Political reporter Dave Weigel is leaving the Washington Post to join the news start-up Semafor, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
A source familiar with the situation said Weigel would join Semafor – the brainchild of journalists Ben Smith and Justin Smith with lofty ambitions – after the 2022 midterms. He exits the Post after he was part of one of their many internal dramas this year.
Weigel is a well-known political reporter in Washington, but he made headlines for other reasons in June when the Post slapped him with a stunning, one-month suspension for retweeting a joke that mocked women. Weigel swiftly apologized at the time and deleted it, but his then-Washington Post colleague Felicia Sonmez, who initially drew attention to retweet, continued lambasting him on Twitter as well as other Post colleagues who pushed back at her tweetstorm. That touched off a bizarre saga at the paper that ultimately led to Sonmez's firing as she repeatedly, publicly roasted the newspaper and its workplace culture.
Weigel's reported suspension at the time was met with bipartisan disbelief, and the harsh punishment of the veteran reporter seems to have played a role in his departure.
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"There has been quite a bit of chatter about [him leaving] lately," a Washington Post insider told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "He's plenty mad about the suspension."
Another insider said the suspension "may have left a bad taste" with Weigel.
Both Weigel and The Washington Post declined to comment.
Weigel joined the Post from Bloomberg in 2015 for his second stint at the newspaper, where he serves as a national political correspondent covering Congress and grassroots political movements. He also worked at Slate following his resignation from the Washington Post in 2010 over leaked emails from a private listserv showed him disparaging conservatives. At the time, he had been tapped by the Post to be a blogger covering the political right.
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Since returning from suspension in July, he's continued to publish reports and his political newsletter "The Trailer."
The viral turmoil at the Post led the newspaper to issue new social media guidelines in June.
"A Post journalist’s use of social media must not harm the editorial integrity or journalistic reputation of The Post," the memo obtained by Fox News Digital read. "Your association with The Post gives you a large platform and may bring you a blue checkmark and added followers. Along with that comes our collective responsibility to protect that integrity and reputation. This guidance applies to content you post or amplify – such as in a retweet, like or share – on any digital platform."
The Post has had a turbulent summer in addition to the Twitter turmoil. The paper was forced to add a lengthy editor's note to a 2018 op-ed penned by actress Amber Heard, which was as the center of a defamation lawsuit against Johnny Depp after she accused her ex-husband of domestic abuse.
The Depp-Heard trial then spawned another controversy for the Post involving columnist Taylor Lorenz after two YouTube personalities who covered the trial she had written about blasted her for claiming she had reached out to them prior to publication. Lorenz then publicly blamed her editor for including the erroneous remark. That had a further domino effect as that editor, who is well-liked among colleagues, had a job promotion rescinded by executive editor Sally Buzbee. Buzbee denies the reversal is tied to the fallout of Lorenz's report.
On Tuesday, a report from the New York Times alleged that the Post "is on pace to lose money this year" after previous profitability.
Semafor, the digital outlet Weigel is set to join, is launching this fall, likely in October, with the hopes of becoming a global brand in the ultra-competitive digital media sphere. According to the New York Times, it will have an initial staff of 30 journalists in New York, Washington and London, and will support its operations with $25 million raised from investors, as well as advertising and live events.
