Since I've been accused of leading "something of a crusade" against former Post blogger Dave Weigel, how could I resist this announcement? Weigel, who left the Post amidst a controversy where he bashed tons of conservatives, has joined the leftwing convention at MSNBC (video right).
According to a Tweet from "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann, Weigel has come on board as a contributor. "And confirming, @DaveWeigel is now MSNBC contributor @DaveWeigel Welcome aboard and my condolences, uh, congratulations!" wrote Olbermann.
Now Weigel has joined the team of Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz. This from the guy who just today told the world of his wonderful career saga that started out as editor of a campus conservative paper at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. "Was I really that conservative? Yes," he wrote, somehow expecting readers to believe him. While he admitted some of his troubles came from "hubris," much of what he wrote most already knew, that he was no friend to the right. "At Reason, I'd become a little less favorable to Republicans, and I'd never been shy about the fact that I was pro-gay marriage and pro-open borders."
Throw in Weigel's parade of assault on conservatives, prominent figures on the right from Rush Limbaugh to Matt Drudge and Newt Gingrich and the bigger question becomes, does he agree with the right on anything? The answer is: it doesn't matter anymore. He's gone from an organization fighting to keep its credibility to one fighting to lose what little it has.
Weigel, who had blocked me on Twitter, responded to my comments about the move with this: "Folks of every ideology are ‘contributors.' Pat Buchanan and Ezra Klein, for example." Weigel, who had been rumored to be heading to Huffington Post, managed to land even more in left field.
This is a good place to remind everyone this issue has never been about Weigel. This was about the Post which claimed to be a neutral and respectable news organization and then filled its website with lefties like Ezra Klein and Weigel. That's fine if they balance that out and they didn't. They revel in the left and bash the right, making themselves more blatantly liberal and tossing out the window their claims of objectivity.
There isn't a news outlet around that has figured out the web effectively. They shouldn't let that confusion turn into a cheap excuse to rationalize filling their staff with open lefties and those who bash the right. Hopefully, the Post learned its lesson here.
