:en:Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi was born in 1970 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.{{Cite web |url=https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2010/11/10/matt-taibbi-author-of-griftopia-answers-ten-terrifying-questions/ |title=Matt Taibbi, author of Griftopia, answers Ten Terrifying Questions |last1=Purcell |first1=John | last2=Taibbi | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213213127/https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2010/11/10/matt-taibbi-author-of-griftopia-answers-ten-terrifying-questions/ | archive-date=December 13, 2019 | first2=Matt |author-link=John Purcell (author) |date=November 10, 2010 |website=Booktopia}} Taibbi's father, Mike Taibbi, is an NBC television reporter whose biological mother was of mixed Filipino and Native Hawaiian descent, while his father was likely an American serviceman.{{Cite web |last=Taibbi |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Taibbi |date=January 20, 2009 |title=Obama's story inspires search for roots |url=http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2009/01/20/4377219-obamas-story-inspires-search-for-roots |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130172329/http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2009/01/20/4377219-obamas-story-inspires-search-for-roots |archive-date=January 30, 2016 |access-date=April 2, 2016 |publisher=NBC News |quote= I didn't exactly dive into the task but did go as far as to locate a longtime official of the Foundling Hospital. A month after I'd related information about the Taibbi family and the skeletal story I'd been told about my birth and infancy, I received a short letter from that official. All she could add to the few facts I'd been told, she wrote, was that my birth mother was "an attractive young Filipino-Hawaiian girl named Camila, a girl of average intelligence, all of whose siblings died in childbirth." My father, she added, was likely "An American serviceman with the last name "Denny," address unknown.}} Mike Taibbi was adopted by an Italian-American couple in New York.{{Cite web |date=January 22, 2015 |title=Mike Taibbi's Rules for Reporting on Television |url=https://www.piccom.org/news_posts/mike-taibbi-s-rules-for-reporting-on-television |access-date=March 14, 2021 |website=Pacific Islanders in Communications}} According to Taibbi, his surname is a Sicilian name of Lebanese origin; however, he is of neither Sicilian nor Lebanese descent because his father was adopted.{{Cite tweet |number=552583735682424833 |user=mtaibbi |title=@RaHa762 Taibbi is actually a Sicilian name of Lebanese/Arabic origin. I'm not either (father was adopted). |first=Matt |last=Taibbi |date=January 6, 2015}}{{Cite tweet |number=558752918447603712 |user=mtaibbi |title=@qnqrc Its origins are Lebanese, but I'm Irish and Filipino. It's complicated. |first=Matt |last=Taibbi |date=January 23, 2015 |access-date=March 14, 2021}} He has also claimed Irish descent through his mother, Siobhan Walsh.{{Cite tweet |number=635470583883542528 |user=mtaibbi |title=@ilikefights My father is Filipino and Hawaiian. My mother is Irish. These are heavily Jewish cultures, so I understand your confusion. |first=Matt |last=Taibbi |date=August 23, 2015}}

Taibbi grew up in the Boston suburbs. His parents separated when he was young and he was largely raised by his mother. Because Taibbi was troubled with behavioral and academic problems, his parents sent him to Concord Academy.{{cite news|last=Barkan|first=Ross|author-link=Ross Barkan|date=October 29, 2021|title=What Happened to Matt Taibbi?|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/what-happened-to-matt-taibbi.html|url-status=live|work=Intelligencer|publisher=New York|archive-url=https://archive.today/20211029132838/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/what-happened-to-matt-taibbi.html|archive-date=October 29, 2021|access-date=December 5, 2022}} He first attended New York University but was "unable to deal with being just one of thousands of faces in a city of millions" and transferred after his freshman year to Bard College, where he graduated in 1992.{{Cite web |url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/reviews/a2307/bard-college-profile/ |title=Is Bard the New Brown? |last=Taibbi |first=Matt |date=August 25, 2014 |website=Town & Country |access-date=December 5, 2022}} He spent a year abroad studying at Leningrad Polytechnic University, where he finished his credits for graduation from Bard.{{cite web |url=https://taibbi.substack.com/p/latest-russian-spy-story-looks-like|title=Latest Russian spy story looks like another elaborate media deception|last=Taibbi|first=Matt|date=September 13, 2019|website=taibbi.substack.com|access-date=December 3, 2022}}

In the early 1990s, Taibbi moved from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he began selling news articles more regularly. He was deported in 1992 for writing an article for the Associated Press that was critical of President Islam Karimov. At the time of his deportation, Taibbi was the starting left fielder for the Uzbekistan national baseball team.{{cite book|first1=Mark|last1=Ames|author-link=Mark Ames|first2=Matt|last2=Taibbi| title=The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Er0eM6BsXggC&pg=PA31|year=2000|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3652-7|pages=31}}

