Posts Tagged ‘dave weigel’

Foster Kamer as Vizzini

Posted: June 28, 2010 by datechguy in media, opinion/news
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Foster Kamer has a post up at the village voice about who smeared Dave Weigel, a gem from the piece:

I’m of the idea that Journolist was a bad idea in practice — because there is always a rat, always — but think that writers should be allowed to be sentient human beings with, you know, opinions about things. Otherwise, hold them in for seven presidential administrations, and the next thing you know, you’re Helen Thomas and your incredible legacy is now marred because you expressed an opinion about your job for the first time in your life that you’ve held in for way too long, that ends up being a “shocker” to people, and costs you your rep.

Take a look at that paragraph and the willful blindness it contains and it tells you a lot about the author. Poor Helen Thomas if only nobody knew what she really thought, we could have admired her in ignorance, just like Alger Hiss.

What annoys me is the title and the premise, Who smeared Dave Weigel? Smeared?

You might say who betrayed Dave Weigel, who outed Dave Weigel, who exposed Dave Weigel who embarrassed Dave Weigel but not smeared.

Smeared implies a falsehood, there is no falsehood here, Weigel wrote what he wrote of his own free will and said what he said.

Calling tea party activists racists, that is a smear. Exposing Weigel’s and Thomas’ true feelings in their own words to the light of day can be called many things but smear is not one of them.

So in the words of Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

If Foster wants to defend Weigel he should take a page out of Stacy McCain’s book:

Ali Akbar called me to discuss WeigelGate and pointed out something: Weigel hung out with us in NY-23, in Boston during the Brown campaign, at CPAC and at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

During all that time, Ali remarked, not once did Weigel do a “gotcha” by disseminating reports of the off-the-record stuff he saw and heard. Whatever vicious snark and gossip Weigel dished out via his blog, or e-mails or Twitter, he did not abuse his journalistic privilege by burning the people who gave him access.

That is the defense of a friend rather than of an ideologue. Weigel is really lucky that he has Stacy McCain as a friend. Stacy will fight for his friends till hell freezes over and then will fight on the ice.

Jim Geraghty is close..

Posted: June 25, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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in this story but no cigar.

Somebody on Journo-List didn’t like Dave Weigel and decided to publish his most furious and incendiary remarks that he thought — unwisely — that he was expressing in confidence.

this jibes with Stacy’s remarks about Washington:

Anyone who has ever worked in DC can testify that in Washington, the more you succeed, the more knives will be aimed at your back.

Geraghty continues:

So what else is on there that, if revealed, could make life difficult for Ezra Klein or Jeffrey Toobin or Paul Krugman or Ben Smith or Mike Allen? Or is the idea that as long as they stay in line, they’ll never have some remark they regret publicized to the world? Did Journo-List evolve into a massive blackmail scheme that ensures no one inside the club will ever speak ill of another member?

This is where he is wrong. There is nothing Ben Smith, Mike Allen, Ezra Klien, Jeffrey Toobin or Paul Krugman could say about conservatives that would get them in trouble. In fact it would only endear them to their customer base. That is why such revelations would never harm them, but for Dave they proved fatal. Why? Remember what I said this morning:

I see no reason why we should give him more consideration than any other journalist. If he gives us a fair shake then we should act accordingly, if not then not.

Unfortunately his job depends on us giving him more consideration than we would give another journalist. It depends on us not considering him a foe. Ann Althouse explains the issue:

So David started letting his need for lefty approval express itself on the email list, the Journolist, where the cool kids were being intimate and snarky. But those other kids were not tasked with covering conservatives. While they might have been embarrassed if the mean things they wrote in the email were ever leaked, they didn’t have careers founded on their suitability for covering conservatives. The risk poor Dave took was of an entirely different nature. Why, Dave, why? Why did you risk the plum job?

Why? Because he trusted his “friends” on the left.

And memeorandum has gone wild on the subject. The Funniest is Ezra Klein:

It was ironic, in a way, that it would be the Daily Caller that published e-mails from Journolist. A few weeks ago, its editor, Tucker Carlson, asked if he could join the list. After asking other members, I said no, that the rules had worked so far to protect people, and the members weren’t comfortable changing them. He tried to change my mind, and I offered, instead, to partner with Carlson to start a bipartisan list serv. That didn’t interest him.

