Thoughts on The Weigel/Journolist Controversy

(My thoughts, in case you were wondering whose they were.)

1. Weigel shouldn't be surprised that statements he posted to the Journolist listserv were shared with non-members. In 2009, someone from the list shared postings with Mickey Fucking Kaus, for fuck's sake. It would be absurd to think that communications among the group would not reach the inboxes of bitter hacks such as Kaus, Tucker Faye Carlson and Jeffrey Goldberg.

2. Nothing Weigel wrote was particularly scathing or outrageous. Bryon York, Drudge, Big Pharma, etc. are deserving of far worse ribbing than anything Weigel wrote about them.

3. Nor was much of it particularly liberal. Weigel is a libertarian who didn't pretend that morons weren't morons for the sake of the team That job is already taken by Dr. and Mrs. Instracracker.

4. Now that WaPoCo has fired Wiegel, they can afford to pay Kaus again. Not that they should, but they surely will.

5. I don't know anything about the Journolist -- being neither a mover, a shaker or a midnight toker -- and don't much care. But how hard could it be to find out who the leaker(s) is/are? Eliminate everyone who doesn't think that leakees Kaus, Carlson and Goldberg are schmucks, and you've got a narrow field. I suppose the leaker could be someone who was silent on the schmuck question, or even someone who thinks they're schmucks but hates Klein/Weigel even more. But it's a good starting point.

6. Howard Kurtz is still a fucking right-wing hack. Writes Kurtz:

This is not the first time that washingtonpost.com has had problems covering the right. In 2006, conservative blogger Ben Domenech resigned three days after his debut, following a flurry of plagiarism allegations involving his previous work.

Allegations? Box Turtle Ben got caught redstate-handed, and lied about it. And Domenech wasn't "a problem covering the right," he was problem of the right.

7. Bottom line: WaPoCo is free to do whatever it likes with its dwindling resources and its dwindled credibility. Maybe they can clone Kurtz and Milbank and Gerson and Sally Quinn and Chas. Lane, who don't pretend (or succesfully pretend) to be reporters. Just makes my "job" easier.