Taibbi moved to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, for a time in the 1990s, where he played professional basketball in the Mongolian Basketball Association (MBA).{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/01/21/hoop-dreams-on-the-tundra/|title=Hoop Dreams On The Tundra| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180705150614/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-01-21/news/9701210052_1_mba-hoops-stark|archive-date=July 5, 2018| last= Williamson|first=Elizabeth|place=Ulan Bator, Mongolia|work= Chicago Tribune |access-date=July 5, 2018|url-status=live| language=en}} Taibbi became known as "The Mongolian Rodman", was paid $100/month to play, and said he also hosted a radio show while there.{{Cite news |url= https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/04/bad-boy-bus-interview-matt-taibbi/|title=The Bad Boy On the Bus: An Interview With Matt Taibbi| work= Mother Jones |access-date=July 5, 2018|language=en-US}}{{Cite news| url=https://the-cauldron.com/i-was-the-mongolian-rodman-an-interview-with-matt-taibbi-677d405b722c| title= 'I Was The Mongolian Rodman' — An Interview With Matt Taibbi| date= February 15, 2016|work=The Cauldron| access-date=July 5, 2018}} He later contracted pneumonia and returned to Boston for surgery.{{cite book|first1=Mark|last1=Ames|first2= Matt|last2= Taibbi|title=The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Er0eM6BsXggC&pg=PA29|year=2000|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3652-7|pages=29}}

Taibbi also worked for a short time as an investigator at a Boston-based private detective agency.

Taibbi first moved to Russia in 1992.{{cite book|first1=Mark |last1=Ames |first2= Matt|last2= Taibbi|title=The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Er0eM6BsXggC&pg=PA30|year=2000|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3652-7|page=30}} He lived and worked in Russia and the former USSR for more than six years. In 1997, he left the tabloid Living Here and joined Mark Ames to co-edit the English-language Moscow-based, bi-weekly free newspaper, The eXile, which was written primarily for the city's expatriate community. The eXile{{'}}s tone and content were highly controversial. For example, a regular column reported on a member of staff at The eXile hiring a Russian prostitute and then writing a long "review" of the woman and the details of the sexual encounter. Its content was considered either brutally honest and gleefully tasteless or juvenile, misogynistic and even cruel.Rolling Stone Magazine, issue 800, November 26, 1998.{{cite news |title=The Russia Factor |work=CNN Perspectives |url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/3462.html##5 |first=Jack |last=Hamann |date=September 23, 1999 |format= Reprint |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214081906/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/3462.html |archive-date= February 14, 2012 }} (see also [http://www.jackhamann.com/documentaries.html Hamann's site] {{webarchive| url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407103945/http://www.jackhamann.com/documentaries.html |date=April 7, 2016 }}){{cite news| url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/beast-in-the-east/Content?oid=902762|title=Beast in the East: In Moscow's Exile, hard news jumps in bed with misogyny and mayhem| first=Martha| last=Bayne|date=July 13, 2000| work = Chicago Reader|access-date=March 29, 2016}}

Taibbi wrote in English and Russian.{{cite web|url=https://lithub.com/author/matttaibbi/|title=Matt Taibbi|website=Literary Hub|access-date=April 8, 2023}} Apart from The eXile, Taibbi was also employed by the English-language newspaper The Moscow Times, where he worked as a sports editor for five months.{{cite web| url=https://observer.com/2000/06/from-russia-with-lust/|title=From Russia With Lust |publisher=The New York Observer|date=June 19, 2000 |access-date=April 8, 2023}} He also contributed to Komsomolskaya Pravda, Trud, Stringer and Kommersant.{{cite news|last=Galouchko|first=Ksenia|date=June 20, 2011|title=Taibbi: U.S. Finances 'Similar' to Russian Politics|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2011/06/20/taibbi-us-finances-similar-to-russian-politics-a7739|newspaper=The Moscow Times|access-date=April 8, 2023}}

Taibbi's first book, The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia, co-authored with Ames, was published in 2000.{{cite web| url= https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8021-3652-7|title=The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia |work=Publishers Weekly| date= March 27, 2000|access-date=July 31, 2019}} A film based on the book was under development by producers Ted Hope and James Schamus of Good Machine but did not materialize.{{cite magazine| last= Cox|first=Dan|date=May 17, 1999| title= Good Machine puts slate in gear| url= https://variety.com/1999/more/news/good-machine-puts-slate-in-gear-1117502137/|magazine=Variety|access-date= December 7, 2022}} He later stated that he was addicted to heroin while he did this early writing.

