from prospect.org
Wow, talk about blog synchronicity — no sooner had we mentioned the American Prospect in our earlier post about Ahmedinejad then it goes ahead and makes the news: Gawker reports that editor Mike Tomasky is leaving, and the editor-at-large Harold Meyerson will be taking over. (Update: TAP announces it themselves, and they'll be switching jobs: Tomasky will stay on as editor-at-large. Confusing!). Though Gawker's source says that the departure is voluntary (everyone's got a book that inconveniently needs to be written) there is intimation that "certain fundraising goals had not been met" (everyone also, it seems, must be a multi-tasker).
This move comes on the heels of last week's controversial Time.com column by suddenly ex-Prospector Brendan Nyhan, who claimed that he was defenestrated for airing negative opitions about — gasp! — Liberals, and wonders if he was excommunicated because he was attacked by more popular bloggers like Atrios' Duncan Black and Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (though nowhere does he entertain the possibility that his post was just, well, bad, though Ankush Khardori helpfully points it out). All sorts of drama, albeit of the kinda-dry variety. (Incidentally, Nyhan's defense was posted at Time's 'Political Bite' which is hosted by Ana Marie Cox, herself a previously defenestrated TAP editor. Look at you with the 50-cent words, Lloyd Grove!).
Per Gawker, who seems to know every detail (we detect the hand of Alex Balk in this one), Meyerson was previously at the helm, but that "his tenure was widely (and unfavorably) compared to a various historical transportation disasters." ETP can only think of the OJ car chase right now, does that count? In any case, we wish Meyerson and Tomasky well in each others' positions. Carry on, then.
