. The subject of his reporting is divisive and not easy to cover.

I come across a lot of exaggerated headlines on whatever daily conservative exploit is going viral, which usually result in my getting worked up and frustrated over something. Nine times out of ten, Weigel would cover it and I would actually feel very much tempered after reading his posts.

He’s a good reporter who, like every single one of us, has opinions. He let his opinions loose on what he thought was a closed forum. At least he signed his name to it. A lot of us, including myself, don’t have the temerity to put our names out there with our words, much less take responsibility for them.

WaPo should have rejected his resignation.

To say there is free press in America is, at best a misnomer. These supposed news programs are mostly right or left wing political whores, particularly on the right with O’Rielly, Hannity, etc. They don’t believe in and don’t deliver even a modicum of balanced news. If they did they would be fired, particularly by Rupert Murdoch, the Do Yen of Republican lies.

it’s LIGHTNING rod, not “lightening” rod. I see this mistake on mediaite all the time.

Well, if being a a left-wing bigot like Weigel, and having an absolute hate of anyone to the right of Nancy Pelosi were a firing offense among journalists, we’d have no MSM.

Dave, when you get the next job, learn from this. Don’t drink and type.

FIVE corporations who own more than 90% of all media in this country, all conservative owned and all conservative operated.

Dave will be fine, he will be seen as a MAN who was wrongfully treated and who did the honorable thing for him self NOT THE PAPER who should have defended his privacy and his right to an opinion.

I agree with Steve’s tweet (except the big fan part)

SteveKrak
Big fan of @DaveWeigel’s writing, but if Yankees beat writer is sending emails about how much he hates Yanks, how does he stay on beat?

his obvious disdain for conservatives should exclude him from writing a column called:
Right Now, Inside the Conservative movement and the Republican party

That title suggests he is part of the movement or party, which he obviously is not. And he hates them. He has been exposed as a phony.

Ann Althouse wrote a good piece on him.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/06/burn-davey-burn-self-immolation-of.html

I don’t know what’s sillier, the imputation of Weigel’s demise due to WaPo’s claimed ignorance of his far left, fucking whack job ideology..or the fact that Mediaite is convinced that it has conned the reading public into believing that it’s a moderate, unbiased, independent voice.

Hey Abrams..you wanna share what YOU know about journolist?

sarainitaly said:
That title suggests he is part of the movement or party, which he obviously is not. And he hates them. He has been exposed as a phony.

So in cover the Tea Party movement, he should be part of the Tea Party movement? Or just support it? Or not care about it? That’s what passes for objectivity these days, I guess.

“So in order to cover…”

That seems only correct.

I’ll still agree with him when people attack your family…I’d respond…but yeah, it was a stupid experiment.

I’m not sure what WaPo expected…but the causal/effect happened.

When large groups/lobby intimidates an organisation it does have effect.

So based on this statement, Kam, I’m sure Media Matters, Geogre Soros, etc. teaming up to try to get Beck off the air (too bad they can’t, poor babies) upsets you. Or is it only when it effects a lefty like Weigel that it bothers you?

I think we can all agree that ideology should be left out of reporting, but unfortunately, that is never going to happen. The next best thing would be if the papers could have opposing ideologies covering their counter, but it seems that is never going to happen either. Instead, you have progressive columnists covering progressive politics and you have progressive columnists covering conservative politics – I wonder which one will be shown in better light?

It is like Tommy Christopher (a progressive) covering MSNBC, and Glynnis MacNichol (a progressive) covering FoxNews – it just doesn’t work without an imbalance in coverage, purposefully or not.

@MichelleF
Try to concentrate, if you read my first post you’d see I refered to both groups. Unlike you am not an ideologue, I use my reasoning, you ought to try that sometimes.

Bizarrely enough, if you look at it one way, Wiegel got censored.

He has plenty of other outlets to post his opinions.

