RSS Feed Menu1) Weigel is a fine reporter. He writes intelligently and insightfully about the conservative world. If somebody is doing his job, he should keep it. Now we learn that Weigel was dismissive and disparaging about some of the people he covered in what he thought was private conversation. OK, unwise of him to trust the confidentiality of a 400-person listserve. But would anybody demand that a reporter covering Wall Street admire all his subjects? Congress? It’s a theoretically interesting question: can you provide fair coverage to people you may inwardly dislike? Weigel answered that question in his work: yes.
2) Ezra Klein’s JournoList was a disaster waiting to happen. I can understand why a reporter would wish to read what was posted there, but participating in closed lists is a bad idea for any writer. The idea that likeminded journalists would engage in formalized pre-discussions amongst ideologically like-minded people before publishing for the broad public is a formula for group-think. Genuinely private discussion via email is one thing. Coordination among colleagues: very different. Coordination seems to have been the purpose of JournoList from the start. It created “secret editors” to whom journalists privately reported, different from and undisclosed to their actual editors. That seems to me a genuinely sinister enterprise, a disservice to readers and corrupting of the participants in the list themselves.
3) First McChrystal, now Weigel. Not to equate a national hero and a promising young writer but there is this one commonality: both stumbled over the ever-greater vulnerability of private remarks to public report. The people at Facebook are right: We’re all going to enjoy less privacy in future. There are two obvious responses to that change. Either we all turn into tight-lipped self-protecting careerists in every waking hour, never emitting an untoward remark, never repeating an improper joke – or else we’re all going to have to develop a much greater tolerance for normal human indiscretion, sarcasm, flippancy and political incorrectness. We all know that people sometimes ventilate in private. They say things in the moment that do not reflect their considered or settled opinion. They are uncharitable, irritable, sarcastic, over-emphatic. If those remarks can appear in public at any time, as it seems they can, we all need to develop some new willingness to judge the careless words of others as we would wish to have our own careless words judged.
4) Weigel’s private comments confirm what is obvious from his writing: he is not a member and supporter of the conservative movement. He’s a critical but knowledgeable outsider. Some see that as a disqualification for his job as a writer. Some even suggest that the only way to cover conservatism “fairly” would be to hire a committed conservative. Thus blogger John Hawkins:
Here we have a leftward leaning Libertarian writing a column called ”Inside the conservative movement and Republican Party with Dave Weigel.” Except Weigel isn’t a conservative, he isn’t a Republican, and he relentlessly runs down Republicans and the conservative movement.
You may say: Well who cares what John Hawkins think? Reasonable point – except that Hawkins is the person entrusted by Google to determine who may join the conservative blogads cloud. (Disclosure: He decided that FrumForum could not participate. We no longer qualified as conservatives because we had criticized other conservatives, particularly Rush Limbaugh.)
The challenge a paper like the Post would have if it hired a conservative to blog about conservatism is that such a person would be subject to tremendous pressure – might well feel personally obliged – to provide PR, not coverage. A lot of crazy things are happening inside the conservative world today. These are not marginal or unimportant things either. Ron Paul won the CPAC straw ballot. Glenn Beck was CPAC’s keynote speaker. This is a movement in moral and intellectual crisis. Yet it’s very difficult and even dangerous for a committed conservative to acknowledge that crisis or to write about the crisis without excuse or apologetics. Weigel did just that, and very successfully. He is no Max Blumenthal, a self-identified ideological counter-warrior bent on harassing and humiliating those who disagree with him. He is a sympathetic and skeptical outsider, as the best reporters almost always are.
gruffbear // Jun 26, 2010 at 8:34 am
What I find stunning is that nobody, but nobody, thinks there’s an ethical problem with reporters participating in a secret politically-oriented forum with their sources.
They never bothered to think it through. On the one side, we have news reporters, whose independence from government influence is the very quality that the First Amendment anticipates. On the other, leftish policy wonks whose business it is to influence government, and for whom journalistic independence is a professional problem.
Yes, one could suppose that such a relationship is wonderful rich and stimulating for the journalist. Marc Ambinder and Michael Tomasky and any other journalist foolish enough to admit participation in the JournoList say that it’s the most wonderful thing since the flush toilet. It’s also dreadfully wrong. By participating, they have immediatly been co-opted by sources they should have an arms-length relationship with.
