Matt Taibbi and 'The Great Derangement'

[Walter Ego]

Matt Taibbi on MSNBC discussing his new book 'The Great Derangement' which deals with both the Christian right and the 9/11 truth movement.




Taibbi on being (according to the truthers) 'just another MSM-whore left gatekeeper paid off by corporate America.'

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/42181

 

[johnny karate]

That article is fantastic.

 

[Brainster]

Taibbi's interview on Salon regarding the book.

Taibbi's hilarious followup article about his run-in with Nico and the New York "Truthers":

Over a month after I first wrote a column slamming the 9/11 Truth movement, I continue to get hate mail in massive quantities. A group of Truthers even picketed my office, and I'm still picking food particles out of my scarf after an incident in which the movement's house lunatic, a wild-eyed German blogger named Nico Haupt, tried to goad me into slugging him in a West Side diner.

"Go ahead, heet me, then I haf beeg story!" he roared, scream-spitting half-digested detritus in my face.

Taibbi is a talented writer, although his work is far too slanted to qualify as straight journalism, and he's not above being unfair to his subjects at times. In that article, for example, he claims that Nico sometimes gets maudlin about his life (true) and that this is evidence:

His 9/11 conspiracy rants are full of little tidbits from the peripatetic revolutionary's hardscrabble life neatly gift-wrapped for his future biographers, ranging from the personal ("My girlfriend denied to marry me... I'm constantly broke.")...

But in fact that's not Nico describing his own situation; in a convoluted way he's saying that's not why he was giving up his researching temporarily:

There could be also many other reasons for a retirement, one might assume.

What about a cliche?
A long time ago i was always killed. Unfortunately not by a government agent or some men in black, but by a close associate from INN World Report, who didn't want to hear my 9/11 stories anymore and almost stroked me to death.
True story. The only reason, why i didn't call the police, was to get our show in the can and not to risk our reputation.

Or what about a romantic reason? My girlfriend denied to marry me.
Or maybe i'm just burned out? Not true. It's also not true that i follow some good advices, to "take a longer vacation".

Maybe it's frustration, depression or that i'm constantly broke? Also not true.

 

[albion]

Matt Taibbi is something of a favourite of mine since I picked up a copy of his first book Spanking the Donkey. Over the last couple of years I've gone back through quite a bit of his old stuff from The Buffalo Beast and the NY Press and these twoof pieces are him at his acerbic best. His latest piece in RS on going undercover at a John Hagee church is something to behold.

This also reminds me I need to go and pick up a copy of his new book.

 

[Walter Ego]

Taibbi's interview on Salon regarding the book.

Taibbi's hilarious followup article about his run-in with Nico and the New York "Truthers"

Was Taibbi's food-flinging encounter with Nico before Nico went no-planes?

(On a side note, I was pleased to hear that Nico got his porn collection back.)

 

[DaN K. StAnLeY]

Awesome article link. Couldn't have said it better.

 

[Orphia Nay]

That was the article that was in Rolling Stone, wasn't it?

It was awesomely hilarious then, and it still is now. Funny and true.

 

[Arus808]

loved that article. Now to add a new book to my library

 

[zorro99]

Gonzo Journalism at its best!