Democracy Dies in Drama: Washington Post "Journalists" Get Into Public Catfight

Last week, former fake "conservative journalist" and current Ron Jeremy Impersonator (from the waist up) Dave Wiegel retweeted a risque joke that said, "All women are bi-. The only question is, sexual or polar." Or words to that effect.

The joke was undoubtedly prompted by the Amber Heard trial, as Heard claims to be bisexual and seems to be bipolar. Well I don't know about bipolar. A psychiatrist testified she has Borderline Personality Disorder and Histrionic Personality Disorder, which are not the same as bipolar disorder, but, you know, to laymen: Close enough.

A little feminist sociopath named Felicia Somnez who had already sued the Washington Post for alleged gender discrimination -- and who had had her case tossed out of court for failure to present any "plausible case" or theory of discrimination -- "confronted" Weigel in the company's slack chat:

Sonmez, according to messages that I obtained, also confronted Weigel in an internal WaPo Slack channel, tagging him and writing, "I'm sorry but what is this?"

It's a joke, Felicia. Calm your tits. Have a drink, have a cream soda, do some f***ing thing.

Apparently Felicia wasn't satisfied with the mollification she got privately, so she took to Twitter -- where else? -- to express her outrage over the tweet that would only seem outrageous to you if you had not lived through the 80s and 90s and heard this joke seventy hundred times.

And of course she went to Twitter because that is where you Farm Outrage in order to pressure corporations into canceling the people you want canceled.

On twitter, she complained sarcastically, "Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!"

Allowed. Interesting word choice, Felicia.

I think it's pretty obvious that Felicia is attempting to pressure the Post to settle the suit that the judge already threw out of court by making unrelated bitchy complaints.

And so of course the Washington Post is setting new rules about what speech is "allowed" by their employees when not working at the paper.

Kristine Coratti Kelly, the paper's chief communications officer, issued a statement regarding Weigel’s retweet: "Editors have made clear to the staff that the tweet was reprehensible and demeaning language or actions like that will not be tolerated."

National editor Matea Gold dogpiled:

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy

In Slack, a conversation took place about the retweet.

@MateaGold wrote to staffers in the Slack channel, "I just want to assure all of you that The Post is committed to maintaining a respectful workplace for everyone. We do not tolerate demeaning language or actions."

Weigel went supine over the non-offense and apologized to the person who was only pretending to be offended, in hopes of chiseling a settlement out of the company she is still suing (she's appealing the judge's decision, she said):

David Weigel @daveweigel

I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.

A real softboi liberal SJW, Jose Del Real, attempted to play peacemaker. He offered a response to Felicia Somnez in which he claimed (falsely) that Weigel's retweet was "terrible and unacceptable," but also said that everyone makes mistakes, and golly gee wilickers, maybe there's room for forgiveness here? Maybe we don't have to light up Twitter's Cancellation Networks over a retweet?

Jose A. Del Real @jdelreal

Jun 4

Felicia, we all mess up from time to time. Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying. I don't think this is appropriate.

Dave's retweet is terrible and unacceptable. But rallying the internet to attack him for a mistake he made doesn’t actually solve anything. We all mess up in some way or another. There is such a thing as challenging with compassion.

That only fed the fire, of course.

She went on the unhinged rant she'd been itching to go on from the beginning.

Objecting to sexism is not “clout chasing.” It’s not “harassment.” And it’s certainly not “cruelty.”

Does the Washington Post agree? @SallyBuzbee @mateagold

Here is a personal thread I wrote last night about why speaking out matters to me and other women. 2/2 https://t.co/nmVqaD7nOk

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 5, 2022

Glad she disprove that thing about all women being bipolar.

She just continued ranting and claiming that she had to fight for the cancellation of Dave Weigel over a retweet because it was linked, somehow, to a sexual discrimination in Beijing in 2018 as well as her own claimed sexual assault.

It's all connected, you see. If we don't stop Dave Weigel, it's like we're just letting Felicia Somnez get sexually assaulted all over again.

And, PS, if we don't agree to settle Felicia Somnez's lawsuit on terms favorable to her, it's also like we're just Allowing the Rapists to Win.

If you're thinking "There's no way Dave Weigel escapes this without at least a suspension," ding-ding-ding, you're a smartie.

I mean, they have to do that, just so Felicia doesn't sue them again.

he Washington Post has suspended reporter David Weigel without pay for retweeting a sexist joke, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday.

Weigel did not respond to a request for comment, but an out-of-office email said that he would return on July 5.

A spokesperson for The Post declined to comment, citing a need for privacy regarding personnel matters.

I have a feeling this won't be the last punishment. Once one SJW has "marked" you -- like a shark nipping you -- the rest of the sharks smell the blood in the water and soon the frenzy begins.

You will begin reading stories about Dave Weigel's prior Awkward Moments with women, and within two weeks a #MeToo Docket will be anonymously constructed about him.

And I don't really hate him, but: He did pick this side. I'm not rooting for his undoing, but I wouldn't lift a finger to stop it, either.

Still one of my favorite podcasts ever: Ethan Van Sciver talking about the financial hazard you assume when you hire SJWs to work at your company.

SJWs do not think about what your company is making. They can give a rat about your company's actual mission or whether it makes a profit or even remains in business.

SJWs come into your company with only one goal: To spread the SJW religion and force it on others. And they will gladly destroy your company if it permits them to inflict the cult of identity politics on just one unwilling person.

The story he's talking about regards two small, leftwing independent comic book publishers, Oni Comics and Lionforge Comics, who were both ailing financially and so decided to merge. In merging, they did what people always did when they merge, and which is the whole point of merging: They eliminated the weakest employees. The whole hope of a merger of two failing companies is that you can layoff most of the staff which is not directly engaged with revenue-making (accounting, HR, janitorial staff, stuff like that) so you can reduce those costs and maybe start breaking even.

The SJWs who were laid off began complaining that the merged company was racist, because they laid off women, women of color, and worse yet, queer women of color.

There was a big problem with accusing the resultant company of racism: Lionforge was itself founded entirely by black men. The whole identity of the brand was "the black independent comic book company."

Was that a problem in branding them racist?

Not much of a problem at all, as it turned out!

posted by Ace at 05:46 PM

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