WaPo censored him; Keith can still have him on the show…Weigel can always opine as he sees fit.

quote:”Don’t drink & type”

That sums it up
He went too far
He should pick his friends more carefully

If it’s publicly revealed that a reporter holds the people he is covering in such contempt that he wishes (literally) they die, yes, that reporter needs to go. His credibility is gone.

It doesn’t matter whether he or she is covering the political right or the left or or sports or pottery-making.

And frankly, his lack of professionalism is itself grounds for dismissal. And believe me, I view Rush Limbaugh in very very low regard. I don’t wish his death but it would great if he retired from commentary.

Weigel has no one to blame for himself.

Daily Caller is finally back up, and I finished reading his emails. What a dick.

The one about Scott Brown and Martha Coakley pretty much confirms he is working in tandem with all the other liberal media to spread the meme of the day. (as many suspect, and actually, the morning WH/press conf. call also confirms).

But that is just BS. “spread the meme that Brown won because Coakley’s campaign sucked, not because…. ” I can’t remember word for word, and DC is back down again.

blurgh. says
“So in cover the Tea Party movement, he should be part of the Tea Party movement? Or just support it? Or not care about it? That’s what passes for objectivity these days, I guess.”

No, but his column has supposedly been an *insiders view* of the conservative movement, as if he were a part of it, and giving an honest assessment. Based on his emails and hostile feelings towards the Right, he has no business in that roll. How can you think he is going to give an objective account of any story, based on his complete hatred, as exposed in those emails?

I refer you back to Steve’s tweet:
SteveKrak
Big fan of @DaveWeigel’s writing, but if Yankees beat writer is sending emails about how much he hates Yanks, how does he stay on beat?

From Weigel’s WP blog: “The goal of this blog will be to explain what the right is doing, thinking, and planning as it hurtles toward the possible salvation of the 2010 midterm elections.”

Yea, so how can anyone count on an honest reporting from him now? That explains his article that Etheridge was *hugging* that student.

He can have a column called “I hate conservatives, and I spread the liberal meme daily”. And considering the rumors that he is now hanging out at HuffPo, I’m sure that’s going to be his next adventure.

Sorry, but to me, this is very stinky, and feels a bit like a *plant* type situation. Weigel was “hired to explain what the right is doing, thinking, and planning as it hurtles toward the possible salvation of the 2010 midterm elections” when really he is an avid conservative hater, and has a liberal agenda, which includes spreading stories that put down Republicans victories with liberal excuses. (Brown and Coakely)

I don’t understand this story.

Am I supposed to resign from the Democratic Party because I’ve been critical of Democrats? Am I somehow less of a liberal because I’ve questioned some of the tactics used by Obama supporters and have occasionally been critical of other liberals in blog posts? The Daily Caller thing says that he disparaged Pat Buchanan in a listserv entry: Does that mean that Rachel Maddow should resign from MSNBC because she took issue with orthodoxy?

I assume that he also wrote non-flattering things about a few liberals, but they weren’t released, but even if that’s not true, what does it have to do with his job at the Washington Post?

I mean, based on what we know, Weigel wasn’t the only person from the Washington Post or with ties to the paper subscribed to the listserv… so are his comments only worthy of resignation because they’re now in the public sphere?

He was supposed to be a journalist, not a lib attack dog. He got fired for his bias and I am glad.

Well said, blurgh. It’s a discouraging day indeed when ethically and factually challenged, torture apologist, Marc Theissen, maintains his status at the Post, while upstarts like Weigel get Frum-ed.

Also, please ignore the likes of sarainitaly; sadly, there is no I.Q. requirement for posting at Mediaite.

sarainitaly said:
his column has supposedly been an *insiders view* of the conservative movement, as if he were a part of it, and giving an honest assessment

there’s an old saying that I think may apply here… “if you want to know anything about water, don’t ask a fish.” Would you really expect a Conservative Movement-insider to be a better reporter on it than someone from the outside? You don’t think they might be biased in favor of conservatives? Dave Weigel used to work at Reason Magazine. I don’t think you can so easily portray him as “biased.” Would certain “non-conservative” viewpoints of his *necessarily* invalidate his *reporting*? Can you point out unfairness in his actual *articles*? Or am I wasting my time trying to have this discussion?

