RSS Feeds Feeds: Articles | Issues
Articles About TAP Subscribe Donate
TAPPED  |  Beat the Press

Remember Me
Forgot your password?

The symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.


 


Momma said wonk you out

POST POST.

The news is true: On May 18th, I'll be moving about two blocks east and two blocks south to the Washington Post's massive building. I will have part of a desk rather than much of an office. I will not have natural light. This blog, too, will change its home, moving to the "columnists and blogs" area of the Post's Business section. It will have a gray and white color scheme rather than a red one. It will have a .com address rather than a .org.

For all that, the site won't change much. As now, the core subject area will be domestic and economic policy issues. That means the financial crisis, health care policy, cap and trade, the budget, the congressional process, and all those other fine topics that let me deploy the charts and graphs I so adore. It will still have posts on, say, Clarissa's little brother, and why people applaud at the opera, and what the tea parties means. That is to say, it will still have opinions and conclusions and reporting and emotion and concerns.

It is, after all, a blog. It has a voice and a character. And the Post gets that. It's of little use to them if you all aren't around to read it. More to the point, it's of little use to me if you aren't all around to read it.

That said, this is an exciting opportunity in many ways. In particular, I'm looking forward to shamelessly leveraging the Post's good name to attract more expert commentary to the site. I'm hoping that associating myself with Woodward and Bernstein will convince academics and policy makers to return my befuddled calls more quickly. That should, in turn, make the blog more useful and valuable to you. Which is, at the end of the day, the point. I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people. To The Prospect, of course, for more than I can possibly say in this post (but will say in another). To Jesse Taylor, for his invitation to join Pandagon. To my friend Matt Yglesias, for his example and early links. But most of all, I owe you, my readers, thanks. Without you, I wouldn't keep doing this. And even if I did, no one would care.



COMMENTS

Congrats, Ezra! Remember, the best part about changing jobs is finding new places to eat lunch.

Is it OK to also be a little excited to see what TAP does with your old slot?

If you weer to move two blocks east and two blocks west, then wouldn't you wind up exactly where you started?

Congratulations to the Washington Post for hiring a blogger who doesn't suck. Took long enough...

You're going over to try and lend legitimacy to Pravda on the Potomac?

Have fun sipping on the chablis with George Will and the Cabbage Pounder.

Congratulations Ezra. This is well deserved.

Will you also be able to happily announce that TAP will be hiring Dylan M. as your permanent replacement here? *crosses fingers*

How will your blog be labeled at the Post? Opinion or advocacy?

Will you stay on JournoList?

Will you be prohibited from doing things like speaking on panels at Netroots Nation?

Have you tried to convince the Post to exploit the "America's Sexiest Health Policy Analyst" angle to your new job?

A worthy addition to Dan Froomkin. Give him our regards.

Fine, sure, whatever, but how will it effect your twitter updates?

To demonstrate your independence on your first day you outta kick George Will in the nuts. Not a post. I mean literally in the nuts. Or give him a, "Nice pants!" I hear he really likes his pants.

Will you be taking EV aka "The Notorious ED" for the amusement factor?

May 18, huh? An auspicious day indeed - Yglesias' birthday, K-Drum's wedding anniversary, and my wedding anniversary too, for whatever that's worth.

Congratulations!!!!

Congrats, Ezra, well deserved.

Please try and get the Post to run full-length RSS feeds, otherwise I'll probably be reading you a lot less.

Proud of you. Go get 'em!

Congratulations! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to call out Richard Cohen on his shit every time he puts pen to paper.

Congratulations. I hope you find what you are seeking at your new home.

I will follow you to the Post and continue to enjoy your content.

most importantly, what will your new RSS feed address be?

Congratulations, Ezra. Well earned. They couldn't have made a better choice.

Congrats and good work!

But most of all, I owe you, my readers, thanks. Without you... no one would care.

Let's not go jumping to conclusions, now.

Kidding, kidding. Congratulations!

This is just to add to the chorus of congratulation -- it's richly deserved.

Sincere congratulations. Now, here's something you can do for me now. I walk past the Post building now and then when I'm in our nation's capital, and a couple of times I"ve seen David Broder leaving or entering the building. Each time I wanted to pick him up (he's not very big), take him into the street, and set him firmly in the middle of the road. I know once he's there he won't be able to budge and we'll be free of his columns.

Now that you're at the Post (even if only virtually), would you do this for me? I'd appreciate it! Thanks.

Gefeliciteerd, Ezra. Keep 'em honest over there, ok?


Using State of Play as an analogy, who is the Russel Crowe to your Rachel McAdams?

Strong work Rachel.

Congratulations, Ezra.

To demonstrate your independence on your first day you outta kick George Will in the nuts. Not a post. I mean literally in the nuts.

This, to Fred Hiatt as well.

