I don’t know precisely when this all started, but Taibbi’s star rose in the Alternative, or Independent, Media space a few years ago. He left Rolling Stone about the same time as Rolling Stone, which was once upon a time a counter-Establishment magazine, but now is full-throatedly an Intelligence agency mouth-piece, re-barking whatever “orders” they are told, just like the New York Times, etc., when that rag-mag went 100% “on the side of the Man.”
So Taibbi made a “move,” a necessary move to maintain his journalistic integrity. There is a parallel here with Glenn Greenwald’s forced exit from The Intercept, which had also been compromised, even though Jeremy Scahill still tries to uphold the fort of Truth and Justice there, or whatever passes for that.
Matt Taibbi’s paid some price (TBA) for taking on the “Censorship Industrial Complex.” His attackers are “Deep State” fakes all day, because his writing is exposing their lies almost everyday. Let’s go back to last March, when Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger testified before the “Weaponization of Government” committee, and the Biden Administration sneakily sent an IRS agent to Taibbi’s house on the day of the testimony. Intimidation? Come on! The Joe Biden admin can suck balls—and they would probably “suck” at that task, too. The current arrangement of our brain-dead US Government can't even tie its own shoes, but wants to put a sock in the mouth of anyone, anyone, who criticizes it.
So the standard “critique” of Taibbi is that he “used to be cool,” but now he’s shilling for the “Right.” Who really cares about “labels,” not to mention “libels,” these days? Matt Taibbi, in the decade I’ve been aware of him, has not changed his stripes one iota; he is being attacked by Mainstream Corporate Idiots who are both jealous and worried that his critiques are fudging up their Narrative. Well, what’s a journalist with a shred of integrity to do?
Matt Taibbi is not an “Ideal Lefty,” but any “Ideal Lefty” you meet out there is a fraud, and a shill for an Intelligence agency, or the Government, which is hell-bent at the moment to keep all dissident voices down. Mainstream Media is mainstream jealous of Taibbi’s success outside of the Corporate paradigm, which is a Box, and he’s a “canary in the coal mine” for the Censorship to come. Which is why he is writing so furiously about it.
The “Big Rotten Apple” New York CIA News Agencies are certainly going after him, and that’s a sign. A sure sign. What’s going on. It’s a Witch Hunt, and the Media powers-that-be are trying, as hard as they can, to assign a Scarlet Letter to Matt Taibbi, which signifies everyone in the “critical” zone: Critical of US Government policy. It’s a Witch Hunt for dissident writers, or any journalist who simply reports “the facts.” Authoritarianism 101, Moon Landing.
Just to put the nib on the end of this pen, Matt Taibbi is not a “Right-wing dog whistle”: He’s just doing what he’s always done, great writing about subjects that matter, but currently go against the currents of Power. Illegitimacy’s in the air, and a Thunderstorm’s in the forecast…
Right on!
Just an aside re Rolling Stone. For me it was over in the late 70s, when they didn't even see punk coming and instead published cover after cover with Linda Ronstadt, Fletwood Mac etc.
I stopped reading it then and there, was already into NME and MM. The British music press could be sometimes pretentious and annoying, but they were not dinosaurs lost in Boomer Land. And truth be told, music this side of the pond was much better.