Jounolist is being disbanded as a result of this story.

Just a note to Mr. Triplett: you can’t call anyone who supported the health care legislation a libertarian since libertarians are all about not regulating anything and especially not something as personal as forcing people to pay a penalty to the goverment (once the bill is fully implemented) of 2% of their income for not buying health insurance. Libertarians are all about personal choice and eschew such things as environmental law, etc.

“I’m sure Media Matters, Geogre Soros, etc. teaming up to try to get Beck off the air”

STILL waiting for proof of MM factual errors. This is Request No. 16.

“Can you point out unfairness in his actual *articles*? Or am I wasting my time trying to have this discussion?”

Probably not; probably yes.

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo says:
June 25, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Also, please ignore the likes of sarainitaly; sadly, there is no I.Q. requirement for posting at Mediaite.

Why don’t you address my comments, instead of just being an asshole? Perhaps because you are incapable?

Washington Post hired Weigel because they thought he was a conservative. His f*cking blog was called *Inside the Conservative Movement* The sold him as a conservative voice, added to their heavy liberal slanted paper.

Merida, in a web chat in April, was asked if the paper would be “adding more conservative/Republican voices to better balance what is now your predominately liberal/Democratic leaning coverage?”

He replied, “[W]e recently have added to our staff the well-regarded Dave Weigel, and also mentioned columnists Kathleen Parker and Charles Krauthammer.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Weigel_and_the_Post.html?showall

How the hell does anyone expect his coverage to be fair when he writes the hateful screeds he did in email about conservatives or when he pushed liberal memes to knock conservatives?

AdderallApocalypse says:
Can you point out unfairness in his actual *articles*?

Well, I consider his hit piece on Palin and his defense of Joe McGinniss BS, his article on Etheridge, and his portrayal that it was a *hugging* incident, his ridiculous conclusion that Sestak wasn’t offered the Secretary of Navy job because Mabus has been offered the job (despite Mabus being the 3rd man to serve under Obama already, for that roll, and that most Sec Navy’s last only a year or two) – he was clearly covering Obama’s ass, his tweet that people who opposed gay marriage were bigots pissed off a lot of people ( http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/04/washington-post-reporters-bigots-tweet-criticized-by-right/ ) and got him in trouble, he backed the Max Blumenthal smear that “O’Keefe attended a racist conference” which was a lie, and I consider this tweet highly offensive: “I hear there’s video out there of Matt Drudge diddling an 8-year-old boy. Shocking.”

Weigel claims to be a republican, but he voted for Nader, Kerry and Obama. He, based on his disdain for republicans, is clearly not a republican.

WaPo hired a hard-core lefty in Ezra Klein to advocate for the left, but a fake conservative to cover the Right.

“Weigel claims to be a republican”

Link please.

AdderallApocalypse says:
June 25, 2010 at 5:46 pm (Quote)
I don’t think you can so easily portray him as “biased.” Would certain “non-conservative” viewpoints of his *necessarily* invalidate his *reporting*? Can you point out unfairness in his actual *articles*?

After Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat, threatening to kill the health care legislation by his presence, Weigel stressed how important it was for reporters to highlight what a terrible candidate his opponent Martha Coakley had been.

“I think pointing out Coakley’s awfulness is vital, because it’s 1) true and 2) unreasonable panic about it is doing more damage to the Democrats,” Weigel wrote.

And what does Dave do?

The passage of health care reform soothed a lot of Democratic angst about Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s botched Senate bid against Brown. But we’re going to look back from November and see a number of Republicans who either won or drove the Democrats to the wire, having gotten into their races, basically, because Coakley didn’t want to stand outside Fenway in the cold, shaking hands.

