What happened to Matt Taibbi? Everything We Need To Know
by Ushapriyanga
Updated Apr 07, 2023
Who is Matt Taibbi?
Matthew Colin Taibbi is an American journalist, author, and podcaster who has covered a variety of topics including finance, media, politics, and sports. He was previously a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and is currently the co-host of Useful Idiots and the publisher of the newsletter Racket News (previously known as TK News) on Substack.
Taibbi's journalism career started as a freelance reporter in the former Soviet Union, where he was eventually deported from Uzbekistan for criticizing the country's president. He then worked as a sports journalist for The Moscow Times and played professional baseball in Uzbekistan and Russia, as well as professional basketball in Mongolia. Taibbi returned to Russia in 1997 to edit the tabloid Living Here and later co-edited rival tabloid The eXile. In 2002, he moved back to the United States and founded The Beast, a newspaper based in Buffalo. He left a year later to become a columnist for the New York Press.
What happened to Matt Taibbi?
During the 2000s, when the financial crisis was at its peak, Matthew Colin Taibbi was widely recognized as an exceptional investigative journalist. He gained acclaim for his sharp and scathing critiques of Wall Street, particularly Goldman Sachs, which he famously referred to as the "vampire squid." Taibbi received a National Magazine Award for his work and made frequent appearances on cable television, always with a mischievous grin on his face despite his receding hairline. He was a rare hero for many aspiring journalism students, praised for his insider-outsider approach to reporting on political campaigns and corporate wrongdoing. However, Taibbi's once-favorable relationship with liberal media has changed significantly. He remains steadfast in his beliefs and claims that he has not changed his stance, but he has become one of the most vocal critics of the very same media outlets that once celebrated his work.
Taibbi's complex relationship with the media has been shaped by his upbringing and early experiences. He grew up as an only child outside of Boston, with his parent's divorce and his mother's law studies playing a significant role in his upbringing. He initially wanted to become a novelist and was inspired by Russian writers, but struggled with both behavioral and academic issues. After graduating from Bard College in 1992, he went to Russia with the goal of stringing for newspapers and writing his novel. Instead, he struggled to find work until he was offered a job at the expat paper, the Moscow Times.
It was in Russia where Taibbi first gained notoriety and infamy in the late 1990s. He worked with Mark Ames to edit The eXile, a newspaper that pushed the envelope with its content, including columns like "Death Porn" and "Whore-R Stories." Taibbi and Ames also played pranks on journalists, including filling a pie with horse semen and smashing it in the face of a Times journalist who had endorsed the Kosovo war. The two men also tended bar at a notorious local hangout called the Hungry Duck, where only women were allowed in during "ladies night" and fights and sexual activity were common. The Hungry Duck was described in a 2010 Vanity Fair article as a "vile flesh pit." In 2003 He left to perform for the New York Press as a columnist. In 2004, Taibbi started covering politics for Rolling Stone.
Matt Taibbi MSNBC
During an interview with MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan on Thursday, journalist Matt Taibbi, who was selected by Elon Musk to share the "Twitter Files," struggled to defend his reporting when confronted with key errors. The interview, which lasted over 20 minutes and became heated at times, focused on Taibbi's coverage of supposed anti-conservative censorship and government interference on Twitter prior to Musk's purchase of the platform. Hasan pointed out several errors in Taibbi's reporting, including his repeated references to the Election Integrity Project (EIP), which critics have deemed to be largely inaccurate.
“You say they labeled 22 million tweets as misinformation in the run-up to the 2020 vote—they didn’t. They flagged 3,000 election misinformation tweets for labeling, so you were only 21,997,000 off.”
Matt Taibbi Biography
Beginning in 2004, Matthew Colin Taibbi covered politics for Rolling Stone magazine and won a National Magazine Award in 2008 for three of his columns. Taibbi is renowned for his bold style, exemplified by his characterization of Goldman Sachs as a "vampire squid" in a 2009 article, which has led to comparisons to Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism. He launched the podcast Useful Idiots in 2019, co-hosted with Katie Halper, and began publishing his online writing on Substack in 2020. Taibbi's recent writing has focused on culture wars and cancel culture, and he has criticized mainstream media's coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Taibbi has authored several books, including The Great Derangement (2009), Griftopia (2010), The Divide (2014), Insane Clown President (2017), I Can't Breathe (2017), and Hate Inc.
SPECIFICATIONS
DETAILS
Name
Matt Taibbi
Real Name
Matthew Colin Taibbi
Date of Birth
March 2, 1970
Age
52 years
Birth Place
New Brunswick, New Jersey,
Birth Country
United States of America
Nationality
American
Occupation
Journalist, Author, Podcaster
Years active
1991–present
Spouse
Jeanne
Children
3
Net Worth
$2.5 Million
What Happened to Matt Taibbi - FAQs
Matt Taibbi is an American journalist, author, and podcast host. He is known for his brazen writing style and coverage of politics and culture war issues.
Taibbi has authored several books, including "The Great Derangement," "Griftopia," "The Divide," "Insane Clown President," "I Can't Breathe," and "Hate Inc." He also launched the podcast "Useful Idiots" in 2019.
Taibbi grew up outside of Boston as the only child of veteran broadcast journalist Mike Taibbi and his mother, who went to law school at night.
After graduating from Bard College in 1992, Taibbi went to Russia with a plan to string for newspapers while writing his great novel.
In recent years, Taibbi has been critical of the mainstream media's coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and cancel culture.