Taibbi Swings and Misses — Again

As long-term readers know, I’m not a fan of Matt Taibbi. I think he’s a dishonest journalist who distorts facts and bends narratives to suit his agenda.

I hate giving Taibbi any time but since he’s respected by so many, I feel compelled to point out his lousy reporting. Taibbi’s MO is take a perfectly understandable yet slightly complex story and retell it.

But in Taibbi’s retelling, he’ll leave out key facts and imply sinister motives to people he doesn’t like. He’ll then sprinkle in forced sex and drug references to give his lousy reporting a sophomoric “edge.”

Fortunately for us, Ari I. Weinberg at the WSJ tears apart his latest:

Taibbi, famous for dubbing Goldman a “vampire squid,” is simply piling on the gotchas, trying to whip disparate, innocuous facts into one scary soufflé of ominousness.

Back to his story, and items omitted or glossed over.

The women, directly along with other investors, invested in a fund called Waterfall TALF Opportunity, LLC. The fund was one of over 100 funds set up specifically to borrow and invest through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

This program, as Taibbi begrudgingly concedes, was designed to restart the market for pooled loans of credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, student and small business loans. Somehow Taibbi, and Rolling Stone, omit the notion that you, me and the magazine’s readers were the ultimate beneficiaries of revived credit markets. Neither Taibbi nor Rolling Stone responded to a request for comment.

Posted by on April 18th, 2011 at 9:44 am


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