Congrats. Don't stop taking shots at George Will when he manipulates the facts just because he is a co-worker now.

Congratulations Ezra. So we say finally main stream newspapers are getting serious about the changing business. Hold their feet to fire too.

WaPo's comments policy is not that friendly. Here on your blog comments have been accessible and good. I am not sure whether it will be that easy at WaPo in addition to generally deluge of comments.

Congrats are definitely in order. You run a hell of a blog. And I agree with Ryan above; if anything, we'll demand MORE shots at George Will! (I'm not kidding)

Damn. I'll have to stop ignoring the Post.

I've been reading you, Matt, Kos, and Josh for a long time, and it's been great to watch y'all make your ways in, and help re-make, the big media world.

Really, huge congrats.

Congrats Ezra, & good luck.

Shall we call you "Big Media Ezra"?

Using State of Play as an analogy, who is the Russel Crowe to your Rachel McAdams?

I'm pretty sure that WP.com and the Post's print journos are not in the same building, alas, though Crowe's desk was surely modelled on Walter Pincus's.

Congrats and good luck, Ezra.

Seems to me to be another example of Andrew Sullivan's ill spent year at Time magazine. Wapo has consistently reduced the public presence of their bloggers. IMHO, the fork has already been stuck into the Washington Post. I think this is a really dumb decision on your part. Look forward to your food blogging over the next year, and when you take your next blogging position I'll start reading your political/social/healthcare posts again.

Contratulations Ezra! I've been enjoying your work for years. Thanks for pointing the way for those of us needing help understanding what's going in Washington DC and with the "big issues."

Congrats, Ezra.

You were- years upon years ago- the first blogger whose RSS feed I ever followed. I've changed the address like a jillion, but it will be a pleasure to change it again.

Congratulations! :)

Congratulations Ezra. As annoying as you are sometimes, you're still a lot better than any of the folks over there now.

Congratulations, the Post couldn't have made a better choice. I love your blog, man.

First and foremost, congrats. When Glenn Greenwald made the transition over to Salon many of us were concerned that he would be fettered - it is clear now that he was not. Then Sargent made the transition over from TPM over to the WaPo subsidiary at whorunsgov (The Plum Line), and he is top of the must read list (where the heck Sargent got all his sources I will never know).

But in addition to kudos and congrats, something less pleasant, namely, WaPo itself, mainly its editorial staff (Hiatt, Will, Kristol, Gerstein, Broder, Krauthammer, the list really goes on and on), but many of its reporters and writers as well, are complicit and compliant in the cesspool and the deception, and I am somewhat concerned that you will have pressure, both overt and more subtle, to not push too hard against their version of the establishment.

Best of luck, and congrats again.

News that brings a big collective smile to the blogosphere.

Congrats Ezra!!

Very well deserved.

More congratulations, and wishes that the blog thrives.

That said, you needn't be modest. You wrote that you would be "shamelessly leveraging the Post's good name," but that's not right at all. Rather, you may be (let us hope) helping restore the Post's good name!

Wonderful news! Way to go, Ezra.

I forgot to advertise my post on international comparisons of health care costs. Keeping Up With the Joneses.

I'm hoping that associating myself with Woodward and Bernstein

Maybe you meant this only figuratively, but Carl Bernstein left the Post eight years before you were born.

I have mixed feelings about this news. I'm pleased for you to the extent that this represents "getting ahead" in your career, but on the other hand the Washington Post is the single institution in American life that I detest the most. And as for the comments section mentioned by someone above: Am I missing something or is there really no way to change the backwards order the comments are displayed? (That is, they're in reverse chronological order, with newest at the top.) That alone will likely make me stop reading you, I'm afraid.

Congrats Ezra! I've been following you since your Pandagon days, and I will certainly follow you to the Post.

Fantastic! Congrats!

she says, "wonk them out!!"

"so....
be your name buxbaum or bixby or bray
or mordecai ali van allen o'shea,
you're off to great places!
today is your day!
your mountain is waiting.
so....get on your way!"

~~~~~"oh the places you'll go"
by dr. seuss

always,
humility,
honesty
and truth to power.

thank you, ezra.

she says, "wonk them out!!"

"so....
be your name buxbaum or bixby or bray
or mordecai ali van allen o'shea,
you're off to great places!
today is your day!
your mountain is waiting.
so....get on your way!"

~~~~~"oh the places you'll go"
by dr. seuss

always,
humility,
honesty
and truth to power.

thank you, ezra.
blessings, ezra.

always,
humility,
honesty,
truth to power.

thank you for everything.

go wonk them out!

I eagerly await your post about the day you punched George Will in the box. I'll give you 'til the third week in May. After that, I'll be very disappointed if you haven't yet punched George Will in the box.

I guess the takeaway is . . . let's all punch George Will in the box.

