Washington Post blogger David Weigel resigns after messages leak - - By Howard Kurtz

Washington Post blogger David Weigel resigns after messages leak

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 26, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062504413.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

David Weigel, who was hired by The Washington Post to blog about conservatives, resigned Friday after leaked online messages showed him disparaging some Republicans and commentators in highly personal terms.

Weigel, whose tenure lasted three months, apologized Thursday for writing on a private e-mail exchange that Matt Drudge should "handle his emotional problems more responsibly and set himself on fire." He also mocked Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, by referring to the "Paultard Tea Party."

The Daily Caller reported more inflammatory comments on Friday, with Weigel writing that conservatives were using the media to "violently, angrily divide America" and lamenting news organizations' "need to give equal/extra time to 'real American' views, no matter how [expletive] moronic." When Rush Limbaugh, who has called for President Obama to fail, was hospitalized with chest pains, Weigel wrote: "I hope he fails."

These and other remarks were drawn from Journolist, an off-the-record listserv for several hundred independent to left-leaning commentators and journalists that was founded in 2007 by Ezra Klein, now a liberal blogger for The Post's Web site.

Post Managing Editor Raju Narisetti said Weigel had called and offered to resign Thursday evening and he accepted on Friday.

"Dave did excellent work for us," Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said. But, he said, "we can't have any tolerance for the perception that people are conflicted or bring a bias to their work. . . . There's abundant room on our Web site for a wide range of viewpoints, and we should be transparent about everybody's viewpoint."

Weigel declined to comment except to say that none of the e-mails was sent after he joined The Post. Earlier, he told the Caller: "I've always been of the belief that you could have opinions and could report anyway. . . . People aren't usually asked to stand or fall on everything they've said in private."

Tucker Carlson, the conservative pundit who edits the Caller, said: "I've always liked Dave Weigel and I think he's talented," but that the messages "struck me as the kind of thing you might like to know if you're reading his stories."

Read the rest here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062504413.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

20100626 WaPo blogger David Weigel resigns by Kurtz

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