Matt Taibbi becomes latest badass journalist to join Omidyar's First Look Media

[Permalink]

2 Likes

Guess I’ll be cancelling my Rolling Stone subscription, then.

7 Likes

This is one of those moves that makes so much sense that I really feel dumb for not seeing it coming.

Taibbi has been like the only true believer religiously covering the mundane fuckery of Wall St. long since other short-attention-span journos decided to chase other ambulances.

12 Likes

Maybe Chris Hedges next? That’d be something! Hedges video clips

1 Like

But how will you know what’s going on with The Beatles?!?

Or The Beatles, for that matter?

4 Likes

and Marcy Wheeler! This is like some kind of dream team

1 Like

Fox News will no longer have to actually report news. (I know; did they ever?) It should be able to generate 23 hours of indignant frothing per day just by clicking on First Look Media.

6 Likes

Wow, that is a huge blow to RS.
I’ve been a subscriber for 30 years, and have no plans to stop, but Taibbi made a huge impact in his relatively short tenure there.

2 Likes

Naomi Klein gets my vote for next draftee.

2 Likes

Isn’t it better in some sense to have these people writing in as many different publications as possible, to maximize their reach? He’s been doing great work at RS, I’d kinda rather still have people getting a dose of a Perspective I Agree With along with their rock and roll gossip.

2 Likes

This puts 3 of my favorite journalists and writers on the same page. I am so excited!

When “badassism” becomes a brand. Another predictable step forward for the careerist Left. One giant step backwards for independent journalism.

And has BoingBoing become the number one cheerleading site for Omydiar’s new business venture? It’s unfortunate and embarrassing. Are you going to join too?

1 Like

I don’t know what purpose Pierre Omidyar’s new "First Look Media” exercise is ultimately meant to serve but if Omidyar truly had any principles he would instruct eBay Inc. to cease its demonstrable, calculated, facilitation of massive auction fraud on the consumers of the world.

Shill bidding fraud by professional sellers on eBay nominal-start auctions is demonstrably endemic; bidders who bid early and often on such auctions will most likely be sellers’ shills, and eBay Inc. is demonstrably the greatest knowing and calculated facilitator of such fraud on consumers that the world is ever likely to know and, doubtless, there will be a trickle down effect of like criminal activity to all other eBay operations …

The ugly reality of eBay Inc.:
eBay’s crooked auctions marketplace … http://bit.ly/11F2eas
eBay Motors (UK sampling): Auction Fraud Galore … http://bit.ly/I2gTEU
eBay Motors XSS Redirect Scam in Action: video … http://bit.ly/1d46NvE
eBay/Gumtree / Barclays Bank Motors Scam … http://bit.ly/1c9Uwck
eBay’s clunky, unscrupulous “PreyPal” … http://bit.ly/UVXx53
The ongoing joke of eBay Inc. … http://bit.ly/YvxFEg
Fun quotes from the eBay executive suite … http://bit.ly/12xvzyA
On Facebook … https://www.facebook.com/groups/formerebaysellers/

Also, sans all the damage that’s already been done to the eBay marketplace by the narcissistic sociopath, Johnny Ho, Omidyar’s current worth of ~4.7 billion dollars may well have been a great deal more; indeed, had he, in August 2007, traded in all his eBay shares for shares in Amazon, he would instead now be worth ~43 billion dollars! Now that, surely, is something for all of eBay’s long-suffering “long” investors to think about …

Isn’t it better in some sense to have these people writing in as many different publications as possible, to maximize their reach?

Not that his RS articles weren’t great, but Matt Taibbi is now likely to have a bit more freedom in what he writes than when he worked with RS. Also, we need more adversarial publications out there and bringing Taibbi in will help support this new one. IMO, this is a good thing.

10 Likes

Win/win. The average folk will hear about the venture and news.

1 Like

When you start an argument with ‘careerist Left’, you’ve already lost. But I’ll give you credit where it’s due, you never miss out on commenting on any and all things Greenwald. Your loyalty, dedication and commitment to the subject is remarkable. Even if it is filled with despair and disapproval.

5 Likes

RollingStones.com/Politics Bookmark deleted.
I’m really livin in a small Media Bubble o.O I just hope, it’s a good One.

Funny. But why is my disapproval something to be dismissed or ridiculed? Why is what you perceive as loyalty or commitment to an idea suspicious or ridiculous to you, when the tone of your reply suggests that you are yourself committed and loyal to the idea of blindly supporting a business venture financed by a man whose track record on free speech and the right to protest and, indeed, disapprove of his ideas and actions, has been quite problematic?

As for “careerist Left”: you’re right. To suggest that Taibbi and Co. might be “Leftists” is indeed ridiculous.

Because when you start with ad hominen attacks, you lose credibility. You keep insisting that because you don’t like the man behind the curtain (which frankly, I have my own concerns) it spells danger for future reporting.

But you are transparent with your characterization of the reporters before they report one single story. Why not just call them ‘dirty communists’ while you’re at it? The point is that you don’t like the reporters to begin with, or their political persuasion, but you hide under the cover of being concerned about their new alliance with Omidyar and that is disingenuous.

If you came out and said, “I have a different political bent”, then at least your cards would be on the table.

6 Likes

I think it will be fine to concentrate all that awesomeness in one place, rather than dilute it. This is journalism, not homeopathy :wink:

2 Likes