I am Shocked, Shocked!
Hattip to Ed Morrissy at Hot Air. The Washington Post hired David Weigel, who has previously come to the attention of this blog here, to report to their readership on that strange group called American conservatives. This small and obscure group, only 42% of the adult population of the US according to the latest Gallup poll released today and twice the number of self-identified liberals, was the focus of the reporting of David Weigel. To my non-surprise, Weigel is now revealed in his own words to be a bitter Democrat partisan and uber-liberal:
Weigel was hired this spring by the Post to cover the conservative movement. Almost from the beginning there have been complaints that his coverage betrays a personal animus toward conservatives. Emails obtained by the Daily Caller suggest those complaints have merit.
“Honestly, it’s been tough to find fresh angles sometimes–how many times can I report that these [tea party] activists are joyfully signing up with the agenda of discredited right-winger X and discredited right-wing group Y?” Weigel lamented in one February email.
In other posts, Weigel describes conservatives as using the media to “violently, angrily divide America.” According to Weigel, their motives include “racism” and protecting “white privilege,” and for some of the top conservatives in D.C., a nihilistic thirst for power.
Republicans? “Ratf–king [Obama] on every bill.” Palin? Tried to “ratf–k” a moderate Republican in a contentious primary in New York. Limbaugh? Used “ratf–king tactics” in urging Republican activists to vote for Hillary Clinton in open primaries after Obama had all but beat her for the Democratic nomination.
Go here to read the full story at the Daily Caller.
For conservatives none of this is news. We assume that members of the media will be intensely biased against our positions, and our assumption is rarely in error.
Weigel has apologized and resigned. I am certain that the Washington Post will now find someone to cover conservatives who does not despise conservatives. 
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I am certain that the Washington Post will now find someone to cover conservatives who does not despise conservatives.
Hey, Donald, as you know I am originally from New York. I have a hot tip on a bridge that might be for sale.
I had a client once Paul who claimed to have purchased the Brooklyn Bridge, so I know it can’t be that one!
Must dissent. What has happened would be unsurprising at the Boston Globe or the post-Rosenthal New York Times, but the Washington Post once made a point of developing an engaging editorial page which published commentary from a variety of perspectives. They could also breed their own talent, which the Times never could. George Will, Henry Mitchell, Richard Cohen, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Kinsley, Edwin Yoder, Joseph Kraft, and Emmett Tyrell all had space at the Post when the Times was trafficking in the likes of Anthony Lewis. The Post seems to have fallen on hard times if they are hiring utter cretins.
Art Deco,
Good point.
In addition, they remove their faux conservatives to.
“The Post seems to have fallen on hard times if they are hiring utter cretins.”
A dog walking on its hind legs Art always deserves applause for attempting the feat, but inevitably the dog will be walking on four legs again soon enough.
I did not sign up for an avatar, so what’s that doing there? That appears by my handle at Front Porch Republic as well. Hmmm….
—-
In all seriousness, this man’s employment is very odd. There are all manner of things about the kultursmog around the chatterati one might criticize, and I suspect it is true that there has been a general decay in the quality of thought and argument from the political opposition. (Robert Bork, who was a public figure before and after, has said there was a large and discrete change in the quality of public discourse around about 1981; 2001 also seems a year of consequence). That having been said, they have on their staff a man who is apparently not minimally curious about the terms of political conflict; also, his sensiblities are so peculiar he thought it ‘despicable’ for Gov. Palin to tweak the nose of an ‘investigative reporer’ who rented a house next door to her. This guy is not normal. Why did he apply for the position? If not, why was he assigned to it? Do his editors not know what his views are? That he resigned toute-de-suite suggests someone in the Post‘s apparat understands this as inappropriate.
Art Deco,
In my near fruitless crusade to encourage our readers to sign up for gravatar, I changed the default setting for users without a custom avatar of their own, to display a generated logo from “Identicon” to “MonsterID”.
Identicon generates those abstract random patterns you normally saw.
MonsterID generates ‘monster’ pics.
Since I’m no fan of abstract/pattern art, I went with MonsterID in hopes of encouraging those to sign up for (free) gravatar.
Like Identicon, MonsterID assigns a random monster pic particular to each individuals email address.
Hence why you recognize your MonsterID.
“That having been said, they have on their staff a man who is apparently not minimally curious about the terms of political conflict; also, his sensiblities are so peculiar he thought it ‘despicable’ for Gov. Palin to tweak the nose of an ‘investigative reporer’ who rented a house next door to her. This guy is not normal.”
Quite right Art. What struck me was the jejune nature of his comments which basically amounted to grunts of “Conservatives very bad!!!”. Political movements can sometimes benefit from insightful critiques from adversaries. I have admired some of the articles by John Judis on conservatives. This fellow however had nothing to offer except a deep dislike of the movement he was supposed to cover.
As for your avatar, God only knows what WordPress is doing. Time for you to get a more appropriate avatar:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.deviantart.com/download/78393004/Steampunk_Penguin_Professor_by_einen.png&imgrefurl=http://einen.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Penguin-Professor-78393004&usg=__s8CyX86l8arPU6-TtBVgkfaksrM=&h=810&w=720&sz=839&hl=en&start=1&itbs=1&tbnid=beT-YJ4j4Fvs_M:&tbnh=144&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprofessor%2Bpenguin%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1
Thank you for your article.I agree with Alehouses and Dan Riehl over the Dave Weigel resignation from the Washington Post. It is no surprise to me that Ben Smith is on Journolist too. Hope you will continuo your informative post.
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