Conservatives Balk at Reporter's Tweets

Conservative groups are crying foul regarding a particular recent hire at The Washington Post.

Dave Weigel, a blogger who was hired by the newspaper to cover Republicans and conservatives, sent out a tweet Saturday confirming conservatives' apprehension about his coverage.

"I can empathize with everyone I cover except for the antigay marriage bigots," he wrote. "In 20 years no one will admit they were part of that."

In response, Concerned Women for America's Penny Nance told Politics Daily that assigning Weigel to cover groups like hers is "like assigning a weasel to watch the hen house."

She also said that she would never talk to him.

Dan Gainor, a vice president at the Media Research Center, added, "This is how the Post covers the conservative movement: Find someone who doesn't even understand the traditional values that made our nation great and then assign him to report on the right."

In a statement to Politico posted on Tuesday, however, Weigel apologized for using the word bigots but defended his position that actively opposing gay marriage is wrong.

"But who's threatened by legal same-sex marriage? Whose life is made worse?" he wrote. "If there was science suggesting that children raised by same-sex parents are worse off than children raised by traditional families, that would be one thing, but I haven't seen it. We've watched legal same-sex marriage in several European countries and several states, and it hasn't ushered in some decline in the quality of life, or marriage, for those who don't participate in it."