7 ms·

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/worlds-dullest-editorial-launches?s=r https://taibbi.substack.com/p/worlds-dullest-editorial-launc... Matt Taibbi's great post on

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/worlds-dullest-editorial-launches?s=r https://taibbi.substack.com/p/worlds-dullest-editorial-launc... Matt Taibbi's great post on this same topic. 'This Times editorial is watered down almost to the level of a public service announcement written for the Cartoon Network, or maybe a fortune cookie (“Free speech is a process, not a destination. Winning numbers 4, 9, 11, 32, 46…”). It made the Harper’s letter read like a bin Laden fatwa, but it’s somehow arousing a bigger panic.'

tootie 5y ago
Taibbi has mostly torpedoed his credibility with Russian apoligism. Him and Glenn Greenwald.
- LegitShady 5y ago
  thats a personal opinion of yours. I put his credibility higher than most major news orgs I can think of.
  - tootie 5y ago
    He's really not a respectable person and he was dead wrong about Russia when major news orgs were dead on. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-russian-past_b_59f729e9e4b06acda25f4b8e https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-ru...
    - spupe 5y ago
      A hit piece by the Huffington Post on a thread about cancel culture. Focused on Matt Taibbi's words from 23 years ago, for which he apologized several times. This is part of the problem, and I hope you can realize that. Every single person that has been in the public light for over 20 years will have some ugly events in their past, get over it.
      - tootie 5y ago
        That isn't true. Most public figures never have something like this in their past. Nor would you have ever forgiven an MSM publication for shouting that Russia would never invade on their front page for months. The NY Times is still living down Judith Miller after 20 years and she's been cancelled from journalism for what Taibbi has done.
        spupe 5y ago
        Let's go with the false equivalence first. The MSM has not only been wrong about many things in the past, they have actively supported egregious crimes from the US administration. It's not only Judith Miller, they were all completely and utterly wrong about Iraq's WMDs, with disastrous consequences. Since you brought up Russia, the NYT and friends have consistently lied about the "Russiagate" events, including key elements of this narrative. Taibbi was one of the very few journalists with the courage to expose this for what it is. In the present war, yes, he was wrong that Russia would not go to war - an opinion shared by a majority of people at that time, by the way - and admitted so less than a week after the war started. These "mistakes" are not even remotely comparable. As for your first statement, you will find that yes, every public figure has some dirt on them, if only because the definition of dirt keeps changing. For example, the comments made by Taibbi when he lived in Russia ~23 years ago~ are reflective of what the culture at the time found acceptable to say. Cancel culture is so obnoxious because it is used for hit jobs exactly like the one you are presenting here: find one or two events from someone's past and use that to close your ears to whatever they have to say at present, no matter how valid. Throw in some demands for them to be fired as well, because why not. Oh, and you have no way to atone for your supposed sins; even if you apologize you are tainted forever. It's time we fight back against this idiocy.
        tootie 5y ago