It’s not enough to say, “Well, I’m a professional journalist, I will conduct myself as if this relationship didn’t exist.” Because the list was only open to journalists with liberal sympathies (as determined by Ezra Klein in consultation with others he doesn’t identify), it is already presumed that journalist and source will be singing off the same page politically. Bonding a natural adversary to the cause of another is a dictionary definition of co-option. That is what JournoList catalyzed, and nobody’s admitting that was a problem.
Despite the public’s low opinion of people who write for newspapers, journalism can be practiced at a professional level; and one topic that is revisited over and over in journalism programs at the undergraduate and graduate level is ethics. To a pro, having an improper relationship with a source is like screwing around behind your spouse’s back. Yes, it may be gratifying as hell, but you don’t do it, because it denigrates the relationship you ought to value the most.
The real scandal is not that Dave Weigel was fired, but that Ezra Klein is still employed — or was even hired to begin with. Klein has an impressive CV with respect to leftish political activism. He is a good writer and has a lithe mind. But nowhere in his experience do we find any training or experience in the ethical practice of journalism. It used to be that if you wrote for the Washington Post, you had to have that. Now, they employ people like Klein, who see journalism as a means to some other end, rather than the end itself. Is it any wonder why this scandal occurred?
Dave Weigel lost his way, but so has the Washington Post. Firing Weigel isn’t going to address the corruption that the Post has invited into its house.
nhthinker // Jun 26, 2010 at 8:35 am
You have to guess- what was the WP thinking in accepting Weigel’s resignation?
I think it comes down primarily to the WP has an image it wants to project:
That it is a progressive but fair newspaper.
Weigel’s column was exposed as inconsistent with that image.
Weigel claims he is libertarian but he revels in the use of term “PaulTard”.
WP probably initialed the column to demonstrate some left/right balance. It was a total failure at doing that, and as a result, WP seems even less balanced especially to the Drudge reading crowd.
That is likely why Weigel was let go.
Score one for Matt Drudge.
One thing that is interesting is all of the user comments on Weigel’s columns are no longer available at the WP.
What is with that?
The Classless Society / They should have fired Klein, not Weigel // Jun 26, 2010 at 8:53 am
[...] (Cross-posted in FrumForum comments.) Comments closed — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Saturday, June 26, 2010, at 8:53 am by Scott F.. Filed in Politics, Ugly and tagged Dave Weigel, David Frum, Ezra Klein, fuckups, journalism. « Glass-Steagall Lite Home [...]
mthen // Jun 26, 2010 at 9:22 am
“Some even suggest that the only way to cover conservatism “fairly” would be to hire a committed conservative.”
When the title of the blog is “Right Now: Inside the conservative movement and Republican Party with David Weigel” its clear he was being presented as something other than a “critical but knowledgeable outsider”. I only knew that he had worked for Reason but had voted for Obama so I figured he was more or less in Frum, Brooks mold. I then read his blog which was mostly a collection of birther and tea partiers gone wild stories and decided he wasnt even that. Now I read the emails and it turns out he wasnt just a Democrat but a fairly nasty partisan Democrat. His comments about the Scott Brown and a Norquist meeting being the most damning in this regard.
LauraNo // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:34 am
gruffbear, Ezra Klein and the others were not hired as journalists per se. They were hired as bloggers who have opinions and they write about their opinions. You are holding them to a standard that is not applicable.
I understand why the conservatives want an insider reporting on their movement, they are so used to FOX cheerleading them on that they have accepted that as the usual way of reporting. Which it certainly isn’t.
florishes // Jun 26, 2010 at 11:11 am
Whatever happened to freedom of speech? If journalist are expected to resign for having voiced an opinion, then virtually all journalists should resign for the mere act of asking leading questions.
Weigel is a Democrat hired to follow Republicans – his work was likely to be skewed left – who’d have thunk it!
mthen // Jun 26, 2010 at 11:53 am
“Whatever happened to freedom of speech?” lol Yes and the fact that I am not on the 60 Minutes lineup is a violation of my freedom of speech.
Weigel was presented, as evidenced by the title of his blog, as being a conservative or Republican insider of some kind. It was dirty pool from the day that he was hired. If his blog didnt have a purposely misleading title there would be no problem here.
‘Human Sacrifice! Dogs and Cats Living Together! Mass Hysteria!’ : The Other McCain // Jun 26, 2010 at 4:03 pm
[...] grassroots street cred?Yeah. I’m totally screwed. Now I’m forced to admit that David Frum is actually making sense here:A lot of crazy things are happening inside the conservative world today. . . . This is a movement [...]
msmilack // Jun 26, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I agree with you David, that there was no need for him to leave that job, not least because I enjoyed reading him; he is one of the authors I read regularly.
