Ezra Klein’s somewhat meteoric rise amid the brat pack of new media journalists a decade or so ago was exciting and reinvigorated journalism. His meteoric career, intelligence, and wonkism charm gave credibility and dashed the then general perception that bloggers “worked” in their PJs from their parents’ basements. His rise to center-left political expert at MSNBC, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg View was impressive but not unsurprising, but his recent departure to create a startup journalism enterprise was.
Klein created Vox, which is part of Vox Media – labeled by many as a hipster media company that publishes titles including SB Nation, The Verge, Curbed, and Racked, among others.
(SB Nation, by the way, now publishes the excellent OutSports, which covers the LGBT sports world.)
While there’s been a great deal of buzz about Klein’s Vox, from journalists and journalism watchers, there was none so much as erupted yesterday, when Klein happily announced he had hired Brandon Ambrosino to write at Vox.
These pages have purposely given zero oxygen to Ambrosino, as we believe his 15 minutes of fame are up, and we held that belief when we first read his ill-informed anti-gay drivel.
Ambrosino is, well, let’s let Gawker describe him:
Brandon Ambrosino is a young gay internet person who stirs up controversy everywhere he points his spoon. He tends to take a contrarian position on things that many LGBT individuals and their allies hold self-evident. You aren’t a homophobe if you are against gay marriage (we need a new word, he says). People who called out Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson for saying the same vile things about gays that people have been saying since gay become a thing are the real bigots. Sit down, Ellen Page, you aren’t so brave for coming out. Being gay is a choice. Jerry Falwell, founder of Ambrosino’s Liberty U alma mater, was actually a good guy.
Get the picture?
Here’s how Ambrosino and Vox responded to the news of his next undeserved gig, via Vox’s Facebook page:
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Enter The American Prospect’s Gabriel Arana. Ezra Klein used to work at The American Prospect, so it’s not surprising he would grant them an interview to explain why he hired the faux-intellectual 23-year old anti-gay gay Ambrosino.
Gabriel Arana writes:
In an interview on Wednesday evening, Klein told me he hadn’t read the pieces that had kicked up so much dust before bringing Ambrosino on but did so once he began facing criticism for the hire. “I don’t want to pretend that I have the context and the background to perfectly or authoritatively judge this debate,” Klein said. “But when I read his pieces, I didn’t come away with the impression that he holds an iota of homophobia.â€
Yes, that’s right: Ezra Klein didn’t read anti-gay gay person Brandon Ambrosino’s articles before he hired him.
Brilliant.
By the way, here’s how Arana describes Brandon Ambrosino:
Ambrosino fits a mold the bright new media loves: He’s a nerdy white kid whose contrarian views stir the pot. There is no question, especially given the sketchy quality of Ambrosino’s work, that the allure of having someone gay parrot anti-gay views has led editors to look at him and think, “interesting.” His formula is tired, if effective: He throws bombs into the gay community, and his editors call the explosion a debate. It’s disappointing, to say the least, that a journalism venture with the tremendous promise and resources of Vox Media is relying on that cheap trick.
With luck, three things will have solidified when this boils over.
First, Ambrosino’s 15 minutes are up. He’ll be on the Bryan Fischer/Tony Perkins anti-gay hate group talk show circuit, not penning click bait for The New Republic or Time anymore.
Second, Klein will have learned a valuable lesson — one most people assume that a journalist of his stature (or, frankly, most anyone’s) would have learned early on: check out your sources and get to know someone’s work.
Third, we can all go back to dealing with important issues of actual equality, and not waste our oxygen on the likes of self-deluding, self-indulgent attention seekers like Brandon Ambrosino.
Postscript:
Ezra Klein on Ellen Page’s coming out:
If you haven’t watched it yet, really do take the time to see Ellen Page’s extraordinary coming-out speech: http://t.co/ZSxWQgJLDA
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) February 15, 2014
Brandon Ambrosino on Ellen Page’s coming out:
Ellen Page: Is Coming Out Really Still ‘Brave’?: http://t.co/J857uKuNl4 via @TIMEIdeas
— Brandon Ambrosino (@BrandonAmbro) February 16, 2014