In any case, Journolist is done now. I’ll delete the group soon after this post goes live. That’s not because Journolist was a bad idea, or anyone on it did anything wrong. It was a wonderful, chaotic, educational discussion. I’m proud of having started it, grateful to have participated in it, and I have no doubt that someone else will re-form it, with many of the same members, and keep it going. Hopefully, it will lose some of its mystique in the process, and be understood more for what it is: One of many e-mail lists where people talk about things they’re interested in. But insofar as the current version of Journolist has seen its archives become a weapon, and insofar as people’s careers are now at stake, it has to die.

Or in other words , “God forbid the public see what was really said by us.” Kind of funny for people whose job it is to get to get people to share with them.

Klein would doubtless say we are being paranoid about what Journolist actually was. It seems to be that he is asking for a consideration that the people on the left that he allowed on “journolist” doesn’t give to the right or the government when republicans are in power.

I also like the implication that Carlson got what he was trying to get. You had better hope that wasn’t what Tucker was after because if it was then he would have already downloaded the lot and is sitting on it. Perhaps Breitbart has it right now and is simply editing with video now to be released to its best effect.

Sooner or later it is all going to come out so, assuming I am wrong about the damage it would cause to your friends. you might as well get it out now, because if we conservatives DO have the content you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be released at a time of our best advantage. After all the left is going to be stuck by disaster this election anyways, might as well get the disaster out of the way when it can cause the least overall damage.

But I don’t think that’s what happened, I think a “friend” of his was pissed over something and decided to nail him, but you never know Ezra I might be wrong, maybe you should release the archives now.

William Thurston is a funny man:

Posted: June 25, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
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Because he puts these two sentences back to back concerning Weigel/journolist situation:

If there is something that should be kept sacred in journalism it’s a non-biased reporting of the facts(often times questionable today) and that items “off the record” stay off the record. While Weigel’s remarks give us insight into how the left are willing to talk about conservatives from within the protection of their own echo chambers, the true scoundrel here is whoever released his comments.

When two sentences earlier he writes this:

According to the story about the list, often times this is where news is first developed and then echoed out to the country through blogs and editorials. Up to this point however, no one has been outed for their participation and what they’ve said.

So let me get this straight, this “echo chamber” is where news is “developed” and the “echoed” to the world, by a group of hard liberals in a “secret and secure” group to paint things a particular way to influence the American people and we are worried about a scoundrel who leaks e-mail about some guy venting?

It’s like saying Tessio is a scoundrel and Clemenza is not. They’re all friggen Mafia! They are by definition all scoundrels.

We need to be much more worried about how they are trying to spin the news as a collective than if Dave lost his temper and some guys decided to be a pain over it.

Via Glenn who puts it best: No honor among schmucks.

I haven’t paid much attention to Dave Weigel situation

Posted: June 25, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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But here is my take:

It would be nice if the Washington Post appointed a, you know, conservative, to cover conservatives, but that isn’t in the cards, where their customer base is and just not going to happen. Conservatives being angry at Weigel is not going to change this policy.

Stacy calls him a friend, he has gone after him on occasion when wrong (as have I) but he believes in the honey/vinegar principle here, plus since he declares him a friend that has to trump political considerations.

Weigel’s apology can be taken or not, it’s up to you. Do remember that if you choose not to accept the apology, be aware that this is the standard you are setting for yourself.

As far as him as an individual, I don’t know him or have loyalty one way or the other, he is a friend of a friend so I’ll give him some consideration on those lines, but as far as the conservative movement is concerned here’s the bottom line.

As far as him and the Wa Po, it’s real simple. I see no reason why we should give him more consideration than any other journalist. If he gives us a fair shake then we should act accordingly, if not then not.

And Dave some basic advice: If you don’t want something to get out, you don’t send it in an e-mail. Write the e-mail, vent your spleen, then delete it. I’ve done that myself and you’d be shocked at how much better you feel just writing it.

Sooner or later someone is going to Hack JournoList so the people on it should act accordingly.

Update: Weigel resigns. Will they choose a conservative to cover conservatives in the future? I wouldn’t be a whole lot of money on it.

Update 2: I have since met Weigel, he seems like a nice enough guy.

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