He highlights that Coakley was a terrible candidate.

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo said:
“Weigel claims to be a republican”

Link please.

And let’s remember Weigel has admitted he voted for Gore, Kerry, and Obama, but constantly counters challenges to his political persuasion with “but I’m a registered Republican”.

Dave Weigel responds: Smith’s paraphrase was wrong: I voted for Nader, Kerry and Obama. I’ve voted GOP downballot though — Jim Ryan for gov of IL in 2002, whoever ran against Jim Moran in 2004, for the doomed GOPers on the local ballot in DC in 2008.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/05/26/why-i-cant-take-dave-weigel-seriously/

I come out of the conservative movement, believe it or not. I edited a conservative newspaper in college (the Northwestern Chronicle); I worked for Reason; I voted for Ron Paul in the 2008 primaries. And frankly, I like how the conservative movement and the GOP work. While the Democratic Party is a collection of interest groups, the GOP is an ideological coalition, composed of people proud to tell you what they believe and why.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/stephen-gutowski/2010/03/22/washington-post-hires-liberal-blogger-cover-conservatives#ixzz0rukYzfLX

On Wednesday, a Beltway media-gossip blog published intemperate comments Weigel made on Klein’s “JournoList,” an email listserv housing the discussions of an estimated four hundred Washington reporters, academics and policy wonks. Save for two previous outings of otherwise off the record comments, the intra-liberal exchanges were largely a secret.

For the DC intelligentsia it was an exercise in message conformity; for Republicans it was a reminder of the coordinated lengths political operatives and media personalities would go to ensure liberal talking points were appropriately weaved into the day’s news.

http://www.redstate.com/jrichardson/2010/06/25/dave-weigel-and-the-washington-post-a-case-of-false-pretenses/

That’s what it sounds like to me, and I believe I said something similar, above at 2:45.
sarainitaly says:
June 25, 2010 at 2:45 pm

You realize that you failed to prove you assertion, right? Weigel never claimed to be a Republican, nor is he registered as one.

As to my failure to “address your comments”. Such an enterprise is roughly akin to wrestling a bone from a rabid dog. Said comments, typically, are histrionic, unfounded and ill-informed. The fact that a conclusion with which you disagree is characterized as a “hit piece” is but one indication of how all-but-impossible it is to rationalize with Wasyphilis’s fan girls.

That you appear utterly ignorant of both the media profession specifically and politics generally makes you a singularly unappealing sparing partner. You routinely present the work of others as your own; please stop cribbing (without attribution, I might add) from Hot Air. Finally, when confronted with inconvenient facts you either ignore them or become nasty.

Also, you have terrible taste and are a poor knitter.

You realize that you failed to prove you assertion, right? Weigel never claimed to be a Republican, nor is he registered as one. – wrong. read it again. RedState wrote it, Weigel corrected him that he didn’t vote Gore, he voted Nadar. He does not correct him that he is not a republican, and he also said he voted GOP all down the ticket.

with which you disagree is characterized as a “hit piece” – I provided many examples, so WRONG again.

That you appear utterly ignorant of both the media profession specifically and politics generally – wrong again. you are the one who is ignoring the fact that Weigel was hired, and presented as a conservative voice for WaPo, to report on Conservatives.

You routinely present the work of others as your own; please stop cribbing (without attribution, I might add) from Hot Air – wrong. Example? I looked through my posts and I see plenty of links… if I missed a link, excuse me. I don’t rip off other people’s work.

Finally, when confronted with inconvenient facts you either ignore them or become nasty. – wrong.
Your first comment on this thread to me was: “Also, please ignore the likes of sarainitaly; sadly, there is no I.Q. requirement for posting at Mediaite.” Who the hell started the nasty? YOU DID.

Also, you have terrible taste and are a poor knitter. – Sorry, WRONG again.

