IMHO they are somewhat linked; if Ezra climes on the Broder bandwagon, he’s probably one generation too late to make a career of it. However, as you said, fantasy is free…

Probably because WaPo retracted the former and ran the latter.

“Priorities” must be based in realities.

Heh, about 1 hour ago he took the editorial page to task. It was mildly put, but really no moreso than the various take-to-tasks he’s written on previous blogs.

Not that this somehow disproves your claim about what’ll happen eventually (as kid bitzer said, conjecture is free). My cynical guess is, the Post will want Ezra to issue occasional rebuttals to WaPo editorials, to satisfy the left-leaning audience who they’re trying to draw in.

i think it’s pretty clear that we’re both just psychologically projecting on a stranger neither of us knows, so we’re at liberty to make up our own fantasies.

i fantasize about his nimbly climbing the pathway to stardom, you fantasize about his moral corruption thereby—and the more we go on, the less it has to do with young ezra at all. but fantasy is free.

“i have to assume that ezra took a gamble that this will not impede his trajectory upwards to wonkish stardom. and i think it was a wise gamble—if he stays there for a few years, he will probably be able to move on to something higher profile, whether big media or political.”

In which case his real friends will make sure that Ezra keeps that in mind. It won’t take too long for (probably) the highest salary he’s ever earned to rot him.

My guess is, someone at the Post made a damn good decision in offering Ezra a salary he couldn’t refuse. I’m probably not the only one in the vaguely-left population who is now returning regularly to the Post’s website for Ezra’s blog, and only for that reason. Maybe their net loss in traffic from firing Froomkin has been minimal for this reason. (And admittedly I still end up clicking around to see if there’s anything else interesting on the site, which presumably is part of what they were hoping for…)

i have to assume that ezra took a gamble that this will not impede his trajectory upwards to wonkish stardom. and i think it was a wise gamble—if he stays there for a few years, he will probably be able to move on to something higher profile, whether big media or political.

i think he’s an odd case in that his credibility among the progressive bloggy world is so secure that this will not hurt him much with that group. what he needed was visibility outside the world of people who readed tapped, delong, ct, yglesias, etc., and this he is getting.

what i do not think it means is that smart young progressives are putting their money and careers on the future of the washington post as a brand. ezra won’t be there in five years, and he knows it.

And Ezra Klein!

[At some point recently I told myself I just shouldn’t bother to read anything in the Post again, and the next day he up and announced he was moving his blog there.]

As with most papers that have gone downhill badly, I’m sure there are still good journalists working for WaPo (Pincus is one obvious case who’s been mentioned). Hopefully, as with Froomkin, they will find opportunities in the post-Post world.