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The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan

David Weigel On Political Reporting

The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan

Politics, News, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 836 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Dave is a political reporter. He’s worked for The Washington Post, Slate, Bloomberg Politics, and he’s currently at Semafor. He’s also a contributing editor at Reason. In 2017 he wrote a book called The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, and he’s also a Daily Dish alum.

For two clips of our convo — on how the MSM doesn’t talk like ordinary people, and the role of Biden’s age in the next election — pop over to our YouTube page. Other topics: growing up in Delaware; going to high school in England not far from my hometown; the UK vs US media when it comes to objectivity; writing about Labour and anti-Semitism; voting for Ralph Nader before turning libertarian; his “pathological” travel as a reporter; coding his own blog in the early blogosphere; not wanting to be a Helen Thomas in the press corps; his memories of covering Obama, Gretchen Whitmer, Sharice Davids, Michael Moore and others; taking Trump seriously in 2015; having a nose for what the GOP base finds compelling; the party’s broken promises on immigration; Reagan’s amnesty; the MSM’s bias and arrogance on immigration; how Mexican-American Dems often use the term “illegals”; Jesse Singal’s intrepid coverage of trans kids; “platforming is not privileging”; Dave’s focus-group of normie friends from his hometown; gender reveal parties; the protest of the NYT’s trans coverage “causing harm”; Hunter Biden’s love-child and the White House not acknowledging her; Trump’s three marriages; Kamala’s dismal popularity; Rathergate; the Tom Cotton op-ed controversy; the right-wing media bubble; the unwillingness of the MSM to integrate conservative voices; January 6th; the depressing prospect of a Biden-Trump sequel; and Dave discussing prog rock and his favorite band, King Crimson.

Browse the Dishcast archive for another conversation you might enjoy (the first 102 episodes are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Jean Twenge on the key differences between the generations, Matt Lewis on ruling-class elites, and Lee Fang on how public policy is shaped by moneyed groups. Please send any guest recs and pod dissent to [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Hi there and welcome to another dishcast.

0:31.7

This one again is being broadcast from Provincetown, Massachusetts.

0:36.1

So this that's where I am.

0:38.8

And it's a spectacular day. It's just after July 4th. Our entire July 4th weekend was hideously wiped out by thunderstorms

0:44.9

and rain, poured all day on July 4th. They had to sort of cancel the fireworks, et cetera. But

0:51.0

I've had a blast. There were lots of friends of mine in town,

0:55.2

and I've been kind of a bit reclusive, and suddenly I was dragged out to a costume party,

1:00.6

and I had a good time. I'm a little hungover. That's the truth be told, but there's no one

1:06.9

better to be hung over with than Dave Weigel.

1:12.8

I know why I think that, Dave.

1:14.2

Why would I think that about you?

1:15.4

I just, I have this idea of you always as someone who's super cool to hang out with and

1:22.6

super sane.

1:24.0

And this is Dave Weigel of Semaphore now, formerly of the Washington Post, formerly of

1:28.4

Slate, formerly of the Washington Examiner. No? Oh no, it's Bloomberg News. Sorry,

1:33.9

Bloomberg News. Forgive me. Fantastic reporter. Good, good all-round guy I've known for many,

1:39.4

many years. All-dish blogger, too. You actually were a guest blogger on the dish just after one of your snafews in your career.

1:47.9

But anyway, Dave, welcome to the dishcast.

1:51.1

Oh, it's good to be here.

1:52.1

No, and thank you for that.

1:53.2

I remember it was, I was in Alaska the week that I was on the dish.

1:57.2

And not one of the parts of Alaska with the internet, one of the other parts where the

...

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