Matt Taibbi

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"Trump ... is considered so dangerous that many journalists are beginning to be concerned that admitting the truth of negative reports of any kind about the Democrats might make them complicit in the election of the American Hitler.

"There's some logic in that, but it's flawed logic. When journalists start acting like politicians, we pretty much always end up botching things even more politically and crippling our businesses to boot."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi-on-the-summer-of-the-media-shill-w434484

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:31 (seven years ago) link

We now have one set of news outlets that gives us the bad news about Democrats, and another set of news outlets bravely dedicated to reporting the whole truth about Republicans.

he's ... not terribly bright sometimes

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:33 (seven years ago) link

Taibbi needs to get a fresh take on this election other than his weird false equivalency meme bc it makes him sound like an idiot. The new batch of State Dpt emails was on the NYT front page. The MSM has covered every new Hillary scandal dutifully. Maybe not hysterically but pretending like anything involving her server is comparable to Trump's offenses would make them like Taibbi - unable to weigh offenses against one another and confused about what constitutes important journalism. Nothing published by the right wing echosphere is valuable journalism. There is certainly important journalism that Democrats would hate but you won't find it on Fox News. Maybe on The Intercept.

Mordy, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:37 (seven years ago) link

calling what he's advocating "false equivalency" is silly but hey, there are messageboard shills too.

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:39 (seven years ago) link

Nothing published by the right wing echosphere is valuable journalism

yeah I think this is really the key thing. It's debatable how much of a pass various outlets give Clinton (I don't think the WaPo and NYT are torpedoing stories for ex.), but when you're talking about Fox and Breitbart etc these are outlets that literally do not do anything resembling the job of journalism. Investigative reporting, fact-based analysis, carefully vetted sources, shit even just basic editing - these are not things right wing media outlets bother with.

xp

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:42 (seven years ago) link

He's advocating reading right wing media to learn what mainstream media is suppressing. That's why the comparison to Russian v American media. But that is dumb as hell for reasons I already gave.

Mordy, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 22:44 (seven years ago) link

Reading IS dumb.

schwantz, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 23:57 (seven years ago) link

nah it's easy you just ignore what the article actually says and call the author stupid

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 02:19 (seven years ago) link

standard ILX (neo)liberal tactic

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 03:23 (seven years ago) link

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Tennieldumdee.jpg

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 03:36 (seven years ago) link

Reading Is Dumbdamental

Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 03:51 (seven years ago) link

dude forgot your beard, but has Shakey down p well

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 04:18 (seven years ago) link

It's not that stations were wrong to denounce Trump's comments. He deserves it all. But he's not the only stupid, lying, corrupt politician in the world, which is the impression one could easily get watching certain stations these days.

yes, if they were born yesterday. which includes all of us except Dr Morbius so there.

El Tomboto, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 04:42 (seven years ago) link

The situation he's describing is actually more like this: one candidate continues - despite exceeding the imaginations of many, many people - to produce MAN BITES DOG material on not a weekly, not a daily, but on a multiple-times-per-day basis. This is the nominee of one of the two major parties in the country. The other candidate, and the party she represents, continue to be the subject of several DOG BITES MAN stories, followed up with quotes about paint drying and it being hot outside. But the need to fill column inches and airtime is a totally new thing that has never afflicted journalism before 2016, so this means that America is doomed.

One of these days our country will actually fall apart and I look forward to Matt's awesome 40-paragraph essay about how he saw it coming and he said so and it's everybody else's fault.

El Tomboto, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 04:48 (seven years ago) link

I'm sure you will live to see it

The other candidate! What will we call her after Nov 8?

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 11:57 (seven years ago) link

also one of those DBM stories led to the resignation of three DNC officials, that's a good dog, here boy here boy

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 12:07 (seven years ago) link

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/bg/Dave+walks+his+dog+yuEpWqafzD-l.jpg
DMB stories? I did what with what dog now?

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 12:34 (seven years ago) link

too bad no msm orgs reported on the dnc email leaks so it remained in the right wing echo chamber and dws was never fired :( i guess taibbi was right

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 12:38 (seven years ago) link

The other candidate!

Yes. To be a candidate for something you actually have to have a nonzero chance of achieving it. Jill Stein is a "candidate" for President like I am a "candidate" for Pope.

a 47-year-old chainsaw artist from South Carolina (Phil D.), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:36 (seven years ago) link

hey guys guess who you deserve

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:44 (seven years ago) link

clearly the discourse of a rabid misanthropist w. nothing to say. better to take yr suffering in this world than the world to come i guess.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:50 (seven years ago) link

and dws was never fired

the fact-impaired do not suffer as much, i know

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:53 (seven years ago) link

lol you don't understand anything what a great poster child for the far left. ignorant and self-righteous.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:54 (seven years ago) link

i don't know anything but what i don't know i feel v strongly about!

