Ben Smith’s Startup Semafor Reportedly Set to Hire Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, Who Was Recently Suspended for Retweet of Sexist Post
Source: YouTube Screenshot
The media startup Semafor is set to bring on Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel, reported The Daily Beast.
Semafor was founded by former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith and former Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith (no relation).
According to The Daily Beast’s Confider newsletter on Monday, citing sources, Weigel “is expected to join Semafor after the midterms.”
In June, Weigel was suspended for a month without pay for retweeting a sexist post. The post read “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”
Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed! pic.twitter.com/zs4dX4qprH
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 3, 2022
Before his suspension, Weigel apologized for the retweet.
“I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm,” he tweeted.
I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) June 3, 2022
The Semafor’s reported upcoming hiring of Weigel comes as the outlet has “tried to recruit the likes of New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman and Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, but came away empty.”
A Semafor spokesperson declined to comment to The Daily Beast, while Weigel didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
