Matt Taibbi is the former editor of Rolling Stone magazine. He is a man of the Left. But he also has deeply held principles that most members of the MSM have clearly lost or never held in the first place. He has written a very long article that I strongly suspect historians will be studying many years from now to try to understand why so many members of the American Left lost their minds, much like many Yugoslavians did in the 1990’s.
To better understand where Taibbi is coming from, this tweet provides a pretty concise summary:
I’m not “celebrating.” I’m no fan of Donald Trump. I covered his campaign and wrote a whole book ripping him. What I care about it is this profession, which has been marred for a generation by this story.
Grab a coffee or two and read the entire article.
Personally I am getting tired of leftists announcing that they have seen the light, likely doing so only to try and cover their rear ends.
Here is what Taibbi said about Andrew Breitbart after his death “Good! F**k him. I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead.”
Agreed, it was obvious to anyone with a brain and not addled by bias that the collusion case was total BS.
Now they act surprised at the obvious conclusion and are outraged now that what they should have knows in indeed the case.
They’re all liars projecting the mendacity, corruption and lust for power onto Donald Trump.
The funny and ironic part is Donald gives them so much material, but they feel the need to go over the top with fabrications.
Even Brennan today (public enemy #1), who peddled the fake dossier, is doubling down on his treason libels.
I wonder if there are any good sedition defense lawyers out there. One of them should give Brennan a call.
Along with Clapper, yes Rosenstein, Strzok, Lisa Page, Comey and Schiff along with Nadler, the liars in chief.
Matt Taibbi spent several years in Russia. I wouldn’t trust anything he says regarding Russia things.
Taibbi has always been a hard-core lefty with strongly held looney-left opinions.
But . . . .
He’s a good writer. He tends to back things up that he writes, he writes clearly, and he’s very widely read. I’m hard-core right, and I read him.
Every so often, he writes something that you can tell he’d rather not write – because it excoriates his own side. Like this new article.
It’s valuable to us that he wrote this article because it’s going to be read by lots and lots of people who would never come close to reading something written by a conservative. He can speak to people that won’t normally hear us. It’s all fun to share political opinions with people already on our side, but it’s much more effective to find a way to share them with people on the other side in a way that grabs their attention.
It’s a very good article.
Thanks for posting Kate … well worth a coffee and a read.
Read that last night as I was net surfing, whilst down with the flu.
He makes two cogent points:
1. In the run up to the Iraq War and the WMD story, the justification for war brought by the then government fell short and the media was held in contempt for not being critical enough in vetting their sources. ie no nukes, but plenty bio/ chem stuff.
2. The media again clambered on the “man with orange hair is bad” and got in bed with all the alphabet soup spy agencies, NSA, CIA, FBI accepted the Steele dossier as ‘vetted and reliable’, jammed the whole ramshackle pile of codswallop through a non-transparent FISA court application and ran with it for TWO WHOLE YEARS.
In short, the media was lied to by the government of the day on right in the Iraq/WMD fandango which should have made them sceptical of the alphabet soup spy agencies NSA, CIA, FBI. But when the President isn’t ideologically friendly to the ‘fake media’ they accepted the ‘out of whole cloth Steele dossier’ oppo funded research put forth by the same alphabet soup actors.
So why does the public need newsreaders, when they are merely propaganda repeaters?
So why should any reasonable person of moderate intelligence, accept the clay foot pronouncements from the captive corporate media; when they are simply shilling for government alphabet actors of the day?
In short, why should anyone watch Rachel Maddow blubbering, when they can get Mr Brennan CIA director lay out the case for impeachment or perhaps even article 25 the President’s mental capacity.
Weaponizing the bureaucracy against the wishes of the citizenry expressed in a vote, is not a healthy path in a vibrant democracy. And why did they do it?
Because their IDEOLOGY ironically TRUMPS the commonsense grip on reality.
Seriously, they trotted out the ‘pee dossier’ as validated… Try consulting a urologist it might be more fruitful for discussion.
Never mind black opps, the whole ‘get Trump sh*t show’ has been a black farce from day one since the failed “Annointing of Hillary”.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Great article. The fun the last few days are the montages of “newspeople” and “experts” saying Russia, Russia, Russia… collusion, collusion, collusion. Maddow repeating these words more than 50 times in one show is exhausting .
Hans Rupprecht, who needs a faux journalist who traffics in “What if?” speculation rather than events and facts? Weepy Maddow should be burnt toast; instead, she’s the toast of Washington, DC. These propagandists should be looking for other jobs; perhaps she could pick sour grapes for cents an hour.
Touche’
Aged long enough we would then be enjoying wine; instead of whine!
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Has anyone noticed the pattern here? The compulsive pattern employed by the unhinged left to attack their enemies (Trump and his voters) ?