In 2010, journalist James Verini wrote in Vanity Fair that during an interview in a Manhattan restaurant, he told Taibbi that The Exile was "redundant and discursive". Verini wrote that Taibbi became enraged, threw his coffee and a "Fuck you!" in Verini's face, followed him for half a block after he left the restaurant, and said "I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with you!"{{cite news|last=Pressler|first=Jessica|author-link=Jessica Pressler|date=February 25, 2010|title=This Is What Happens If You Tell Matt Taibbi You Don't Like His Work to His Face|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2010/02/this_is_what_happens_if_you_te.html|url-status=live|work=Intelligencer|publisher=New York|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200131030519/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2010/02/this_is_what_happens_if_you_te.html|archive-date=January 31, 2020|access-date=July 8, 2023}} Taibbi later described the incident as "an aberration from how I've behaved in the last six or seven years".{{cite web| url=http://observer.com/2010/10/the-father-of-the-squid/|title=The Father of the Squid |publisher=The New York Observer|date=October 19, 2010 |access-date=March 31, 2011}}

In 2017, Taibbi was criticized for excerpts from a chapter written by Ames in the book The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia that described sexual harassment of employees at The eXile.{{cite web| url= https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2017/10/27/twenty-years-ago-in-moscow-matt-taibbi-was-a-misogynist-asshole-and-possibly-worse|title=Twenty years ago, in Moscow, Matt Taibbi was a misogynist asshole—and possibly worse|first= Aimee|last= Levitt|date=October 27, 2017| work = Chicago Reader|access-date=October 30, 2017}} In a Facebook post responding to the controversy, Taibbi apologized for the "cruel and misogynistic language" used in the book, and said the work was conceived as a satire of the "reprehensible" behavior of American expatriates in Russia and that the description of events in the chapter was "fictional and not true". In 2017, the Washington Post published an article by journalist Kathy Lally about Taibbi and Ames' time at the eXile. Lally wrote that the "eXile's distinguishing feature, more than anything else, was its blinding sexism — which often targeted [her]" and that "so many of their sins were real".{{cite news|last =Lally| first= Kathy|date=December 15, 2017| title=The two expat bros who terrorized women correspondents in Moscow| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-two-expat-bros-who-terrorized-women-correspondents-in-moscow/2017/12/15/91ff338c-ca3c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 7, 2022}}{{cite news| last= Borenstein|first=Eliot|date=October 30, 2017|title=Matt Taibbi's Not-So-Secret Russian Past| url= https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-russian-past_b_59f729e9e4b06acda25f4b8e|url-status=live|work=HuffPost| archive-url= https://archive.today/20190413015651/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-taibbis-not-so-secret-russian-past_b_59f729e9e4b06acda25f4b8e|archive-date=April 13, 2019|access-date=December 7, 2022}} Although the book presents itself as a work of non-fiction,{{cite web |url= https://www.reuters.com/article/people-taibbi/u-s-journalist-faces-sexual-harassment-furor-over-memoir-idUSL2N1N30IH|title=U.S. journalist faces sexual harassment furor over memoir|first=Dan |last=Whitcomb |date= October 28, 2017|publisher=Reuters |access-date=October 30, 2017}} emails obtained by Paste in 2017 include a letter from the book's publisher stating that "This book combines exaggerated, invented satire and nonfiction reporting and was categorized as nonfiction because there is no category for a book that is both."{{cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/12/the-destruction-of-matt-taibbi.html|title=The Destruction of Matt Taibbi|date=December 11, 2017 |first=Walker|last=Bragman| work= Paste| access-date=December 17, 2017}} Two women portrayed in the book told Paste magazine that none of the sexual harassment portrayed in the book "[ever] happened" and that it was a "ridiculous passage written by Mark". Taibbi's publisher, Penguin Random House, dropped him after the controversy.

File:Matt Taibbi.jpg

In 2002, he returned to the United States to start the satirical bi-weekly The Beast in Buffalo, New York.{{Cite web|url= https://buffalonews.com/news/campaigns-found-a-gorilla-journalist-in-their-midst/article_a54b0154-7822-5d59-8225-35c47d1f91e7.html| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210214171236/https://buffalonews.com/news/campaigns-found-a-gorilla-journalist-in-their-midst/article_a54b0154-7822-5d59-8225-35c47d1f91e7.html| archive-date=February 14, 2021 |title=Campaigns found a gorilla journalist in their midst| last= Simon |first=Jeff|date=May 8, 2005| website=The Buffalo News|access-date= July 8, 2023}} He left that publication a year later, commenting: "Running a business and writing is too much." Taibbi continued as a freelancer for The Nation, Playboy, New York Press (where he wrote a regular political column for more than two years), Rolling Stone, and New York Sports Express (as editor-at-large).

