I am continually amazed how out of touch with reality that the press is
today. They lost their moral standing with the conservatives over 15
years ago. It just continues to get worse and they are finally starting
to notice, just before they go under....


===============================================

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ombudsman- blog/2010/06/blogger_loses_job_post_loses_s.html



Blogger loses job; Post loses standing among conservatives
Post blogger Dave Weigel, who wrote about the conservative movement,
resigned amid controversy today following disclosure of disparaging e-
mails heÆd written about some of the very people he was hired to cover.

Weigel bears responsibility for sarcastic and scornful comments he made
in e-mails leaked from a supposedly private listserv called
ôJournolist,ö started in 2007 by fellow Post blogger and friend Ezra
Klein. WeigelÆs e-mails showed strikingly poor judgment and revealed a
bias that only underscored existing complaints from conservatives that
he couldnÆt impartially cover them.

But his departure also raises questions about whether The Post has
adequately defined the role of bloggers like Weigel. Are they neutral reporters or ideologues?

And, given the disdainful comments in his e-mails, there is the separate question of whether he was miscast from the outset when he was hired
earlier this year.


Raju Narisetti, the managing editor who oversees The PostÆs Web site,
said Weigel called him last night and offered to resign after Fishbowl
D.C. initially revealed some damaging e-mails. Narisetti said Weigel
alerted him that another Web site, the conservative Daily Caller,
planned to disclose more e-mails today.

"This morning, after reading them, I accepted his resignation,"
Narisetti said. Contacted by e-mail, Weigel replied: ôI no longer work
for the Post.ö

The e-mails made negative comments about Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich,
Ron Paul, and conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, among
others. One suggested it ôwould be a vastly better worldö if Webmeister
Matt Drudge ôdecided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly,
and set himself on fire.ö

Weigel apologized online yesterday, but the damage was too severe to
save his job.

ôI donÆt think you need to be a conservative to cover the conservative movement,ö Narisetti told me late today. ôBut you do need to be
impartial... in your views.ö

He said that when Weigel was hired, he was vetted in the same way that
other prospective Post journalists are screened. He interviewed with a
variety of top editors, his writings were reviewed and his references
were checked, Narisetti said.

ôBut weÆre living in an era when maybe we need to add a levelö of
inquiry, he said. ôIt may be in our interests to ask potential
reporters: æIn private... have you expressed any opinions that would
make it difficult for you to do your job.ö

WeigelÆs exit, and the events that prompted it, have further damaged The
Post among conservatives who believe it is not properly attuned to their ideology or activities. Ironically, Weigel was hired to address
precisely those concerns.

With bloggers such as Weigel, ôI think The Post needs to decide what it
wants to be online,ö said Dan Gainor, a vice president at the
conservative Media Research Center. ôDoes it want to be opinion? Or,
does it want to be news? The problem here was that it was never clear.ö

ôIf itÆs going to be opinion, it ought to have somebody on the
conservative side -- something Dave Weigel never was,ö he said.

If The Post wants to assign a ôgood neutral reporterö to cover
conservatives, ôweÆd be thrilled,ö said Gainor. But quickly added,
Weigel ôwasnÆt one. He looked at the conservative movement as if he was visiting a zoo. WeÆre more than that.ö

Gainor raises valid points. KleinÆs blog posts clearly pass through a
liberal prism. For that reason, liberals have a comfort level with what
he writes, and conservatives know where heÆs coming from, even if they disagree. In contrast, WeigelÆs blog seemed to confuse many
conservatives who contacted me. Was he supposed to be a neutral
reporter, some wondered? Others complained that he was a liberal trying
to write about conservatives he disdained.

ôWe will look for someone to replace Dave,ö Narisetti said.

Instead of just a replacement, The Post might consider two: one
conservative with a Klein-like ideological bent, and another who can
cover the conservative movement in the role of a truly neutral reporter.

In the meantime, Post managers would be wise to remind all staffers that personal opinions, expressed privately on listservs or through social
media, can prove damaging if made public.

Klein addressed that danger this afternoon in a thoughtful blog post explaining why he is closing down Journolist, and why he is saddened
that leaks from the listserv led to the resignation of Weigel, a ôdear friend.ö Klein wrote:



There's a lot of faux-intimacy on the Web. Readers like that intimacy,
or at least some of them do. But it's dangerous. A newspaper column is
public, and writers treat it as such. So too is a blog. But Twitter?
It's public, but it feels, somehow, looser, safer. Facebook is less
public than Twitter, and feels even more intimate. A private e-mail list
is not public, but it is electronically archived text, and it is
protected only by a password field and the good will of the members.
It's easy to talk as if it's private without considering the
possibility, unlikely as it is, that it will one day become public.


Alas, it took only one listserv participant to bundle up WeigelÆs
archived comments and start leaking them outside the group. The result
is that Weigel lost his job. But the bigger loss is The PostÆs standing
among conservatives.

By Andy Alexander | June 25, 2010; 5:24 PM ET

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999
Democrats -- The party of economic destruction ....

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