Washington Post shocked about Weigel

The Washington Post last week accepted the resignation of a blogger it hired to "cover" the conservative movement.

David Weigel was outed for writing hateful opinions about some of those he was assigned to "cover."

Thus, we are to believe The Washington Post was shocked, shocked to learn that Weigel held such strident convictions about those on the right side of the political spectrum.

As someone who has hired hundreds of reporters and editors over 30 years in newsroom management, am I expected to believe the Post believed it was hiring an actual journalist in Weigel?

Are we expected to believe The Washington Post hired Weigel without examining his previous work?

Are we expected to believe The Washington Post hired Weigel without knowing he is an activist obsessed with dissing anyone to the right of Saul Alinksy?

Give me a break.

Don't miss Joseph Farah's newest book, "The Tea Party Manifesto: A Vision for an American Rebirth," in which he sets out a clear agenda for the movement he predicted would arise in response to Barack Obama.

David Weigel was hired by the Post from the Washington Independent, a George-Soros-funded operation with little pretense toward honest or independent journalism.

His body of work remains there to this day – and it is extensive and illuminating.

Weigel wrote so many stories about me, during his time at the Washington non-Independent I actually once thought he was assigned full-time to cover me.

Of course, that's what I would expect from George Soros media fronts like the Washington Independent and Media Matters. But I still assumed there was at least a pretense of professional ethics at The Washington Post – until it recruited David Weigel to cover his enemies – to turn his Post blog into a media star chamber.

This has been going on since early April.

Several times during that period, Weigel was forced to apologize for obvious mistakes and inaccurate characterizations. However, if he had to apologize for all of them, he'd have to change his name to Mea Culpa.

So, what's the lesson here?

Despite the dozens and dozens of unflattering pieces Weigel has written about me, this is the first time I have written his name.

David Weigel is irrelevant.

The problem is there are literally thousands of Weigels out there populating what we euphemistically call "the mainstream media." They constituted the majority of the newsroom personnel when I was a newspaper editor, but today the situation is far more lopsided.

The inmates are running the asylum.

The activists have taken over – lock, stock and barrel.

"Journalistic ethics" is now an oxymoron.

Think about it. Some editor at The Washington Post made a deliberate, conscious decision to hire David Weigel. What has become of that editor? Has he turned in his resignation? Has he been fired? Or will he be permitted to hire yet another smear merchant to replace Weigel?

How about this? When is the Post going to hire a full-time blogger to cover the political Left? That's a laugh, isn't it? With all the reporters and columnists working at news organizations across this country, there is not one assigned to muckrake in the nation's biggest political cesspool.

Why?

Because the nation's news media, for the most part, don't believe there is any wrongdoing on the Left. It's just that simple. Reporters and editors are eager to cover the "bad guys." That's where the action is. And, to them, there are no "bad guys" on the Left.

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I have been a reporter at daily newspapers. I have been an editor at daily newspapers. I have run daily newspapers. I have done every bloody job one can do at daily newspapers. I have also taught journalism at a major university. And I founded the first independent "online newspaper," which you are reading right now.

I've been there. I've witnessed the abuses firsthand. Weigel is not an aberration. He just got his cover blown. And, more importantly, the Post got busted, too.

If you are interested in the most scathing inside-out exposé of the way America's newsrooms have been taken over by activists, read Joseph Farah's "Stop the Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution."