Upon hearing the news that Ezra Klein is leaving his perch at The Washington Post, people have been asking the strangest questions. “Can Ezra Klein now coach the Browns?” Or this: “Why are people so obsessed with this shit? Do WaPo shares rise and fall on Ezra Klein or something?” Unfortunately for “Josh” the news made him start wishing dirty. “First thought when learning Ezra Klein is embarking on a new venture? ‘Please be gay porn, please be gay porn…'” Now that the news that has been swirling in rumor for weeks has finally happened, people can finally relax and let their hair down about Ezra. All in all, things quickly devolved into jokes.
“Congratulations on Ezra Klein’s big move to Editor-At-Large at the Daily Download,” deadpanned Mother Jones reporter Asawin Suebsaeng on Twitter, referring to FNC “Mediabuzz” host Howard Kurtz‘ bizarre online venture with Lauren Ashburn.
“Imagine! Asking for $10 Million-Plus to Start a Dweebsite!” wrote Neal Thomas, of MTS Radio out of Long Beach, Calif.
And this from an unknown named Phoinix: “BREAKING: Ezra Klein leaving Washington Post to found yet another political commentary site, to be called WankBlog.”
Mother Jones‘ Suebsaeng was brimming with jokes this morning. “Scooping Poynter and Dylan Byers on this: I’m leaving MoJo, effective immediately, to start the Swinnington Pwnst. (Apply accordingly)” he wrote. And once he was on a roll he couldn’t seem to stop himself: “It’s true: the @dylanmatt has been hired to man my personal tumblr for 4-6 hours a day,” he wrote, referring to Dylan Matthews, who Klein swiped from The Washington Post for his news organization.
Los Angles artist Chernynkaya took a moment for self-reflection on the matter, saying, “Ezra Klein is a self-important little pisher, but he does provide good data and if his level of obnoxious stays the same, I’ll read him.” A feminist out of Minnesota, Sascha Fishman, remarked, “Ezra Klein is leaving, which means the primary reason to read the WaPo is Carolyn Hax.” And this from Tel Aviv’s Shaul Rahabi (sorry, no translation possible at this time): “מהוושינגטון פוסט עוזב את העיתון ומקים ארגון תקשורת (@EzraKlein) עזרא קליין חדש. התפתחות נוספת בעתונות הנתונים.” Rahabi linked to this story in the NYT.
Chicago sports radio host Rob Hart appreciates Klein’s boobless blogging habits: “Congrats to Ezra Klein for building web traffic without resorting to ’27 problems only women with big boobs would understand.'”
Cushbomb (Don’t ask, just go with it.): “Wow, I can’t believe Ezra Klein has fled to Africa with a planeload of machine guns and khat to raise an army of child wonks.” And Daily Beast‘s Ben Jacobs insinuated that Politico’s Byers would be joining Klein’s news organization. Of course, it was also rumored weeks ago that Byers would be joining his enemy Nate Silver over at ESPN. And that was clearly a joke considering the venom between the two scribes. Still, Jacobs wrote, “WaPo memo doesn’t mention that @DylanByers is joining Ezra Klein and Dylan Matthews in new venture. Congrats Dylan B!”
The infamous pourmecoffee handle weighed in with this: “All of Ezra Klein‘s Amazon recomendations now suddenly books about loyalty and betrayal.”
And Graham Tillotson is sick of seeing the word “wunderkind” turn up wherever Klein is concerned. “Please stop using the word wunderkind. Definitely not 3 times in one article.” (He was referring to HuffPost’s coverage. But HuffPost is alone. It was annoyingly The Washington Post‘s own internal memo that used the word twice to describe two different reporters.)