And you are breaking a mediate rule: * Keep all comments relevant to the particular Mediaite Site where the comment is being posted.

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo says:
Finally, when confronted with inconvenient facts you either ignore them or become nasty.

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo says:
Also, you have terrible taste and are a poor knitter.

Perhaps you might look in the mirror, impotent weirdo.

No, sarainitaly, nasty would be if I’d said you were fat, which, let’s face it…

Hmm, i feel bad, maybe just chunky, right? Chubster? Chubbo? A big girl?

wow, you completely lost the argument, so you resort to personal attacks on me, my hobbies and my blog….

Yep.

And you’re still fat.

“People blessed with anonymity in online spaces will take the opportunity to act out in ways that would not be possible in real life.”

To be clear, I didn’t “attack” your hobby, I simply observed that you are very bad at said hobby.

Having bad taste is almost as offensive as being stupid. That said, lets face it, being obese is by far your biggest (no pun intended) offense. It’s a good thing you found a partner with equally low standards.

Hey Impotent weirdo: / (?) Dave Weigel?

Shouldn’t u be looking for a new job?

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo said:
To be clear, I didn’t “attack” your hobby, I simply observed that you are very bad at said hobby.

Having bad taste is almost as offensive as being stupid. That said, lets face it, being obese is by far your biggest (no pun intended) offense. It’s a good thing you found a partner with equally low standards.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cyberbully

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbully

It’s “Journalist” not “Journolist.”

Actually the part that was most revealing was that it appears that Ezra Klein and the others on Journolist were creating “talking points” for their own Liberal agenda. Weigel’s email shows that is what they were doing when he mentioned that it was “vital” that they all change their news reporting on the Scott Brown to a story about how bad Coakley was and not a win for the Tea Party or against their Liberal agenda of Obamacare.

It appears that was what Journolist was all about…controlling the media spin to their own liberal agenda. It appears it was not about news…but about CONTROL.

If so…that is the real damage here.

Latin2 says:
June 26, 2010 at 6:02 am
“Actually the part that was most revealing was that it appears that Ezra Klein and the others on Journolist were creating “talking points” for their own Liberal agenda.”

That’s exactly what it appears to have been. No wonder Klein deleted the list serv last night.

It was ironic, in a way, that it would be the Daily Caller that published e-mails from Journolist. A few weeks ago, its editor, Tucker Carlson, asked if he could join the list. After asking other members, I said no, that the rules had worked so far to protect people, and the members weren’t comfortable changing them. He tried to change my mind, and I offered, instead, to partner with Carlson to start a bipartisan list serv. That didn’t interest him.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/on_journolist_and_dave_weigel.html

They certainly didn’t want anyone but Liberals on the list. Klein even admits it was a partisan list serv.

And even the WaPo ombudsman admits Weigel’s bias prevented him from impartial coverage.

Weigel bears responsibility for sarcastic and scornful comments he made in e-mails leaked from a supposedly private listserv called “Journolist,” started in 2007 by fellow Post blogger and friend Ezra Klein. Weigel’s e-mails showed strikingly poor judgment and revealed a bias that only underscored existing complaints from conservatives that he couldn’t impartially cover them.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ombudsman-blog/2010/06/blogger_loses_job_post_loses_s.html

Are you sure Dave Weigel isn’t Bud Fox? http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070823/sheen_l.jpg

I read somewhere that other Liberal bloggers and reporters used “talking points” and that many MSM had similar talking points and used “JournOlist” to get those points and spin to help them make their points sound more credible to attack conservatives.

pyrasp: It’s “Journalist” not “Journolist.”

No, Klein’s listserv was named “Journolist,” oh mighty and powerful liz – er, Wizard.

Joinhttp:=========http://www.clotheshops.us=========== will find everything you wish here.

Weigel is a republican/conservative.. why isn’t anyone reporting this? and why isn’t anyone curious in who exposed these private email convos?