The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Dave Weigel and the Left's 'Message Discipline'

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The Spectacle Blog

Dave Weigel and the Left's 'Message Discipline'

By Robert Stacy McCain on 7.16.10 @ 10:06AM

In discussing the efforts of Media Matters to suppress conservative messages, I was reminded of a theory that continues to intrigue me:

Remember Liz Mair's theory that David Weigel's Journolist e-mails were made public because Weigel had dared to dispute the Left's narrative that portrayed Rand Paul as a racist. Weigel wasn't toeing the line. He hadn't cooperated in the Meme-O'-th'-Day agenda and, by speaking out, had helped kill the meme that Democrats were employing to tremendous advantage. Was that why he became the Luca Brasi of MSM reporters?

Of course, Weigel isn't "sleeping with the fishes," but he's no longer employed by the Washington Post, and so the message of this leak from a progressive mailing list -- "Don't cross us, or bad things could happen to you" -- is still effective. Some of my conservative friends who hate Weigel seem oblivious to the potential significance of this clue about how the Left punishes dissent in the mainstream media.

topics:
Media Matters

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

Teflon93| 7.16.10 @ 12:42PM

And you're buddies with Weigel because....?

Get out of D.C. once in awhile. And next time don't make a damned full of yourself being afraid of "anti-government" types.

Teflon93| 7.16.10 @ 12:43PM

Freudian slip there---"fool of yourself."

Missy| 7.16.10 @ 2:14PM

Who cares? What's with you and Weigel, McCain? Your fascination with the fat little liberal is unseemly.

Does he have some compromising photos of you?

Jubal Biggs| 7.16.10 @ 3:16PM

The point here is that the MSM is using mob like tactics to keep journalists in line, not who, in particular the left is shutting up.
When you see behavior like this, you have to say something, as McCain has done. An old Jewish expression goes; "First they came for the Communists, and nobody said anything because we didn't like the Communists. Then they came for the Gypsies, and we didn't say anything because we weren't Gypsies. Then they came for us, and nobody said anything because there was nobody left to talk."
Do not ignore thuggish tactics even if they are used against your political opponents.

Missy| 7.16.10 @ 5:12PM

Weigel is a dishonest adversary not a friend; only liberals were allowed on that site. He was hoist with his own petard.
Your lecture is not only foolish, it is inappropriate and misplaced.

Dave Weigel| 7.16.10 @ 4:56PM

Conservatives don't hate the Weigel, they are just jealous. Everybody wants to be me. Hardworking men and women are eating grass right now, and they never acted as unprofessional as I did, and still do, yet what leftwing media outfit, outside of the spineless WaPo, does not want the Weigel on the staff? I'm in Keith O's top five, that's how cool I am. Working in the liberal media is good work if you can get it because even when you screw up, there's no punishment. I don't blame jealous wingnuts of their jealous...it's kind of cute.