The original “dossier” … which was prepared for $$$ … a PAID task … by a professional, CAREER spy was full of OUTRAGEOUS imaginary claims that were SO over the top to be simply unbelievable by sane observers. However, the compulsive HATE of leftists blurs the reasoning part of their brains. Golden Showers, by two prostitutes on a “bed Obama slept in”. Who dreams up this shit? And then who believes it without any proof. Stories like the “Golden Showers” are part ‘projection’ and part seething HATE. Stories such as this are born from minds of people who imagine their enemies to be crazy monsters who behave in the same kind of unhinged manner as they do.
The dossier is no different from Jussie Smallett’s imaginary assault. His “story” was as outlandish and embellished with silly and illogical details as the … professionally-prepared Steele dossier. White men in MAGA hats, shouting “this is Trump territory”, using gay slurs. all at 2am on the freezing streets of Deep blue Chicago. The narrative is just as ridiculous and illogical as the “Golden Showers” (BTW … did you know Trump has a gold toilet! … How clever *urp*).
These kind of unhinged, imaginary, actions supposedly performed by Trump and his supporters are rather easy to identify as fraud … just for their piling on of every hateful thing the leftist mind can imagine. The straw white men theyve created in their drug addled minds don’t exist. They are a total figment of insane imaginations. They all follow the pattern of OVER THE TOP stories that only exist in their own sick, twisted, imaginations. “Golden Showers” is no more sophisticated or believable as “MAGA hats and MAGA country” in Chicago. Too bad the Chicago PD wasn’t in-charge of “the dossier” … because they are wise-enough to identify a fabrication from reality. They are not as mentally (leftist) compromised as the DOJ and FBI. This whole charade should have died with the dossier. Died from rational scrutiny.
Long as she doesn’t press them with her bare feet. No point in starting with vinegar.
Every time I see a leftist stick a foot in his mouth I’m sure he’ll choke on it…but somehow they manage to stick another one in and keep on breathing like nothing happened.
in related news.
Don Lemon vs The Russian Menace, brilliant fisking by Sargon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGsQakrfIio
Also PJW enjos a massive schadenbonner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vi04iC2fB8&t=0s
The Empire Strikes Back! CNN and the Democrats are ramping up their refusal to accept the Mueller conclusion. The A.G. is obviously a lackie of Trump, possibly even a Russian plant and more investigations are needed. Basically the same crap at the CBC.
When Trump got elected I pointed out that even if he turned out to be a terrible president his unquestionable contribution was already made, namely he brought political incorrectness back into mainstream. This, the destruction, the complete dismantlement of credibility of MSM in the public eye may be an even bigger contribution.
Trump’s other accomplishments were breaking the Washington insider cabal (as far as who gets to be President) and not relying on those megadoners and professional election manipulators. Trump spent WAY less money than is usually spent on campaigns. He generated his own publicity. He also stated afterwards that he did not know he was supposed to have “ground game”. Trump changed the election dynamic which was getting further and further away from being relevant to ordinary people. In recent years elections were little more than elitist competitions — results became not who is the best person to run the country, but who put on the biggest show.
All true. No disagreement from me.
“he brought political incorrectness back into mainstream”
As usual, you’re exactly wrong. PI, which is as basic and lame as PC, was already mainstream. Trump is making it uncool, just like protectionism. Turmp also isn’t burning down the media; the NYT is racking up record newspaper subscriptions.
Right, the age of Hussein Ogabe AL-Chicago wasn’t dominated by political correctness. Criticism of the ruling junta was encouraged as a “highest form of patriotism” (oh wait that was before Ogabe and Heinrich Holder). The bitter clinger deplorables weren’t systematically suppressed and dismissed.
The story just broke and you expect immediate results re subscription? You really suck at the reasoning thing. Better stick to hating whitey.
Oh and record employment for mediots, of course, they are learning to code just for fun.
Now go back to your room and cry yourself to sleep.
All your hopes and dreams have been squashed.
Mueller The Terminator (who never stops – your words a$$hole) decided to obey the first law of holes and stopped.
There will be no impeachment.
You got NOTHING.
I watched half an hour of CNN last night. Someone, whose name escapes me, laid out the game plan of what the American media needs to do to regain the trust that it has lost. Several times he used the words “honesty”, “objectivity”, and “balance.” Anderson Cooper and another talking head nodded heads gravely. At the end of the segment they mentioned introspection, and self-examination, and new approaches to news gathering and reporting, and the end of partisanship.
They cut to commercial.
After the commercial, it was Trump-Russia, impeachment, indictments, obstruction of justice, yadda yadda, yadda.
Great supercut/twitterstorm summary at Ace of Spades:
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=380425
Grab TWO coffees (corrected).
–Bad News
The endless frothing hysteria of some of the MSM will only be elevated now. They will be telling everyone to “discard the Mueller Report.” They “broke every written and unwritten rule in pursuit of this story starting with the prohibition on reporting things that couldn’t be confirmed.” Journalism 101 – was out the window.
They’ve made a joke of their profession. Good that President Trump calls them out on it. Will things change? Probably not.
