A few weeks back, in yet another chapter of Big Media's insistence on treating American conservatives like a tribe of unknown but likely dangerous savages from some far-off land (aka, Fly-Over Country), the Washington Post hired a guy named Dave Weigel to start a blog called "Right Now." This was, of course, exactly the same thing as hiring juiceboxer Ezra Klein to write about the Left blogosphere, since Klein is a confirmed leftie, and Weigel is... um, well, let me just quote from Weigel's blog today:
I'm a member of an off-the-record list-serv called "Journolist," founded by my colleague Ezra Klein.
Per all the prior reporting on Klein's little club (membership including such open-minded thinkers as Joe Klein, Eric Alterman and Paul Krugman), that makes Weigel another confirmed leftie--and based on the comments Weigel half-heartedly apologizes for in that blog post, a fairly nasty one at that.
Weigel's personality aside, the fact that he's a contributing member of Klein's liberal propaganda-coordination clique should have been disclosed from the very beginning of Weigel's "reporting" on conservatives. It says nothing good about either Weigel or his bosses at the WaPo that none of the above thought Weigel's membership in a glorified version of Media Matters would be something worth notifying readers about.
All of which confirms my initial take on Weigel's WaPo blog: "This one goes on the ignore list."
It also does explain his comments. As with Helen Thomas, comments like that are generally made in an atmosphere and culture where one feels comfortable making them. Which is confirmed by the fact that they're always irritated when it gets outside their circle-- nobody on the list probably disagreed at the time, or the corrections would be within the list itself.
ReplyDeleteHelen Thomas? Didn't she make her comments to a Rabbi?
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ReplyDeleteWeigel has been on my ignore list since the little snot started writing for Reason magazine. Glad to see he's becoming more universally ignored. :D
ReplyDeleteAmerican Power tracked-back with, 'What's Up With David Weigel? Now We Know'.
ReplyDeleteI read that Politico article about JournoList from March last year. Boy, do they pat themselves on the back for providing selected journalists access to a wide variety of intelligent commentary and advice. Why, they range across the whole political spectrum, from Democrats to democratic socialists to social democrats! I'm sure Weigel is a valuable contributor.
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