On Paul Krugman and Nate Silver’s Fancy Little Feud
New York Times op-ed columnist and fancy opinion-haver Paul Krugman, who is currently engaged in a tiff with former colleague Nate Silver.
Following one fancy white man’s critique of his equally fancy, equally white former colleague for leaving their fancy publication to start his own, less-fancy venture, the fancy white men are entangled in a very polite, very fancy tiff.
New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman is concerned about former colleague Nate Silver, who left the Times to head the very anti-Paul Krugman–style publication FiveThirtyEight.com. So far, Silver has been getting bronze- and maybe even pewter-level reviews of his website, which was anticipated with gold-level expectations.
One of these pewter-y reviewers was Krugman, who did not stop at just one review—nay, he barreled onwards and wrote three more of them, the last of which headed with the pun “Tarnished Silver.”
And lo, the tiff became personal. In his response, Silver mocked the goofy headline formula particular to Krugman and the New York Times, titled “For Columnist, A Change of Tone” and used his signature statistical analysis to provide evidence that Krugman was being a jealous meanie.
Most of all, this upset other fancy publications, who are lamenting the death of a fancy friendship. On this day, the world sheds a single, silvery tear.
Follow Rebecca Jennings on Twitter @rebexxxxa.