Well, forget the media response. If you check some of the conservative pro-Trump sites, people there are declaring that Trump is the new Abe Lincoln. He has moved the country forward and saved it from going over the cliff (as presumably it would have had Hillary won) — all the while having to put up with all this harassment. Makes for better reading anyway, than the sour grapes from MSM.
Speaking of eating Crow (not), David Frum has decided to double-down in his Russia, Russia, Russia….. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/mueller-report-leaves-one-key-question-unanswered/585625/
He’s obviously found his new audience and they aren’t taking “nothing burger” for an answer.
Such a shame about Frum. He used to do some good writing, but he seems to have become completely unhinged since Trump — Frum just frothing at the mouth. Hope he finds his way back to sanity.
Despicable David Frum has always been a pretend conservative.
I’ve heard that Taibbi’s screed states that the Special Counsel Investigation was in response to the dossier. This is untrue. That counsel’s investigation came in response to Comey’s firing or so I’ve heard and that was in response to Flynn getting fired for talking Russians.
Indeed, Mueller’s various indictments make clear that there was indeed collusion-just no conspiracy. There were various contacts between Trump-GOP people and Russians but Trump was too disorganized to organize it.
I’ve heard that Taibbi’s screed…
Then why don’t you read it and find out? Until then STFU. You’ve been trolling here long enough to know that no one gives a sh!t what you think.
Your claim is not true. The investigation was put in place in response to the phony dossier.
The only thing that “Mueller’s various indictments make clear” was that dhimicrats would stop at nothing to punish people for the grand crime of helping Trump neuter the Hilebeast. Now I hope for payback for the unhinged malicious prosecution and for pardons for all those who have been hurt by Mueller.
Anyway you got nothing. You are nothing. Now cry yourself to sleep. Tomorrow is another day and you can go back to blaming whitey for your litany of failures.
I read the entire article,
it was mostly good, but here and there he uses the occasion to bash conservatives, and was a bit unfair about it, which annoyed me.
but I am not a leftist, i am not a snowflake, I am not triggered easily, I am an adult.
I read the whole thing
I disagree that this is a huge thing for the media, that their reputation is damaged
how do I explain this?…
if Bob goes behind Paul’s back and tells everyone Paul beats his wife and robs bank Bob is damaging Paul’s reputation
it does not matter if it is true, his reputation will be damaged
but with the media Paul is the one who controls what is said about Paul
Paul has a microphone and a loudspeaker
Bob has nothing, no one hears him
Paul’s reputation is in Paul’s hands
The media will not report about how much they were wrong or how many lies they told for the last 2 or 3 years
The media are the ones who control their reputation
the gullible pubic who get their “”” information””” from CNN, the New York Times or here in Canada the CBC will never know the media was wrong about everything and lied about everything related to the Trump-Russia thing, because the media still maintains Trump is guilty
I think the media’s reputation is intact…very sadly
“the gullible pubic who get their “”” information””” from CNN, the New York Times or here in Canada the CBC will never know the media was wrong about everything and lied about everything related to the Trump-Russia thing, because the media still maintains Trump is guilty”
This is exactly why Tiabbi’s article is important.
The same people who get their information from CNN, NYT, or CBC also get their information from Tiabbi.
If Hannity or Carlson say something, they’re never going to hear it.
When Tiabbi says it, they hear it.
The MOST important thing about Tiabbi’s lengthy screed against the MSM is that HE IS A MAN OF THE LEFT. Some on the Left MAY actually listen to him.
Any conservative could present facts & logic for a decade but the deep programming of the Leftist mind make it impenetrable to hearing anything from any of us or much more prominent conservative voice.
The charlatans he’s talking about won’t listen, but others in the background of the press with less public investment in the narrative, will. And remember that most will have no idea of the rot and the level of deceit because it will be the first time they’ve read about it.
He and Greenwald are rattling their foundations. They’re the only ones who can, so support them.
I suspect that there will be at best a momentary pause in the leftist media’s purveying of biased and fake news. It was so long before anybody knew Donald Trump existed.
Trump was a genius in refusing to engage in the traditional role playing game of “respectful politician” with a media who despise conservatives.
His open disdain was unambiguous. They were “fake news”. He didn’t defend them, nor did he defend the credibility of “the institution” they’ve mostly destroyed.
Unlike Bush, Romney, McCain before him, the audience wasn’t caught in a perception contradiction of witnessing a president “defending the role of a free press” while the free press was openly trying to destroy him.
“But they’re trying to kill you”.
“That’s ok, that’s their job”.
Trump didn’t fall into that trap, and it’s served him well. Because pleasing your enemies does not turn them into friends.
Lol Just sit back and wait ….These right wingers are going to prematurely creaming themselves gloating right up until the FBI starts dropping truck loads of all the underlying evidence from the past 2 years, just like the pentagon papers. Then they’ll suddenly and abruptly go dormant again, just like they did after the 2018 elections.
NOW he speaks from ‘principle’.
Bwaaa ha ha ha.
“Do not fear your enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.”
-Mark Twain