Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple (born August 18, 1964) is an award winning media critic at The Washington Post.

He was formerly the editor of the alternative weekly Washington City Paper.

In 2004, Wemple was the co-recipient with Josh Levin of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for his media reporting-- the top journalism award for alternative journalism.

He was raised in Schenectady, New York and attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, graduating in 1986. In 1986-87 Wemple taught and coached sports at Trinity Pawling School, in Pawling, New York. In the fall of 1987, he moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue graduate studies at Georgetown University. From January 1999 to November 2000, Wemple wrote the paper's well regarded political column, Loose Lips, after having contributed articles to the paper for a few years.^[1] Before becoming editor of Washington City Paper, he was Washington correspondent for Inside.com and CableWorld magazine.^[1]

In June 2006, Wemple accepted the Editor-in-Chief position at The Village Voice. A month later, he announced he would not assume the position.^[1][2]

In Feb. 2010, Wemple informed the staff of the staff of the Washington City Paper, that he was leaving to be the new editor of TBD.com.^[3]

Recently, Gawiker Media declared Wemple a "hero", writing that acting "like a deeply embedded anthropologist, Wemple scours Washington media (and, not infrequently, their New York counterparts) for hypocrisy, excess, and corruption. He's the anti-Mike Allen, frequently piercing the Politico's madman's self-inflating bubble of hype at the moment it threatens to blot out the sun."^[4]

Awards

• Association of Alternative Newsweeklies: Media Reporting (2004). Shared with co-author Josh Levin, for their article "Off Target" published in Washington City Paper.

Notable Stories

In his Washington Post blog, Wemple frequently broke news about a libel suit against fellow media scribe, Betsy Rothstein, and the website, Fishbowl DC. Rothstein wrote several posts alleging that a local Washington publicist, Wendy Gordon, was allegedly promiscuous and often drunk. In one particular post, a Fishbowl DC blogger wrote: “We actually have a burning and enduring love for Wendy that grows stronger with every week. Kind of like chlamydia."^[1][5]

Rothstein asserted as a defense that what she had not libeled Gordon because what she had written was in part satirical. Wemple was the very first to report settlement of the lawsuit, and also the first reporter to whom Gordon spoke with, an "exclusive" which he trumpeted on his "Erik Wemple blog" in the Post.^[6]

Rothstein countered that Wemple's exhaustive coverage of the case, which Rothstein said was "excessive" and unfair was driven by earlier negative posts she had published about Wemple at Fishbowl DC, writing that "Wemple does not see how his disdain for FishbowlDC just drips through" while making "decisions he made while writing."^[7]

Controversies

On August 8, 2000, Wemple, while a columnist for the Washington City Paper, wrote a column criticizing Peggy Cooper Cafritz, then a candidate for president of the D.C. Board of Education, opining that a white woman should not run for such a position in a city that is predominantly African-American. Cafritz is, in fact, African-American.

Cafritz's son, Zachary Cooper Cafritz, shortly thereafter, wrote a letter to the City Paper's editor, complaining: "Erik Wemple clearly wrote his column lazily and without any research. His errors bring into question his journalistic credibility and the credibility of the paper that chose to print his column. I could do nothing but laugh as I read the paragraph discussing the significance of my mother's being a white woman on the election and on Mayor Williams' policy. I have known my mother for 15 years, and, to the best of my knowledge, she is a black woman."^[8]

In 2012, a freelancer writer named Cathy Alter alleged that an article she wrote for the City Paper, and edited by Wemple, was altered by Wemple against her will to incorrectly portray the facts:

The article in question, "Voyeur Eyes Only," was about a woman named Jennifer Ringley, who had become a sensation by broadcasting her private life over the internet -- a scandal in the pre-YouTube days.:

[Cathy Alter] met Ringley and liked her, and wrote a favorable profile. This, according to Wemple, was a major violation. The City Paper had what it called its "freak of the week," a person who served as a pinata for the editors and readers. So Wemple altered the copy. Alter was outraged, and told Wemple, to no avail.:

[Alter] recalls that Wemple was insistent on portraying Ringley, the freak of the week, as fat. "He kept saying 'I was a fat kid and got teased, she'll get over it,' Alter says. The piece refers to Ringley as "a chunky lover of Pooh" -- as in Winnie-the-Pooh. "I definitely did not write that," Alter says.^[9]

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