Former Chronicle Editor-in-Chief David Weigel, who graduated from Medill in 2004 and was recently hired by the Washington Post to blog about conservatives, resigned Friday after online messages he wrote disparaging Republicans and other right-wing commentators were made public.

The messages, which originated on an off-the-record listserv for several hundred independent to left-leaning journalists, brought into question Weigel’s objectivity after they were published on various websites, including Tucker Carlson’s the Daily Caller.

Weigel served as editor-in-chief of the Chronicle for five quarters. (Photo courtesy of the Washington Post)

In some of his latest messages, Weigel joked about wishing for Rush Limbaugh’s death and described conservatives as using the media to “violently, angrily divide America.” Another suggested that Matt Drudge should set himself on fire. Weigel writes:

“This would be a vastly better world to live in if Matt Drudge decided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly, and set himself on fire.”

While Weigel is a self-described libertarian who formerly wrote for Reason Magazine, it seems the Post once again failed in its efforts to find a credible writer to cover the right. As conservatives in media and politics cry foul, some are even claiming that Weigel was a left-wing plant bent on taking down the conservative movement.

What is perhaps most interesting is Weigel’s ideological past, which is conveniently available for consumption in the archives of the Chronicle’s former website.

During Weigel’s tenure at the Chronicle, the paper was notorious for being the university’s conservative voice whereas today it has moved to the center. Only six years earlier, it had almost been banned on campus in an unruly crusade by the Associated Student Government. However, with the help of conservative activist and Northwestern alum Charlton Heston, the paper survived and has been running to this day.

In a recent apology Weigel wrote to GOP aides and conservative bloggers in anticipation of the story breaking, he called himself a “smart-ass libertarian who voted for Ron Paul and then (for some reason) Barack Obama.”

If his politics seem ambiguous now, one need only venture back to Weigel’s Chronicle days to see that he’s always been that way. A campaign worker on Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign who was at the helm of the university’s right-wing newspaper, Weigel’s ideological ambivalence is perhaps best exhibited from a 2003 column in which he writes:

“Ann Coulter and Michael Moore are equally irritating, but at least Coulter doesn’t pretend to be a working class schlub.”

Though Weigel’s journalistic future is almost as uncertain as his politics, fans of the Chronicle can take solace in the young writer’s eloquent articulation of what the paper stood for back then and still stands for today:

“Well, conservatism is not our sole raison d’etre. It’s the lens through which we view and report on Northwestern. We’re generally in favor of personal liberty (drinking), against bureaucracy (ASG), against political correctness (the people in your class who refer to Oliver Twist as “underprivileged” instead of “poor”), and we find great amusement in the status quo (The Daily).”

To read more of Weigel’s articles from the Chronicle, please click here.

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