bobbyw24
06-30-2010, 04:29 AM
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
The implosion of David Weigel was all too predictable: the Washington Post hires someone who’s an ostensible “libertarian” to cover the conservative-libertarian milieu, and it finally comes out that he’s not exactly what was advertised, as evidenced in remarks on a private email list. It turns out he positively hates the people he’s supposed to be covering, and said so in no uncertain terms to his fellow liberal journalists on the now-defunct “Journo-list.”
You’ll recall that it was Weigel who “reported” on the Ron Paul campaign for Reason magazine, frantically pushing the Ron Paul newsletter non-story, smearing both Paul and his supporters as not-so-secret “racists,” and making the incredibly stupid argument that the Austrian theory of bank credit expansion as the cause of economic turmoil is somehow “anti-Semitic.” At the time I was highly suspicious of the “libertarian” credentials of anyone who would attack Paul’s “End the Fed” campaign from this nutty angle, and now it turns out I was right: from his published comments on Journo-list, it looks like Weigel was plenty steamed at conservatives for opposing the government takeover of the health care system. Now you may agree with him on that or not, but you have to agree that no “libertarian,” not even his fellow “cosmotarians” over at Reason (where Weigel is a contributing editor), would go there. From the Kochtopus to WaPo to the Graveyard of Pundits Best Forgotten, Weigel’s meteoric career is a testament to the idea that there is, after all, some justice in this world.
However, I have to ask what the brouhaha is really all about. Weigel’s “reporting” has never been objective: he’s always been a fierce partisan of the Militant Center, eagerly policing the political margins to make sure no politically incorrect ideas get past the gates. Here, after all, is a guy who wrote, at the height of the Iraq war:
“So here are all my least favorite things about this war – the lack of a sense of national duty or sacrifice, the partisan pissing contest, the unwillingness of leaders to listen when people talk to them.”
Yes, we have to “sacrifice” for the war effort – in the sacred name of National Duty, no less! He doesn’t mind all that killing of innocents, or being lied to: what’s really important is that we aren’t being asked to sacrifice enough. Now that’s a real “libertarian” talking! In bemoaning Weigel’s fate, the Huffington Post tried to spin him as a “left libertarian.” What a laugh! This guy is the exact opposite of a libertarian, left-wing or otherwise: he’s bad on economics, bad on foreign policy, and just plain bad all over.
That’s why WaPo hired him. That’s why he regularly appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show, snarking with her on almost a weekly basis, her go-to man for the latest dirt on Obama’s political enemies. Rather than admit it, the editors chose to let Weigel go so they could maintain the fiction of their journalistic impartiality.
Yes, Weigel got shafted – and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Read more by Justin Raimondo
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/06/27/colonialism-obama-style/
The implosion of David Weigel was all too predictable: the Washington Post hires someone who’s an ostensible “libertarian” to cover the conservative-libertarian milieu, and it finally comes out that he’s not exactly what was advertised, as evidenced in remarks on a private email list. It turns out he positively hates the people he’s supposed to be covering, and said so in no uncertain terms to his fellow liberal journalists on the now-defunct “Journo-list.”
You’ll recall that it was Weigel who “reported” on the Ron Paul campaign for Reason magazine, frantically pushing the Ron Paul newsletter non-story, smearing both Paul and his supporters as not-so-secret “racists,” and making the incredibly stupid argument that the Austrian theory of bank credit expansion as the cause of economic turmoil is somehow “anti-Semitic.” At the time I was highly suspicious of the “libertarian” credentials of anyone who would attack Paul’s “End the Fed” campaign from this nutty angle, and now it turns out I was right: from his published comments on Journo-list, it looks like Weigel was plenty steamed at conservatives for opposing the government takeover of the health care system. Now you may agree with him on that or not, but you have to agree that no “libertarian,” not even his fellow “cosmotarians” over at Reason (where Weigel is a contributing editor), would go there. From the Kochtopus to WaPo to the Graveyard of Pundits Best Forgotten, Weigel’s meteoric career is a testament to the idea that there is, after all, some justice in this world.
However, I have to ask what the brouhaha is really all about. Weigel’s “reporting” has never been objective: he’s always been a fierce partisan of the Militant Center, eagerly policing the political margins to make sure no politically incorrect ideas get past the gates. Here, after all, is a guy who wrote, at the height of the Iraq war:
“So here are all my least favorite things about this war – the lack of a sense of national duty or sacrifice, the partisan pissing contest, the unwillingness of leaders to listen when people talk to them.”
Yes, we have to “sacrifice” for the war effort – in the sacred name of National Duty, no less! He doesn’t mind all that killing of innocents, or being lied to: what’s really important is that we aren’t being asked to sacrifice enough. Now that’s a real “libertarian” talking! In bemoaning Weigel’s fate, the Huffington Post tried to spin him as a “left libertarian.” What a laugh! This guy is the exact opposite of a libertarian, left-wing or otherwise: he’s bad on economics, bad on foreign policy, and just plain bad all over.
That’s why WaPo hired him. That’s why he regularly appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show, snarking with her on almost a weekly basis, her go-to man for the latest dirt on Obama’s political enemies. Rather than admit it, the editors chose to let Weigel go so they could maintain the fiction of their journalistic impartiality.
Yes, Weigel got shafted – and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Read more by Justin Raimondo
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/06/27/colonialism-obama-style/