Ezra Klein Didn't Get Ten Million Dollars From Washington Post, Taking His Wonkblog And Going Home

 
 Exciting media news! Okay fine, “media news!” Ezra Klein, America’s foremost wunderkind of writing words about charts, is leaving the Washington Post. According to The POLITICO, wunderkind Klein wanted the Post to help him start a new blog-type venture with “more than three-dozen staffers and a multi-year budget of at least $10 million.” More than three-dozen staffers! That’s four Twitchys! 

We asked in the Chatcave if anyone could explain to us why Ezra Klein is so wunderful, because we didn’t want to look like idiots when we said “Eh, Ezra Klein ain’t so hot.” So what do we think of Ezra Klein?

“He’s better than Yglesias?” (disagree)

“He's brilliant because I always mix him up with Nate Silver, so his election predictions are uncannily accurate.”

“he uses charts ALL THE TIME”

“I just stole two of Wonkblog's charts for my last post”

Ah yes, “charts.” Here is a chart:

But for a brief dip in 2008, "Ezra Klein" has been "a thing that exists" since 1984. But what explains the dip? Perhaps it was when he tweeted "fuck tim russert. fuck him with a spiky acid-tipped dick." No, that can't be, because it was funny. Also funny: when Newell described Ezra Klein as a "child typist," and also when the mysterious and sexy Wonkette Jr. said he was "a middle-aged yuppie child." Do you see the theme? It is that he's a child. But he is a bright child. What is the word for that? It is "Ezra Klein."

The WaPo statement announcing Klein's departure manages to use the word "wunderkind" three times: twice to describe Klein, and once for Dylan Matthews, who is also leaving. Melissa Bell is leaving too, but sorry Melissa Bell, you are not a wunderkind. Better luck next time you are born. Maybe try being more smarter and typing politics words on the internet when you are in your late teens, like a certain Ezra Klein, and to a lesser extent Dylan Matthews.

By the time he was thirty, Alexander the Great had put himself in charge of all the good parts of the entire world. Mozart had written approximately one million operas and other music things you can still buy on iTunes. Einstein was like "E = MC^2? That's like, so four years ago." Ezra Klein has... admitted he might be wrong about the Obamacare death spiral. And got in trouble for having an email listserv, with journalists, called "JournoList."

No, it's (probably) not Ezra Klein's fault that the media narrative about him is that he's a brilliant, nearly 30-year-old child prodigy. He is, after all, a genuinely bright guy who can at least claim to be "less wrong than most people on the internet, usually." Maybe we are really just sour grapesing that we are the same age as Ezra Klein and nobody has ever called us a wunderkind in the Washington Post after we asked them for $10 million dollars and more than three dozen staff for our weird vanity project : (

But seriously, $10 million? More than three dozen staff? Is Ezra Klein trying to launch a blog or build a secret lair?

  Follow Alex on Twitter. Unlike some Ezra Kleins, he can grow a beard. 

[ POLITICO / Grantland / WonkBlog / Gawker ]