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:55 (seven years ago) link

taibbi sucks ass

flopson, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 13:57 (seven years ago) link

i remember liking him a lot in college after reading griftopia and some hilarious brooks/friedman take downs and being pissed at joe while reading this thread trying to tar him as a not-that-smart self-righteous macho "gonzo" dbag but he was totally right and i'm glad i have seen the light

flopson, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:00 (seven years ago) link

i liked griftopia and some of his earlier stuff (and when i was younger i really liked the eXile - i even interview mark ames once) but this election season has scrambled the brains of the left commentariat for some reason - michael moore producing some equally head-scratchingly bad stuff recently.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:15 (seven years ago) link

xp i got caught up in his thing in 2009 but yeah i can't read him anymore. wayyy too heavy on the empty mythmaking / macho language. huge generalizations. not all that insightful. similar to a poster here now that i think about it.

bagging area (map), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:19 (seven years ago) link

taibbi sucks ass

what other sexual practices do u like to use as slurs (don't answer that)

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:20 (seven years ago) link

i will though! go fuck yourself

bagging area (map), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:21 (seven years ago) link

anyway bye guys enjoy the Restoration

the answer to my question above is HILLZ! btw. The More Efficient, Mundane Evil.

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:22 (seven years ago) link

can't believe ppl are slut shaming ass eaters

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:23 (seven years ago) link

Talking about PRACTICE

wishy washy hippy variety hour (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:25 (seven years ago) link

Someone mention Groceries?

Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 14:46 (seven years ago) link

damnit i restrained myself from using my reflexive 'sucks balls'... didn't even think of the plight of the ass eaters

flopson, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:10 (seven years ago) link

you are the ones who are the ball lickers

Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:11 (seven years ago) link

[tmi] i always interpreted eating ass as licking the rim & tonguing... literally sucking on a butthole never crossed my mind as an irl thing ppl do [/tmi]

flopson, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:13 (seven years ago) link

Taibbi is talking about the clinton foundation story, which should be much bigger than it is, not the dncleaks stuff. But you wouldn't know it from this thread. and that's probably because the people in this thread haven't paid attention to the clinton foundation stuff, because of people not making a big deal of it in the media, which is precisely taibbi's point.

woke-ing class zero (s.clover), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:27 (seven years ago) link

I kind of feel like the Clinton foundation story is suffering death by slow leak, combined with the fact that no one (that I know of anyway) has done a really good job of tying everything together.

socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:28 (seven years ago) link

yeah there was a bit of talk about that Daily Caller story in the election thread, but there's a limit to how seriously we can take a story that doesn't cross over from batshit mediaworld

Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:30 (seven years ago) link

the problem with the clinton foundation story is that there's no story yet. there is speculation - enough that i listened to a 45 minute NPR panel on the topic on Monday (they did a v poor job burying the story) and read numerous NYT stories on the topic (including back when the story first broke and it was about whether state approved arms deals in exchange for donations to the foundation). even the arms story was mostly speculation. it's an unsexy story (maybe some ppl got access to state bc of donations to a charitable foundation) and there isn't a smoking gun. despite that the media has, in their quixotic quest for parity, reported on every new detail.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:39 (seven years ago) link

like "should be much bigger than it is" - does anyone really think the media is not reporting sufficiently bc they're afraid of giving trump the election? the media cares about one thing - getting hits. anti clinton stories are great for driving traffic. they have reported and will continue to report as much as they can. but they can't make something from nothing.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:42 (seven years ago) link

There may or may not be something there, but I feel like I haven't seen anyone do a thorough, rigorous analysis of donations/patterns wrt favors and access. There are just people lined up on one side to say that any appearance of impropriety is obviously corruption of the worst kind and people lined up on the other to say there's clearly nothing there whatsoever.

socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:48 (seven years ago) link

Honestly the Clinton Foundation story is exactly what I meant re: DBM.

The incredibly boring and quotidian nature of the story ("career politician continues to be involved in personal non-profit activities while employed in high ranking government position" plus or minus "huge non profit foundation run by family of career politicians is probably corrupt in at least a couple ways") makes it very difficult to write any kind of compelling headlines about it. There also remains no smoking gun, even after all the dumps and leaks. Lastly, in order to be convinced by stories that allege that the highest foreign policy official in the Obama administration, other than POTUS himself, was in fact a wheelin' dealin' pay-for-play loose cannon, you'd have to already be convinced that Obama's foreign policy has been a giant shitshow. So of course Morbs is all over it, as is the (T)rump wing of the GOP.

El Tomboto, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:53 (seven years ago) link

it's definitely worth delving into but ppl pretending no one is investigating the clinton foundation is pretty disingenuous

mh, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 15:56 (seven years ago) link

yeah i just googled clinton foundation and found large articles on the topic from NYT, WaPost, WSJ, a recent op-ed from the Boston Globe, etc. it's not their fault that there aren't new developments every day. blame assange.

Mordy, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 16:09 (seven years ago) link

a 45 minute block of NPR programming!

mh, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 16:11 (seven years ago) link

I feel like "no one is covering important issue" is a codephrase for "no one is concentrating on the particular pieces of this thing that I feel we could spin into a controversy"

mh, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 16:12 (seven years ago) link

Obama's foreign war policy is just a standard imperial placeholder; i expect Clinton's to be more Col Kilgore

actually i expect nothing

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 16:13 (seven years ago) link

only the fearless investigative journalists at Fox and Breitbart are willing to tackle it!

xxp

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 16:29 (seven years ago) link


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