        "The MSM" isn't really a single entity, but it's thousand and thousands of journalists. How many get cancelled for mistakes or behavior? Like 0.01%? And how often does a major outlet really report misinformation? Very rarely. Media attacking media gets big headlines, but in raw numbers it's really an insignificant number. And things like "Russiagate" are made up by detractors. No respectable journalists reported anything untrue. The facts of the Russian involvement in the 2016 and Trump's relationship to it were never embellished. The fact that there isn't a criminal case represents the gap in admissible evidence and prosecutorial will. The facts are well established. Taibbi's life's work would fill one weekday edition of the NY Times and yet he blew the biggest story of his lifetime. And his behavior 23 years ago was not ever acceptable. And that doesn't mean he is banished from living a life or personal freedom, but I would not trust a single word he writes.
- olivermarks 5y ago
  Strongly disagree. Taibbi & Greenwald along with Michael Tracey (who is currently in Poland on the Ukranian border) are some of the few independent journalists with the cojones to take on the establishment, who spend a huge amount of time smearing and discrediting them because they are impartial and provide invaluable commentary on all sides.
  - tootie 5y ago
    They exist to be contrarian. Taking on the MSM is an end into itself and when the MSM is exactly right they'll just go be wrong. There's no shortage of fact-based independent journalism. Try emptywheel on Twitter.
  - albedoa 5y ago
    That is the most embarrassing thing that anyone has ever admitted on this website, congrats dude.
- Spinnaker_ 5y ago
  He immediately and thoroughly owned up to his mistakes regarding Russia. His credibility has increased in my mind.
  - tootie 5y ago
    He's still posting Ukrainian Nazi tweets. He owned up to the thing he was incontrovertibly wrong about but doesn't seem to be rethinking his approach.
    - olivermarks 5y ago
      I'd suggest that openly discussing the fact that Ukraine has a huge neo nazi problem is responsible reporting. I'm frankly surprised the many BBC and other documentaries on this huge problem from the last few years have not been removed from youtube given the sudden transformation of Ukraine into white hats in the current 'western'. This is why I read Taibbi, because the legacy media has lost so much credibility. (It should go without saying the Russian invasion is obviously appalling and wrong but many people appear to have calcified into 'any criticism of Ukraine makes you a Russian 'apologist' etc etc)
      - oh_sigh 5y ago
        Can you quantify "huge" for me? Is it bigger than the neo-nazi problem in Russia, or the US?
        remarkEon 5y ago
        It's "neo-nazi infantry battalion is fully integrated into the state security apparatus" big, or "Hero of Ukraine award given to antisemite and Nazi-collaborator" big.
        olivermarks 5y ago
        @oh_sigh It's completely irrelevant whether other nation states have a 'huge' or small far right wing neo nazi problem. The Ukranian oligarch Kolomoyskyi is behind the current Ukranian leader's media and political rise and is also a major funder of neo nazi 'battalions'. The Ukranian media was just 'unified' to be one voice (ie far right autocrats now control all their state media). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi Given the very serious diplomatic disaster and subsequent hot war is now endangering the planet the tight focus is on that nation state's leadership. I consider Russia a fascist country that lost tens of millions to the nazis last century. There is a fringe far right in the US with little political power, but those two realities are of minor importance compared to the disaster that has been inflicted on the Ukranian people who absolutely don't deserve this.
- sendfoods 5y ago
  Could you provide some context? I have not been following them closely lately, but am familiar with their work and generally find them very respectable journalists.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dudeDDRrulez 5y ago
  Taibbi’s most recent article on Russia gives the history of how the US made several calculated moves which placed Putin in power. This the same history that the corrupt mainstream media is trying so desperately to whitewash lately. We need another 1000 Taibbis with the same passion for fact based journalism. “Apologist”, yeah… sure he is.

