From The Poynter Report with Tom Jones:
Is longtime journalist Gene Weingarten out at The Washington Post? On Wednesday, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner in feature writing tweeted out his story from Nov. 8 and wrote, “This turns out to have been my last story for the Wapo. We couldn’t come to terms on a new contract. I have dramatic & spectacular thoughts about this but after 30 years with talented people & an institution I revere, that’s what they’ll remain: Thoughts.”
Weingarten discontinued his regular column in September, but was still occasionally writing for The Washington Post Magazine. In August, Weingarten was criticized for writing a column in which he made fun of Indian food. He later apologized for the column.
Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me,” tweeted, “You may know Gene as the curmudgeon on Twitter who complains bitterly about the NYTimes Spelling Bee puzzle and slanders national cuisines. Frankly, I do not know why he does these things, because he has been and is so much more! He is one of the greatest feature writers in America, who not only possesses astonishing levels of empathy but has a knack for finding stories where other people don’t think to look. His first Pulitzer, for this story about a stunt, was well deserved. But we Weingarten aficionados believe he should have won it for this one, a profile of a person who would not normally get a profile in a major paper.”
Sagal then linked to Weingarten’s 2006 story called “The Peekaboo Paradox. The strange secrets of humor, fear and a guy who makes big money making little people laugh.”
Sagal then added, “His second Pulitzer was for one of the most wrenching, difficult and ultimately moving long form articles I have ever read, one I never intend to read again but everybody must read once.”
Sagal linked to a 2009 story: “Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?”
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