Talk:Matt Taibbi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material of any kind that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article. [FAQ]

NPOV? This article reads less like an encyclopedia entry than an angry letter to the editor of a provincial newspaper. Without even bothering to adress the accuracy of the facts mentioned or the lopsidedness of their seleciton, the style of this article is way out of line for wikipedia guidlines.

I don't know if removing that rant was totally necessary, thought in it present form it can only detract from the article. The Nolle affair is relevant, but probably belongs in an article about eXile, maybe linked to from here.

Can we get a Picture? Dsol 16:08, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 New Info 2 Google Tests for Relative Relevance 3 "denounced" 4 Koyen forced out 5 Taibbi and libel 6 IndyMedia Link 7 Excessive

[edit] New Info

The national scandal about the Pope Mockery and the libel history are obviously relevant and need to be included. Do not delete!!! Peter D. Ekman

Yes they should go in since they are relevant. They need to go in in a better way though. I'm leaving it for now, I don't have time.

Ok I have a bit of time now. I agree that his article on the pope's death was notable, but his quote about libel is not really so notable outside of the eXile article. It doesn't tell us too much about Taibbi, and is certainly not what he's known for: for example, his daily show interview didn't even mention the eXile, nor have his many interviewa in Mother Jones, united press, etc. So I'm taking it out for now, though it might make sense to put it back in if it could be placed in the context of an entire section on his ideology of journalism and politics, and how that' changed over the years. Interestingly, he seems to be trying to put his eXile past behind him somewhat. I wonder when he last wrote for them. It would be great to get this angle in, but I don't know how we could without violating NOR. Dsol 01:54, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Also, I've followed this link, http://www.catholicvoiceoakland.org/todaysnewsarchives/todaysnewsMar0905.htm#today4, and the it is simply not true that Taibbi's boss was fired for writing the pope death article. That's not what the link says, anyway. Dsol 02:02, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Google Tests for Relative Relevance

• "Matt Taibbi" +libel -"sex. drugs and libel" -- 338 (testing the relevance of his connection to libel besides the title of his book)
• "Matt Taibbi" +pope -- 929
• "Matt Taibbi" +eXile -- 18,700
• "Matt Taibbi" +election -- about 35,000

Dsol 02:07, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "denounced"

The article says that taibbi's peice on the pope's death was denounced by h.clinton, matt drudge, and bloomberg. is this true? if someone doesn't provide citations in a day or two, I'm taking it out. Dsol 02:23, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Koyen forced out

A) A reasonable summary of the link YOU inserted would not say that the Koyen's quitting was "unrelated." B) I only put "forced out" C) See http://www.gawker.com/news/media/commentary/jeff-koyens-exit-interview-035157.php http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ps/20050308/111027927700.html

I didn't insert the catholic news link. The sources seem to contradict each other here. I will work on this later. Dsol 14:48, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

minor apology, I did first put in that link it seems, but it was you who 1st put in the POV interpretation of it. The other links are crystal clear, so I'll just take out the "unclear" link.

Also the libel sentence needs to go back in. It's clearly important when a journalist makes such comments about libel laws.

The libel sentence you inserted is clearly POV. According to the article you cite, Taibbi did not say that "weak Russian libel laws were crucial to the operation of the eXile." What he said was "We were out of the reach of American libel law, and we had a situation where we weren’t really accountable to our advertisers. We had total freedom." Most if not all countries are out of reach of American libel laws, including Russia. If it is necessary to put something in about libel and Taibbi, as seems to be your mission, then simply state what he said here, and don't project your own personal grudge please. User:Tictoc 02:23, 09 December 2005 (UTC)

Also, you have your facts wrong on Koyen. According to article you cite, the publisher said Koyen was forced out for disobeying him over placing a picture in the Pope issue. Koyen said he was forced out because the publisher couldn't handle the controversy. And Taibbi said Koyen was forced out in a broad coup[1] engineered by previous publisher and columnist Russ Smith. So this section should be rewritten. User:Tictoc 02:23, 09 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Taibbi and libel

In interest of fairness I let Taibbi quote speak for himself rather than Peter Ekman paraphrasing Taibbis words. I think this is fair and hope to keep the edit civilized and with discussion. User:Tictoc

[edit] IndyMedia Link

Hi, somebody (good old 68.236.67.106 and we know who he is, but lets pretend we don't) keeps hyping this link: "Matt Taibbi Hypocrisy Watch" (Chicago Indymedia April, 2006)

The original poster of this link is engaged in linkspam. This is immediately evident when one examines his malicious edits made to New York Press and The Beast (newspaper). The linked article itself appears in Chicago IndyMedia, is written by an anonymous author and has a current rating of -1. Also, its entire premise is asinine. Please stop assisting this linkspam. --Ryan Utt 17:11, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Is there a general policy for using/not using indymedia as a source? That article treads a fine line between journalism and web forum post, IMO. Dsol 17:36, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Excessive

Are links to twenty separate articles penned by Taibbi really necessary?

I'm not even certain that writers like Mark Steyn, William F. Buckley Jr. or Christopher Buckley-who are more famous than him-have that many.

Wouldn't linking to four or five of his most important-or controversial-columns and/or essays suffice? Ruthfulbarbarity 05:17, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Feel free to trim. Dsol 08:28, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Too many articles. Luigibob 15:14, 20 December 2006 (UTC)