tootie 5y ago

Taibbi has mostly torpedoed his credibility with Russian apoligism. Him and Glenn Greenwald.

LegitShady 5y ago
thats a personal opinion of yours. I put his credibility higher than most major news orgs I can think of.
- tootie 5y ago
  He's really not a respectable person and he was dead wrong about Russia when major news orgs were dead on. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-russian-past_b_59f729e9e4b06acda25f4b8e https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-ru...
  - spupe 5y ago
    A hit piece by the Huffington Post on a thread about cancel culture. Focused on Matt Taibbi's words from 23 years ago, for which he apologized several times. This is part of the problem, and I hope you can realize that. Every single person that has been in the public light for over 20 years will have some ugly events in their past, get over it.
    - tootie 5y ago
      That isn't true. Most public figures never have something like this in their past. Nor would you have ever forgiven an MSM publication for shouting that Russia would never invade on their front page for months. The NY Times is still living down Judith Miller after 20 years and she's been cancelled from journalism for what Taibbi has done.
      - spupe 5y ago
        Let's go with the false equivalence first. The MSM has not only been wrong about many things in the past, they have actively supported egregious crimes from the US administration. It's not only Judith Miller, they were all completely and utterly wrong about Iraq's WMDs, with disastrous consequences. Since you brought up Russia, the NYT and friends have consistently lied about the "Russiagate" events, including key elements of this narrative. Taibbi was one of the very few journalists with the courage to expose this for what it is. In the present war, yes, he was wrong that Russia would not go to war - an opinion shared by a majority of people at that time, by the way - and admitted so less than a week after the war started. These "mistakes" are not even remotely comparable. As for your first statement, you will find that yes, every public figure has some dirt on them, if only because the definition of dirt keeps changing. For example, the comments made by Taibbi when he lived in Russia ~23 years ago~ are reflective of what the culture at the time found acceptable to say. Cancel culture is so obnoxious because it is used for hit jobs exactly like the one you are presenting here: find one or two events from someone's past and use that to close your ears to whatever they have to say at present, no matter how valid. Throw in some demands for them to be fired as well, because why not. Oh, and you have no way to atone for your supposed sins; even if you apologize you are tainted forever. It's time we fight back against this idiocy.
        tootie 5y ago
        "The MSM" isn't really a single entity, but it's thousand and thousands of journalists. How many get cancelled for mistakes or behavior? Like 0.01%? And how often does a major outlet really report misinformation? Very rarely. Media attacking media gets big headlines, but in raw numbers it's really an insignificant number. And things like "Russiagate" are made up by detractors. No respectable journalists reported anything untrue. The facts of the Russian involvement in the 2016 and Trump's relationship to it were never embellished. The fact that there isn't a criminal case represents the gap in admissible evidence and prosecutorial will. The facts are well established. Taibbi's life's work would fill one weekday edition of the NY Times and yet he blew the biggest story of his lifetime. And his behavior 23 years ago was not ever acceptable. And that doesn't mean he is banished from living a life or personal freedom, but I would not trust a single word he writes.
olivermarks 5y ago
Strongly disagree. Taibbi & Greenwald along with Michael Tracey (who is currently in Poland on the Ukranian border) are some of the few independent journalists with the cojones to take on the establishment, who spend a huge amount of time smearing and discrediting them because they are impartial and provide invaluable commentary on all sides.
- tootie 5y ago
  They exist to be contrarian. Taking on the MSM is an end into itself and when the MSM is exactly right they'll just go be wrong. There's no shortage of fact-based independent journalism. Try emptywheel on Twitter.
- albedoa 5y ago
  That is the most embarrassing thing that anyone has ever admitted on this website, congrats dude.
Spinnaker_ 5y ago
He immediately and thoroughly owned up to his mistakes regarding Russia. His credibility has increased in my mind.
- tootie 5y ago
  He's still posting Ukrainian Nazi tweets. He owned up to the thing he was incontrovertibly wrong about but doesn't seem to be rethinking his approach.
  - olivermarks 5y ago
    I'd suggest that openly discussing the fact that Ukraine has a huge neo nazi problem is responsible reporting. I'm frankly surprised the many BBC and other documentaries on this huge problem from the last few years have not been removed from youtube given the sudden transformation of Ukraine into white hats in the current 'western'. This is why I read Taibbi, because the legacy media has lost so much credibility. (It should go without saying the Russian invasion is obviously appalling and wrong but many people appear to have calcified into 'any criticism of Ukraine makes you a Russian 'apologist' etc etc)
    - oh_sigh 5y ago
      Can you quantify "huge" for me? Is it bigger than the neo-nazi problem in Russia, or the US?
      - remarkEon 5y ago
        It's "neo-nazi infantry battalion is fully integrated into the state security apparatus" big, or "Hero of Ukraine award given to antisemite and Nazi-collaborator" big.
        olivermarks 5y ago
        @oh_sigh It's completely irrelevant whether other nation states have a 'huge' or small far right wing neo nazi problem. The Ukranian oligarch Kolomoyskyi is behind the current Ukranian leader's media and political rise and is also a major funder of neo nazi 'battalions'. The Ukranian media was just 'unified' to be one voice (ie far right autocrats now control all their state media). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi Given the very serious diplomatic disaster and subsequent hot war is now endangering the planet the tight focus is on that nation state's leadership. I consider Russia a fascist country that lost tens of millions to the nazis last century. There is a fringe far right in the US with little political power, but those two realities are of minor importance compared to the disaster that has been inflicted on the Ukranian people who absolutely don't deserve this.
sendfoods 5y ago
Could you provide some context? I have not been following them closely lately, but am familiar with their work and generally find them very respectable journalists.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dudeDDRrulez 5y ago
Taibbi’s most recent article on Russia gives the history of how the US made several calculated moves which placed Putin in power. This the same history that the corrupt mainstream media is trying so desperately to whitewash lately. We need another 1000 Taibbis with the same passion for fact based journalism. “Apologist”, yeah… sure he is.