Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss were hand picked to promote the #TwitterFiles, not because they were good journalists, but because they were agents of chaos.
I think your analysis of Tiabbi is flawed. His coverage of Russia Gate aligned much closer to Muellers report than the NYT and CNN. They both wildly exaggerated the significance of it. Why? Not to hide their flaws as you claim but to focus liberals on a story of minor importance relative to the issues candidates like Warren and Sanders were running on, like Medicare for All and higher taxes for the rich.
Noam Chomsky has shown how the NYT can and does misinform readers in issues like Vietnam, Iraq and now Ukraine.
Right wing journalism is worse. Tucker Carlson is just propaganda. And there were things in Russia Gate the public needed to know. All true.
"No matter how much evidence stacked up against Trump, Taibbi has steadfastly refused to ever take it seriously, resorting to ever more ludicrous positions that isolated him from his peers and most of his followers. One of the weirdest moments of Taibbi’s career was when he claimed Russiagate was over because Trump’s Attorney General William Barr had exonerated him moments before the release of Robert Mueller’s report. Both Taibbi and Greenwald confidently asserted that there was ‘nothing to see here’ despite the fact that the Mueller report explicitly stated that Trump exerted “undue influence over law enforcement investigations” and found massive evidence of a Russian plot to elect Trump."
The notion that this was some sort of neoliberal plot to distract the public from far left candidates offering generous economic policies is, well, nonsense. I'm not saying the corporate doesn't skew debate in favor of more centrist economic policies, but they didn't invent a scandal to distract people from universal health care etc. The scandal really was there.
I respectfully disagree. I followed CNN, WaPo and NYT coverage of Russia Gate religiously and nightly at the time.
Having read “The Divide” and “Griftopia” I greatly respected Tiabbi and followed his coverage of it too, though I felt he was off base during the coverage.
When the Mueller report came out I felt Tiabbi’s perspective during the run up came far closer to the reality than CNN, WaPo and NYT in substance and form.
Substance:
On several occasions CNN et all led viewers to believe Trump was facing criminal charges that would result in a perp walk at any moment. Based on the Mueller report that would never have happened. Tiabbi was right!
Form:
These media organization put their top reporters on this story. They hired now long forgotten experts that churned out titillating headlines night after night.
Meanwhile topics that polled far higher for priority in they eyes of voters during a Presidential election year like health care, taxing the rich and corporate control of law makers barely got coverage and certainly did not warrant these media paying experts to comment night after night about how terrible America’s health care system was and remains of the control monopolies have over law makers. And despite the fact that two leading Presidential candidates had it at the center of their platform.
If you are not studied on how these media have been documented in misleading the public on issues like Vietnam and WMD’s then read Chomsky.
Yes, right wing media is worse than CNN and NYT and WAPo. Unquestionably!
Russia Gate was yet another example of MSM getting the story wrong.
Since then I have given up on watching CNN all together. Dropped my WaPo subscription and read the NYT with a very cautious eye. Democracy Now’s coverage of Ukraine has been far better than the NYT.
Musk is clearly a partisan. He is doing exactly what the last owners did only cheating for the other side. I hope he bankrupts Twitter and I take joy I watching Tesla stock reduced in price daily.
Right wing media is even worse.
I’m seeking truth not partisan spin.
Tiabbi has a rabbid fan base of misinformed right wing nut jobs. In addition to feeding them chum on how MSM lies about everything from “woke” to “defense” he’s also feeding them truth on Monopolies, which are the lynch pin of fascism, how much better our healthcare system could be and how screwed we are by our military industrial complex. I say good for him.
“Needless to say, it was a thankless task.”
No. Thank you for another well-thought analysis.
Thank you Christopher!
I still have 4 of Taibbi's books on my shelf. what to do with them?
Same. He was once a fine journalist so I'd still recommend those books. I wouldn't recommend anything he's written post 2016/17.
Keep them!! He’s built an audience of wack jobs that will listen to him. He does not lie and he does not distort
I think your analysis of Tiabbi is flawed. His coverage of Russia Gate aligned much closer to Muellers report than the NYT and CNN. They both wildly exaggerated the significance of it. Why? Not to hide their flaws as you claim but to focus liberals on a story of minor importance relative to the issues candidates like Warren and Sanders were running on, like Medicare for All and higher taxes for the rich.
Noam Chomsky has shown how the NYT can and does misinform readers in issues like Vietnam, Iraq and now Ukraine.
Right wing journalism is worse. Tucker Carlson is just propaganda. And there were things in Russia Gate the public needed to know. All true.
Not your attack on Tiabbi though.
This is incorrect. Taibbi completely distorted Mueller's report and didn't even bother reading it before weighing in with his verdict. Here's what I wrote about that last year (https://thebanter.substack.com/p/matt-taibbis-puff-piece-on-tucker):
"No matter how much evidence stacked up against Trump, Taibbi has steadfastly refused to ever take it seriously, resorting to ever more ludicrous positions that isolated him from his peers and most of his followers. One of the weirdest moments of Taibbi’s career was when he claimed Russiagate was over because Trump’s Attorney General William Barr had exonerated him moments before the release of Robert Mueller’s report. Both Taibbi and Greenwald confidently asserted that there was ‘nothing to see here’ despite the fact that the Mueller report explicitly stated that Trump exerted “undue influence over law enforcement investigations” and found massive evidence of a Russian plot to elect Trump."
The notion that this was some sort of neoliberal plot to distract the public from far left candidates offering generous economic policies is, well, nonsense. I'm not saying the corporate doesn't skew debate in favor of more centrist economic policies, but they didn't invent a scandal to distract people from universal health care etc. The scandal really was there.
I respectfully disagree. I followed CNN, WaPo and NYT coverage of Russia Gate religiously and nightly at the time.
Having read “The Divide” and “Griftopia” I greatly respected Tiabbi and followed his coverage of it too, though I felt he was off base during the coverage.
When the Mueller report came out I felt Tiabbi’s perspective during the run up came far closer to the reality than CNN, WaPo and NYT in substance and form.
Substance:
On several occasions CNN et all led viewers to believe Trump was facing criminal charges that would result in a perp walk at any moment. Based on the Mueller report that would never have happened. Tiabbi was right!
Form:
These media organization put their top reporters on this story. They hired now long forgotten experts that churned out titillating headlines night after night.
Meanwhile topics that polled far higher for priority in they eyes of voters during a Presidential election year like health care, taxing the rich and corporate control of law makers barely got coverage and certainly did not warrant these media paying experts to comment night after night about how terrible America’s health care system was and remains of the control monopolies have over law makers. And despite the fact that two leading Presidential candidates had it at the center of their platform.
If you are not studied on how these media have been documented in misleading the public on issues like Vietnam and WMD’s then read Chomsky.
Yes, right wing media is worse than CNN and NYT and WAPo. Unquestionably!
Russia Gate was yet another example of MSM getting the story wrong.
Since then I have given up on watching CNN all together. Dropped my WaPo subscription and read the NYT with a very cautious eye. Democracy Now’s coverage of Ukraine has been far better than the NYT.
Musk is clearly a partisan. He is doing exactly what the last owners did only cheating for the other side. I hope he bankrupts Twitter and I take joy I watching Tesla stock reduced in price daily.
Right wing media is even worse.
I’m seeking truth not partisan spin.
Tiabbi has a rabbid fan base of misinformed right wing nut jobs. In addition to feeding them chum on how MSM lies about everything from “woke” to “defense” he’s also feeding them truth on Monopolies, which are the lynch pin of fascism, how much better our healthcare system could be and how screwed we are by our military industrial complex. I say good for him.