General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Inside Story of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I hope that he will continue to write. I can understand that he and Omidyar may both be rather strong-willed people with clear visions about what they want to do.
It makes sense to me that they may have been unable to come to terms that permitted Taibbi the freedom to manage the business of his operation the way he wanted.
In short, a lot of what I like about Taibbi's writing style and his choices of topics is that he is quite temperamental. His free association is great. Makes his writing spicy and funny but also bitter and abrasive. He has great style.
But I can see that he might be impatient with anyone who wants to put the brakes on him even if he really does need to slow down. My impression is that Taibbi is an individualist.
I am rather amazed that Greenwald and Poitras and Scahill have been able to work out a deal that they can accept with Omidyar. They are also very individualistic. But Greenwald's background is in law. That means he can probably negotiate pretty well. Also, if you read Greewald's book No Place To Hide, you probably know that he seems very cautious and very careful in dealing with people. He was very slow to respond to Snowden's approaches to him for instance.
So it does not surprise me that Greenwald, Poitras and Scahill could make a workable deal that they could accept with Omidyar, a deal that would allow them to remain independent but that Taibbi found making a deal was too difficult.
I just hope that Taibbi keeps writing as an independent. I'll be lookiong forward to reading what he writes. Same for Greenwald, Poitras and Scahill. I will all four of them luck in their future careers.
This morning I spoke to a man who thinks that the theory of evolution is a hoax and that global warming (which he admits is happening) is due to changes in our universe and only a little bit to man's use of fossil fuels. He claimed that all oil that comes out of the earth is the same. (It isn't. I know the field fairly well. Some has more lead, some more sulfur, etc.) He seemed very surprised to learn that oil is composed of organic matter. He claimed that the earth makes oil all the time and that we will never run out. I tried to explain to him that while we continue to have enough oil, coal, etc. now, what we are now extracting is more difficult to bring to market than what we have used in the past.
I tell that story to make the point that we have far more important things to be concerned about that whether Taibbi could finalize his deal with Omidyar. I hope that Taibbi and Omidyar can continue to work together perhaps in a way that does not place on Taibbi the burden of organizing his business to Omidyar's liking.
We progressives have too great a responsibility for the future of the world to be worried about these personality and management differences.
Thanks to Greenwald, Poitras and Scahill for trying to help make Taibbi's project work and for struggling to bring their new, independent media to us. Good look to Taibbi and Omidyar.