This is kind of wonky, but a favorite writer of mine, Dave Weigel, was forced to resign from the Washington Post because of comments he made on a supposedly-private listserv bashing Republicans. I understand the conflict-of-interest, as Weigel is supposed to be covering the conservative beat, and his objectivity seems to be compromised.
However, what came first, his objectivity being compromised or his becoming fed-up with Tea Party bullshit?
Here are
snippets of what he said:
So what did Dave Weigel do on this private listserve that was so terrible? He made an (admittedly tasteless) joke about Rush Limbaugh’s heart failing. He wrote, about covering the Tea Party, “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?” He said that the motives behind some Tea Partiers and conservatives were racist and premised on maintaining white privilege. He pointed out that “There’s also the fact that neither the pundits, nor possibly the Republicans, will be punished for their crazy outbursts of racism. Newt Gingrich is an amoral blowhard who resigned in disgrace, and Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite who was drummed out of the movement by William F. Buckley. Both are now polluting my inbox and TV with their bellowing and minority-bashing. They’re never going to go away or be deprived of their soapboxes.” He said about conservative blow-hard Matt Drudge that “It’s really a disgrace that an amoral shut-in like Drudge maintains the influence he does on the news cycle while gay-baiting, lying, and flubbing facts to this degree.” He pointed out that the mainstream media suffers from “this need to give equal/extra time to ‘real American’ views, no matter how fucking moronic, which just so happen to be the views of the conglomerates that run the media and/or buy up ads.” He said Glenn Beck was racist. He was satisfied and laughing when a right-wing operative who made a career of harassment, intimidation and law-breaking was finally caught breaking into Senator Mary Landrieu’s office. He used the term “ratfuck.”
As I said, I understand the issue with his impartiality. However, let's look at the following comments from the right:
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
“They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back”?
... all from
Rush Limbaugh
"Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range.... She's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?"
-
Glenn Beck, who also called the President of the United States a
racist.
Or let's talk
Pat Buchanan.
So why is it OK that the right wing media is allowed to fan the flames on a daily basis, but Weigel is forced out for it? Is it because he works for the Washington Post, a legitimate newspaper? Maybe. One can, and should, argue that the standards should be higher for him than for bloggers like Drudge. But Pat Buchanan works for CNN! Glenn Beck works for Fox, who likes to pretend to be a mainstream news service - at least when they're trying to get Helen Thomas' front row seat.
Was Weigel wrong in his assessments? No. Was he dumb to put those thoughts in writing? Yes. Is there a double-standard at work here? Absolutely.
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