The Inside Story of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media

[Blue_Tires]

188. The Giant, Ridiculous Soap Opera That Is Matt Taibbi’s Departure from First Look Media

Part of what we do here is write about the media and there’s nothing more inside baseball than writing about the media. There are more jokes than I can count that involve journalists breathlessly detailing the comings and goings of other journalists as if any of it really matters, because the truth is we’re an arrogant bunch who believe our business is so damn fascinating that others should not only be required to know about it but will actually enjoy the experience. I thought about this a lot yesterday as everyone here, myself included, freaked out at the news that Glenn Greenwald and the rest of the Intercept all-stars were effectively throwing Matt Taibbi under the bus then backing over him a few times.

There are admittedly some soap opera-like twists and turns to the story that almost anyone can appreciate, though. At least I think. In addition to the undeniable fact that what happened yesterday makes it look like First Look Media — which you’ll remember was supposed to be this new, non-hierarchical model of utopian journalism — is a fucking mess inside and out, it’s really something to see an ostensible news operation issue what’s basically a press release trashing a former colleague (and doing it under the guise of simply being transparent). The fact that this press release also steps right up to the precipice of insulting the founder of First Look and the man holding the purse strings, Pierre Omidyar, while being careful not to cross that line is also noteworthy. What the Intercept crew did may have called out Omidyar a little, but not enough to get them in any kind of real trouble. In fact, by going only as far as they did, Greenwald & Co. get to shore up their independent bona fides while not actually putting their jobs in any kind of jeopardy.

The same, of course, can’t be said for Alex Pareene, who in defending his friend and former coworker from the Intercept attack just came right out and went full scorched earth on First Look, saying that its management “stepped in to fuck things up” just as they were coming to a solution to all this nonsense involving Taibbi. Pareene by the way disputes most of the allegations made by The Intercept regarding Matt Taibbi’s supposedly “abrasive” dealings with his staff, up to and including the publication’s potentially actionable claim that Taibbi worked over one of his underlings because she was a woman. Pareene, probably understandably at this point, is either so frustrated or so over it all that he’s willing to torch his bridges at First Look. If I were him I’d position myself with Taibbi wherever he goes next, because right now that’s a hell of a better connection to have than being attached to First Look, which feels more than ever like a plane going down.

That First Look is having these kinds of problems shouldn’t surprise anyone. From the very beginning its model was complete pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. You can’t reinvent decades of journalistic process just because it sounds good to say it out loud and it makes you feel like you’re sticking your thumb in the eye of the establishment when you do. You also can’t have an organization that has no actual leaders, where everyone is essentially at the same level. That’s a wonderfully Garden-of-Eden-like fantasy but that’s about all it is. And again, anyone who believed that Omidyar wasn’t going to exert control and begin moving the goalposts once it became apparent that, as Bob Cesca put it yesterday on the podcast I do with him, he couldn’t herd the cats he’d brought in, that person is completely oblivious to reality...

Read more at http://thedailybanter.com/2014/10/giant-ridiculous-soap-opera-matt-taibbis-departure-first-look-media/#ptcW02VvqofLyR3H.99


(I need to do a victory lap somewhere)