Thursday, April 04, 2019

In Which Matt Taibbi Becomes David Brooks



This is the cover of Mr. Taibbi's new book.

This Mr. Taibbi from 2010, back when he was in high cotton --
Most of the work in this world completely sucks balls and the only reward most people get for their work is just barely enough money to survive, if that. The 95% of people out there who spend all day long shoveling the dogshit of life for subsistence wages are basically keeping things running just well enough so that David Brooks, me and the rest of that lucky 5% of mostly college-educated yuppies can live embarrassingly rewarding and interesting lives in which society throws gobs of money at us for pushing ideas around on paper (frequently, not even good ideas) and taking mutual-admiration-society business lunches in London and Paris and Las Vegas with our overpaid peers.


Brooks is right that most of the people in that 5% bracket log heavy hours, but where he's wrong is in failing to recognize that most of us have enough shame to know that what we do for a living isn't really working. I pull absolutely insane hours in my current profession, to the point of having almost no social life at all, but I know better than to call what I do for a living work...
This was from back in the days when Mr. Taibbi would drop by the MSNBC chuck-wagon to from time to time to promote a book and amiably chew the fat with Chris Hayes or Rachel Maddow.

Back before Pete Omidyar and Glenn Greenwald took him up to a high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said unto him, "All this will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt come work for me, all shall be thine."
First Look Media hires Matt Taibbi

Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media has hired Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone, the company announced Wednesday.

Taibbi, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone with an eponymous blog on its site, will head up a new publication focused on financial and political corruption. The still unnamed publication will be separate from The Intercept, the first publication from First Look Media, headed by former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald...

Before Pete Omidyar and Glenn Greenwald helped Mr. Taibbi find the door five minutes later:
On October 10, according to the Intercept account, Taibbi left the office claiming he had been stripped of managerial responsibilities (a claim First Look managers dispute). Taibbi maintained that the woman’s complaint was without merit. First Look, according to the article, determined that Taibbi was not legally liable for his behavior, just a bad manager. Then Omidyar told him he could not return to the organization as an employee, only as a contractor who would not be managing other employees. 
This was not acceptable, and he left the company and published an article soon after in Rolling Stone. First Look declined to comment on the complaints referenced in the Intercept piece, or to say whether it has routine procedures in place to handle complaints of this kind. The company also declined to comment on its own investigation, to say if it is complete, or to indicate whether the person who lodged the complaint against Taibbi is satisfied with the process.
Before the wheels came completely off:
First Look Media Scraps ‘Racket’ Launch, Slashes 9 Staffers Hired by Ex-Chief Matt Taibbi

Pierre Omidyar’s company scraps what would have been Taibbi’s “Racket,” lays off 9; Omidyar doesn’t show up for firings

Nine employees from First Look Media will be looking for new jobs, after CEO Pierre Omidyar laid off the entire team of what was supposed to be Matt Taibbi’s digital site “Racket” on Tuesday, an insider in the company told TheWrap. Omidyar was not present for the layoffs...
And because neither internet billionaires nor the Mortgage Fairy are gonna keep a roof over his head, it appears Mr. Taibbi has at last joined that most sacred of Beltway institutions -- the High and Holy Church of Both Sides Do It.


Because, rain or shine, war or peace, Trump or Obama, the "Both Sides Do It" dollar remains the easiest, quickest, most reliable dollar in the pundit business.

Which is sad.



I Don't Have A Mortgage Fairy Either



11 comments:

Robt said...

Matt has reached the job skill level where he knows, he can always fall back on republican billionaire welfare. FOX has many opportunities and all he has to do is dress up like a woman, oil his legs. Sit in the middle of a couch and read the teleprompter. While promising tho re enact the leg crossing scene from the movie Basic Instinct.

matt should bear down and bloodhound sniff out a scoop.

A feeble news scoop that will pay well. Pay well if the story is bought for the purpose of burying or if it is ran to sell print on paper or attract eyeballs for a day or two.

matt, dig out Trump's School grades. The profit is their.

Loony Liberal said...

SEAN HANNITY: Ill-kay e-thay Emocrats-Day!

RACHEL MADDOW: Here are some facts and some analysis.

