Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi: Screw the Bus
Christian Arard
Huffington Post
He's often referred to as the next Hunter Thompson but the truth of the matter is, Matt Taibbi is unique. Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and covers national politics in a column called "Road Rage" and "The Low Post," for the magazine's online version. Taibbi has written for Rolling Stone since the 2004 election and is known for some of his outrageous antics, such as covering the John Kerry campaign in a gorilla costume, interviewing a former drug czar while tripping on acid, and working undercover as a Bush-Cheney campaign volunteer in Orlando, Florida. Prior to that, Taibbi worked for ten years as a journalist in Russia, where he founded and edited a Russian satirical magazine called The eXile, played baseball for the Red Army, and professional basketball in Mongolia. Upon returning to the States, Taibbi started a Buffalo, NY alternative weekly called The Beast, and covered stories for The New York Daily News, The Nation, and more. But what Taibbi is really know for is his astute no-holds-barred writing style.
In his first book, Spanking the Donkey (The New Press), Taibbi covers the 2004 election and cuts through shallow campaign journalism and dog-and-pony shows that reappear in an election year: the perfect backdrops, the puffed-up speeches, and campaign journalists that constantly cover the meaningless and the absurd. Is Howard Dean too prickly to become president? Is John Kerry a good snowboarder or does his ability to speak French hurt his chances to win? These are the kinds of stories that litter the campaign trail and Taibbi documents the worst of the worst in a chapter called "Wimblehack," where the worst offenders compete in a Final Four-like tournament.
Taibbi's new book, Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Black Cat/Grove-Atlantic Inc.) has just been released and is a compilation of Rolling Stone articles covering corruption in Washington, DC, traveling through the streets of New Orleans in a dinghy with actor Sean Penn, spending three nights in Abu Ghraib prison, and much more. In his latest Rolling Stone article, available on the web and newsstands now, Taibbi covers GOP candidate Mike Huckabee. OffTheBus caught up with Matt Taibbi and discussed a range of issues from the new book and campaign trail journalism.
Off the Bus: Tell us a little bit about your new book, "Smells Like Dead Elephants." What's it about and how did you come up with the title?
Matt Taibbi: When I starting working for "Rolling Stone," we had this idea I would do this roving reporter bit where I travel to remote places and did these reports that collectively put together a portrait of what George W. Bush's America looked like at the end of his presidency. "Rolling Stone" back then wanted to put this compilation together. That was part of my deal with the magazine but it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to. We ended up doing some things we didn't plan on doing, like these long in-depth pieces on Congress, but in the end, it turned out to be this eclectic collection of stuff reporting from different corners of the American experience during the Bush years. That was the concept behind the book.
(Continued here.)
Huffington Post
He's often referred to as the next Hunter Thompson but the truth of the matter is, Matt Taibbi is unique. Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and covers national politics in a column called "Road Rage" and "The Low Post," for the magazine's online version. Taibbi has written for Rolling Stone since the 2004 election and is known for some of his outrageous antics, such as covering the John Kerry campaign in a gorilla costume, interviewing a former drug czar while tripping on acid, and working undercover as a Bush-Cheney campaign volunteer in Orlando, Florida. Prior to that, Taibbi worked for ten years as a journalist in Russia, where he founded and edited a Russian satirical magazine called The eXile, played baseball for the Red Army, and professional basketball in Mongolia. Upon returning to the States, Taibbi started a Buffalo, NY alternative weekly called The Beast, and covered stories for The New York Daily News, The Nation, and more. But what Taibbi is really know for is his astute no-holds-barred writing style.
In his first book, Spanking the Donkey (The New Press), Taibbi covers the 2004 election and cuts through shallow campaign journalism and dog-and-pony shows that reappear in an election year: the perfect backdrops, the puffed-up speeches, and campaign journalists that constantly cover the meaningless and the absurd. Is Howard Dean too prickly to become president? Is John Kerry a good snowboarder or does his ability to speak French hurt his chances to win? These are the kinds of stories that litter the campaign trail and Taibbi documents the worst of the worst in a chapter called "Wimblehack," where the worst offenders compete in a Final Four-like tournament.
Taibbi's new book, Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Black Cat/Grove-Atlantic Inc.) has just been released and is a compilation of Rolling Stone articles covering corruption in Washington, DC, traveling through the streets of New Orleans in a dinghy with actor Sean Penn, spending three nights in Abu Ghraib prison, and much more. In his latest Rolling Stone article, available on the web and newsstands now, Taibbi covers GOP candidate Mike Huckabee. OffTheBus caught up with Matt Taibbi and discussed a range of issues from the new book and campaign trail journalism.
Off the Bus: Tell us a little bit about your new book, "Smells Like Dead Elephants." What's it about and how did you come up with the title?
Matt Taibbi: When I starting working for "Rolling Stone," we had this idea I would do this roving reporter bit where I travel to remote places and did these reports that collectively put together a portrait of what George W. Bush's America looked like at the end of his presidency. "Rolling Stone" back then wanted to put this compilation together. That was part of my deal with the magazine but it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to. We ended up doing some things we didn't plan on doing, like these long in-depth pieces on Congress, but in the end, it turned out to be this eclectic collection of stuff reporting from different corners of the American experience during the Bush years. That was the concept behind the book.
(Continued here.)
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