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