MATT TAIBBI: Both sides are the same! Throw money at me!

---

The sad thing is that I can't think of another industry where such lazy thinking would lead to profit.

McDONALDS: We serve crap and call it food.

HOME DEPOT: We offer fertilizer to nourish your plants.

NEWSPAPER REPORTER: McDonald's and Home Depot are the same! Throw money at me!

---

The second one doesn't sit as well, does it?

Andrew Johnston said...

I've read a bit of Taibbi's book, which he decided to initially "publish" via newsletter/blog. My review is pretty much "...And?" His case is that "the media" (talking heads more than straight news) sensationalizes and focuses on trivia...and what else, Matt? I could have told you that. His examples are on the stale side - stuff like Jon Stewart on Crossfire, a bunch of crap about John Kerry, things like that. The material I've seen is too old to be directly relevant and not detailed enough to give any new insights. It's not bad, it's just kind of uninspired - would have been better had he written it in 2004, say, but in 2019 it lacks vigor and novelty.

Taibbi's fans already know this stuff, and I doubt his brand is big enough to draw much of the general public. Political books are big sellers right now, but only when they're about Trump, and Taibbi...well, the last time we heard from him was when he was doing a rump-shaking victory dance with Greenwald and Trump after the Barr letter dropped (you know, the one that Mueller's people are now challenging). The one part of his book that's both relevant and detailed is the stuff about Russia, which is really long by comparison.

A few people have pointed out that much of the response we heard from Taibbi and Greenwald in the last few weeks was less about the high-minded rhetoric they employed and more about blowing raspberries at MSNBO for not paying them enough respect. Taibbi talked a lot about wanting to put an end to rumor-mongering, but his (perhaps premature) celebration was mostly jabbing a finger at specific pundits who don't hang out with him anymore. You've called these guys a "Club," but I think they're more like the fringe members of the popular kid's clique - obliged to hang out together whether the genuinely like each other or not, so they take petty revenge whenever they get a chance.

Hal Rager said...

For some reason, I really want to not accept what you wrote. Matt Taibbi rests in the place I keep writers like Charlie Pierce, Thom Hartmann, Bruce Stirling, most of the content from the Nation, Jacobin, In These Times, and you. I do not like to have reason to lament that, "Yeah, I don't read that anymore…" and remove someone from my personal feed. But then, now I realize that I have been reading Taibbi less and less over the past six months, I thought I was seeing his byline less. Perhaps his byline has left my own version of the information bubble?

Polite Radical said...

That book jacket is possibly the worst visual example of "both sides" in history, and whoever came up with it should be banished from the publishing industry forever.

Scott Ingram said...

Bruce Stirling? Does he write anything other than fiction? His sci Fi is amazing.

Bill Hicks said...

"Both Sides Do It" dollar remains the easiest, quickest, most reliable dollar in the pundit business.

I guess the fact that when it comes to Republicans and Democrats it is an absolutely accurate statement (with the exception of a handful of Dems like Gabbard and Ocasio-Cortez) means nothing? Congrats to Taibbi for bailing on the Intercept and for calling out the Russiagaters. I respect him now more than even.

Sophie said...

It's not as if Taibbi has always possessed sterling character, and he's suddenly sold out to the highest bidder. And apparently he thinks it's so much fun, as well as profitable to denigrate Rachel Maddow, along with fellow both-sides-do-it, Democrat bashing whore, Greenwald. Taibbi's always been a misogynistic Asshole.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-two-expat-bros-who-terrorized-women-correspondents-in-moscow/2017/12/15/91ff338c-ca3c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.75193d97f663




Sophie said...

It's not as if Taibbi has always possessed sterling character, and he's suddenly sold out to the highest bidder. And apparently he thinks it's so much fun, as well as profitable to denigrate Rachel Maddow, along with fellow both-sides-do-it, Democrat bashing whore, Greenwald. Taibbi's always been a misogynistic Asshole.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-two-expat-bros-who-terrorized-women-correspondents-in-moscow/2017/12/15/91ff338c-ca3c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.75193d97f663




dave said...

hey if donna brazile can do it anyone can...

d

starskeptic said...

Not Bill Hicks is alive!
Yay!