What bothers me with writers of all print media is their source. e.g. When “Game Change” came out, I was appalled that nothing was sourced. For all we know, the authors could have made it all up. I’m not saying that I believe that, only that by repeating highly inflammatory statements and not naming their sources, I was left wondering how seriously to take any of it. If they had said that Valerie Jarrett was their source for the inside look at the Obama campaign I’d react to the information differently than if they said their source was Governor Blagovich, e.g. I think the tradition of not naming sources is one that is not treated with enough respect because it is used too often. I was glad when the Supreme Court ruled that anyone signing a petition would have their name in print: of course, what did they expect, that just a number, a total would be listed? If that were true, they could just make it up.
Accountability is what is missing.
The group-think aspect is pretty unavoidable if you’re talking about sessions where you discuss politics. Who doesn’t have those discussions with their friends, and most often, friends tend to hold pretty similar views in that area. In fact, one of the reasons I come to this blog every day is that I have no interest in reading what people “like me” think; I already know and can’t learn from it the same way I can if I mix it up and hear from people who don’t necessarily think like I do, but who are people I respect who have points of view I find interesting; they give me a new way to look at what I think which is a pretty protean process. The days my ideas are fixed is the day I give up reading.
uriel81 // Jun 26, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Weigel seems a tad naive, but I do agree with your point #1, and am quite sorry to see him go. I very much enjoyed his appearances on Countdown. Thanks for commenting.
Matthew Yglesias » After “JournoList” // Jun 26, 2010 at 5:29 pm
[...] extent the subject of unwarranted conspiracy theories. For example, David Frum in the context of an otherwise excellent post states that: The idea that likeminded journalists would engage in formalized pre-discussions [...]
Don // Jun 26, 2010 at 5:45 pm
That seems to me a genuinely sinister enterprise,…
I think you are correct that Journolist was a disaster waiting to happen as it grew beyond a group of like-minded personal friends, but isn’t a little over the top to think of it as ’sinister’? Naive, sure, but when you label such a thing as sinister you start to sound like the paranoid conservatives (or liberals) you dislike.
Anyone who has spent any time on listservs knows that they naturally grow into a group that does nothing but childishly quarrel all the time. A listserv a at least 200 people couldn’t possible be sinsiter — that would be too effective.
msmilack // Jun 26, 2010 at 8:01 pm
gruffbear:
Quick question: You wrote “On the one side, we have news reporters, whose independence from government influence is the very quality that the First Amendment anticipates. On the other, leftish policy wonks whose business it is to influence government, and for whom journalistic independence is a professional problem.”
By saying the bad reporters are the “leftish policy wonks” you imply that the good ones (to whom you attribute no party affiliation) are the good ones. Excuse me, but have you ever seen Fox TV?
This is not a party issue or an issue of political persuasion, but if it were, I’d put the most left leaning organization up against Fox any day of the week and Fox would win that contest. It’s not a contest any good journalist would want to win.
nhthinker // Jun 26, 2010 at 8:31 pm
“I’d put the most left leaning organization up against Fox any day of the week and Fox would win that contest.”
Hillary spokesperson Lanny Davis did not seem to agree with your view of Fox…
“I consider FOX News to be a network that genuinely tries to be balanced, offering political perspectives from all sides,” he said, “and I look forward to providing political analysis and information to its audience at a time of great and historic national importance.”
It was after MSNBC had already anointed Obama and called out Chelsea for being pimped out for votes.
MSNBC wins hands down.
Rabiner // Jun 26, 2010 at 9:59 pm
nhthinker:
How about you use sources beyond Lanny Davis who at the time of the statement was probably reacting to the fact Fox News was pushing Hillary Clinton over Barak Obama. CNN is the most balanced news source out of the 24 hour news sources from my perspective. One thing however that separates Fox from MSNBC is how much their (FOX) News Programming bleeds into their Commentary Programming and vice-versa.
mpolito // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:15 pm
He deserved what he got. It does not matter that he dislikes Rush Limbaugh, what matters is that he used the most obscene language to put forth these objections. When Mark Levin does this, Frum throws a fit. Yet Weigel is a fine person and should have continued his job. Come again?
He is in the Frum/Brooks mold insofar as he exists in a community that is simply markedly different from the community that most conservatives exist in, and therefore out of touch with it. He is unlike them in that he uses crude and bizarre language to communicate his point.
Rob_654 // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:17 pm
While I believe that people can be an objective reporter regardless of their personal views – what strikes me with this guy is the same thing as with the General that just got the boot.
