I am sure both Matt and Ezra would--with great reason--quarrel deeply with this analysis. But I find it and its reference to the puzzle of Marcy interesting enough to want to hoist it:
Bloix on Ezra Klein and Marcy Wheeler:
Klein made himself indispensable in the health care debate. Everyone else ran around getting this-side, that-side quotes. Klein read the literature, the hearings, the bills, the reports. You could actually learn something by reading Klein. He was nothing like Yglesias: Yglesias was a whip-smart kid who went to Dalton and Harvard and had lots of things to say about lots of things. Klein went to UCLA, knew nobody, and decided that the way to get ahead was to understand one thing better than anyone else and explain it better than anyone else. The Klein health care posts had hours and hours of research behind them. And he's got other skills, as well. He's a superb interviewer, for example. He's the purest example of meritocracy around. But he's also ambitious and savvy…. And if that means paying respects to David Brooks or writing the occasional both-sides-do-it piece, he does it….
Another blogger from the golden age who put in the level of effort that Klein did is Marcy Wheeler (Emptywheel). She did extraordinarily important work on the yellowcake story, Valerie Plame, and the Scooter Libbyy trial. But when she got her big break and was interviewed on MSNBC, she said "blowjob." End of mainstream media career option.
She's still worth reading.