Congratulations. Ezra.

Keep 'em honest.

Uh, I mean, I should have said, "Make 'em honest."

Congratulations, Ezra.

Absolutely deserved and very exciting.

Ezra, please take care and do not forget to be the reporter you always are. Washingtonpost might have taken you in order to mold your mindset with their twist on world affairs but you should know better. Always be you!

Best of luck.

If you start wearing a bowtie, I'm cancelling my account.

Forgot to add my congratulations.

Seriously, there's hope for the liberal media yet.

Seriously, there's hope for the liberal media yet.

But what does that have to do with the Washington Post?

While I seldom agree with your political views, I can't help but congratulate you on your move.

The Prospect is not the mainstream media the POST is.

Does Grendel's Mother go with?

Bravo, Ezra. This is wonderful news!

Break a leg, smart and charming pundit guy.

XXX
D.

My bosses have excellent taste in bloggers.* Glad to have you on board!

* Well, except for when they hired me.

The new Broder. Well done.

There's been a huge decline in anti Israel posts prior to this move. I guess there had to be a separation from the anti zionists and holocaust deniers. They were supporters and fans too, you know, and now where are they supposed to go? Back to Argentina? Back to Munich?

Bye, Ezra. I'm afraid the liberal bloggers have delegitimized the Post too much for me to care.

Awesome, man, congratulations. More than deserved.

Well look who's got fancy pants now. Gratz Ezra.

Congratulations, Ezra.

I will not allow my congratulations to be tainted by the fact that you are 20 years younger than me and have already accomplished 10 times as much.

Seriously, you are amazing and deserve it. If only I WAS 20 years younger....

"The new Broder."
For heaven's sake, Dr. Zen, do you have to ruin the day by making such nightmarish prophecies? All the best, Ezra! And pls don't become such an elitist beltway insider.

Congratulations!

I think this is good for you and the Post.

One thing I do dread, however, is that your comments section will begin to suck. Random Post readers will read your stuff and post dumb shit calling you a liberal, socialist, commie etc. overwhelming the wonky contributions. Tradeoffs I guess.

Congrats Ezra! Big news! Hope it's a good fit!

"domestic and economic policy" you say? Academics and experts, you say?

I hope you'll be stopping by my place then: Poverty in America.

Good luck and enjoy it!!

Yes, congratulations also from Germany. Keep up the good work!

Congrats, Ezra! Everything about this move will doubtless be good news for YOU.

However, it is bad news for US! You are moving to the Post, whose comments system is orders of magnitude WORSE than the Prospect's!

Sigh.

But....well done you!

Congrats.

Promise me one thing: don't ever wear a bow tie to work.

oh plz, may someone call a spade a spade? ...and a sell-out a sell-out

It's not selling out if you are doing what you intended to do. I assume Ezra got into blogging to talk about policy from a liberal perspective and reach as many people as he could. With that in mind how is moving ot the Post selling out?

It's not selling out if you are doing what you intended to do. I assume Ezra got into blogging to talk about policy from a liberal perspective and reach as many people as he could. With that in mind how is moving ot the Post selling out?

Congratulations, Ezra!

Congratulations!

I'd say the overall journalistic integrity of the WaPo just shot up a notch.


Congratulations, Ezra! This is well deserved. Nice post.

Thanks!

Good post,thanks a lot.There is not a question of whether there are enough people to possibly be trained to practice medicine. There is only the question of whether you want one more doctor or one more derivatives trader

well, another day, another dollar...changing doesn't mean bad...hope everything goes well...
By the way, if you are interested in high qualities but low price replica watches Please contact us.

I really believe that these social networks will have a huge impact on what we can accomplish as groups, it'll help us be very organized and communicate.

replica rolex watches Huddlestone played

If you don't know about jewelry knowledge, but want to action you can see jewelry fashion review,then maybe you can save your money!

Grateful to the article provider, I would like to weight loss tips

Post a comment



Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Search for:

About Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein is an associate editor at The American Prospect. An archive of his articles for The American Prospect can be found here.

Email | RSS | Twitter

Link Blog:


Renew your print subscription or e-subscription.
Get an e-subscription for $14.95.
Give the gift of political insight. Send The American Prospect to a friend.
Change your email address or street address.
YES! I want to receive The American Prospect
— the essential source for progressive ideas.
Explore The American Prospect's award-winning investigative journalism and provocative essays in a free trial issue. Continue receiving The American Prospect at only $19.95 for a one-year subscription - a savings of 60% off the newsstand price!
First Name
Last Name
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
ZIP     
Email

Should you decide not to continue receiving the magazine after the initial free issue, simply write "cancel" on the invoice and you will not be billed.

© 2010 by The American Prospect, Inc.  |  Privacy Policy  |  Permissions and Reprints