A lack of judgment on knowing to keep their yap (verbal or written) shut because the blow back if it becomes public could be big.
Surely this reporter is aware of others who have self-destructed when what they thought were private conversations became public.
This guy isn’t some older person who doesn’t understand how technology works – anyone of his age should know that anything you put down in writing, particularly on a server somewhere is ALWAYS subject to being made public.
Rabiner // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:29 pm
mpolito:
“He deserved what he got. It does not matter that he dislikes Rush Limbaugh, what matters is that he used the most obscene language to put forth these objections. When Mark Levin does this, Frum throws a fit. Yet Weigel is a fine person and should have continued his job. Come again?”
While I agree he used obscene language, he didn’t do it publicly. Someone leaking his emails was a violation of trust and sadly it cost him his job because the emails caused him to lose all credibility on the topic he was covering as a blogger/commentator/journalist.
nhthinker // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Fox was the only network that would cover Hillary- MSNBC and CNN didn’t want anything to do with her.
So much for balance at CNN and MSNBC.
CNN is known for giving favorable coverage to Saddam Hussein in order to get access.
Wiki: “A joint study by the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that people see liberal media bias in television news media such as CNN.[8]. Although both CNN and Fox were perceived in the study as being left of center, CNN was perceived as being more liberal than Fox. Moreover, the study’s findings concerning CNN’s perceived liberal bias are echoed in other studies.[9] There is also a growing economics literature on mass media bias, both on the theoretical and the empirical side. On the theoretical side the focus is on understanding to what extent the political positioning of mass media outlets is mainly driven by demand or supply factors.”
CNN has also been bleeding viewership terribly.
agentprovocateur // Jun 26, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Weigel and The Washington Post were forced to part ways and, yet, that paper still has torture apologists on the payroll.
Rabiner // Jun 26, 2010 at 11:19 pm
nhthinker:
”
Fox was the only network that would cover Hillary- MSNBC and CNN didn’t want anything to do with her.
So much for balance at CNN and MSNBC.
CNN is known for giving favorable coverage to Saddam Hussein in order to get access.
Wiki: “A joint study by the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that people see liberal media bias in television news media such as CNN.[8]. Although both CNN and Fox were perceived in the study as being left of center, CNN was perceived as being more liberal than Fox. Moreover, the study’s findings concerning CNN’s perceived liberal bias are echoed in other studies.[9] There is also a growing economics literature on mass media bias, both on the theoretical and the empirical side. On the theoretical side the focus is on understanding to what extent the political positioning of mass media outlets is mainly driven by demand or supply factors.”
CNN has also been bleeding viewership terribly.”
Considering that source shows that people perceive Fox News as ‘left of center’ just tells you how the people in the study (general public) are amazingly uninformed, uninterested, and fairly ignorant of what reality is.
nhthinker // Jun 26, 2010 at 11:47 pm
“Considering that source shows that people perceive Fox News as ‘left of center’ just tells you how the people in the study (general public) are amazingly uninformed, uninterested, and fairly ignorant of what reality is.”
… spoken like a true leftist elitist! Try adding at least 10 pounds to your right shoulder to straighten you out.
Have a nice day!
Rabiner // Jun 27, 2010 at 12:50 am
nhthinker:
a true leftist elitist? Want to add ’socialist’, ‘communist’, or ‘fascist’ to the tag on that one? You saying Fox News is in any way ‘left of center’? That alone tells me the lunacy of the mob. Seriously, what is ‘center’ if Fox News is ‘left of center’?
msmilack // Jun 27, 2010 at 1:41 am
nhthinker
You are right, but I believe that statement would only be made during a hot campaign when the last audience in the world he would want to alienate would be Fox TV, especially if he felt she was getting unfair coverage of MSNBC. It’s a win/win situation for him to go on Fox (coverage)and say Fox is good, MSNBC is bad, at that moment in the campaign. But now? I think you give him too much credit for meaning everything he says: he was trying to get her elected and took what tactics he had. Just my opinion . . .
mpolito // Jun 27, 2010 at 1:43 am
Also, the guy did vote for Obama. As far as I’m concerned, it is almost impossible to justify a “conservative” vote for Obama with a straight face. We are constantly told on this site of the importance of a “big tent”- which means that someone like Weigel has to live with social cons even if he doesn’t like them, and vice-versa (living in DC, he probably does not have to see many of them anyway). How is voting for Obama over McCain helpful to the “big tent” approach, exactly? Or is it big tent for thee but not for me?