Friday, March 29, AD 2024 7:19am

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.  🙂

0 0 votes
Article Rating
10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 1:17pm

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. 🙂

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 2:19pm

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.

Tito Edwards
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 2:23pm

Art Deco,

Good point.

In addition, they remove their faux conservatives to.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 3:35pm

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.

Tito Edwards
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 3:44pm

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.

Rakhi
Friday, June 25, AD 2010 11:44pm

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.

trackback
Sunday, June 27, AD 2010 5:02am

[…] I Am Shocked, Shocked! by D.R. […]

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top