Now I Know How Palin Feels: Ex-Post Blogger

When he got the call asking him to comment on yet more emails he had written—this time bashing Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich—David Weigel knew he was screwed. The Washington Post blogger had already apologized for leaked emails in which he said Matt Drudge ought to light himself on fire. Now he was being asked if he hated conservatives. It had “a physical impact,” Weigel writes for Esquire. “I instantly realized that I was no longer a reporter—and had become an Embattled Reporter.”

Caught in the center of a media firestorm, aware that every word and stammer would be recorded, “I resisted—and then accepted—a new sympathy for a politician I’d never pretended to admire much: Sarah Palin. … Damn if I didn’t feel sorry for the way every utterance Palin ever makes is taffy-pulled and inspected for lies.” Weigel ended up giving the reporter what he wanted: confirmation, a comment, an apology. Then he said. “I just hope that no one ever does this to you.” (More David Weigel stories.)