In March 2005, Taibbi's satirical essay, "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope",{{cite web| url= http://buffalobeast.com/70/52funniest.htm |title=The 52 Funniest Things About The Upcoming Death of The Pope |website = buffalobeast.com|publisher = New York Press|access-date= October 8, 2015 |url-status= usurped| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151026083300/http://buffalobeast.com/70/52funniest.htm |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }} published in the New York Press, was denounced by Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Matt Drudge, Abe Foxman and Anthony Weiner. He left the paper in August 2005, shortly after his editor Jeff Koyen was forced out over the article.{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801EFDB1F3DF93BA35750C0A9639C8B63|title=New York Press Editor Quits Over Article|work=The New York Times|date=March 8, 2015}} Taibbi defended the piece as "off-the-cuff burlesque of truly tasteless jokes," written to give his readers a break from a long run of his "fulminating political essays". Taibbi also said he was surprised at the vehement reactions to what he wrote "in the waning hours of a Vicodin haze".{{cite web | url= http://www.nypress.com/18/10/news&columns/taibbi.cfm | title= Keep Pope Alive| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080119112426/http://www.nypress.com/18/10/news%26columns/taibbi.cfm | archivedate=January 19, 2008 | date = March 16, 2005 | work = New York Press| access-date = March 29, 2010}}

In February 2008, Taibbi contributed a three-minute segment to Real Time with Bill Maher in which he interviewed residents of Youngstown, Ohio before the Ohio primary.{{Cite web| url=http://www.smartdecision08.com/content-641|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090123215612/http://www.smartdecision08.com/content-641|url-status=dead| title=Real Time: Matt Taibbi follows the Clinton campaign in Youngstown, Ohio|last=Arthur|first=Ted|date=May 1, 2008|archive-date=January 23, 2009| website= smartdecision08.com|access-date=December 7, 2022}} He was invited as a guest on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show{{cite web|title = The Rachel Maddow Show Guest List: Week of March 30, 2009|website=NBC News|date=December 19, 2008 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28314808|access-date=April 1, 2009}} and other MSNBC programs. He has also appeared on Democracy Now!{{cite web|url= http://www.democracynow.org/2006/10/27/worst_congress_ever_rolling_stones_matt|title= Worst Congress Ever: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi on How Our National Legislature Has Become a 'Stable of Thieves and Perverts' |website=Democracy Now! |date= October 27, 2006}} and Chapo Trap House,{{cite web| url= https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-11-cranking-the-donkey-feat-matt-taibbi-52216| title= Episode 11 - Cranking the Donkey feat. Matt Taibbi|date=May 22, 2016 | via= soundcloud.com}} and was a contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.{{cite news| last= Stelter| first=Brian|author-link=Brian Stelter| date=June 19, 2011|title=At New Network, Olbermann Sets Sights on MSNBC|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/business/media/20pundit.html|url-status=live|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130154000/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/business/media/20pundit.html?_r=0|archive-date=January 30, 2013| access-date=June 23, 2011|url-access= limited}} Taibbi has appeared on the Thom Hartmann radio and television shows and the Imus in the Morning Show on the Fox Business network.

Taibbi wrote a column, "The Sports Blotter", for the free weekly newspaper, The Boston Phoenix. He covered legal troubles involving professional and amateur athletes.{{cite news |last1=Foss |first1=Sara |title=Landing an Eagle |url=https://dailygazette.com/blog/thinking-it-through/landing-eagle |work=The Daily Gazette |date=August 17, 2009 |access-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803193601/https://dailygazette.com/blog/thinking-it-through/landing-eagle |url-status=dead }}

In 2004, Taibbi began covering politics for Rolling Stone. A contributing editor, he wrote feature-length articles on domestic and international affairs. He also wrote a weekly political online column, "The Low Post", for the magazine's website.{{Cite magazine| url= https://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/category/matt-taibbi/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071214091150/http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/category/matt-taibbi/|url-status=dead|title=Matt Taibbi |magazine=Rolling Stone|archive-date=December 14, 2007}}

Taibbi covered the 2008 United States presidential election in Year of the Rat, a special Rolling Stone diary.{{cite magazine| date= October 2, 2007|title=Year of the Rat: A 2008 Campaign Diary| first=Matt | last= Taibbi| url= https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/year-of-the-rat-a-2008-campaign-diary-by-matt-taibbi-201942/| magazine= Rolling Stone |access-date=December 7, 2022}}

After conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart died in March 2012, Taibbi wrote an obituary in Rolling Stone, entitled "Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche".{{Cite magazine|title = Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche|magazine = Rolling Stone |date = March 2012|url = https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/andrew-breitbart-death-of-a-douche-20120301|access-date = August 26, 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://theweek.com/articles/477645/andrew-breitbarts-death-astonishing-liberal-gloating| title= Andrew Breitbart's death: The 'astonishing' liberal gloating| date= March 2, 2012|website= theweek.com| language=en|access-date=December 11, 2019}} Taibbi also wrote: "Good! Fuck him. I couldn't be happier that he's dead." He wrote that the obituary was "at least half an homage", which gave respect to aspects of Breitbart's style and also alluded to Breitbart's own derisive obituary of Ted Kennedy. In a postscript, Taibbi wrote that some fans of Breitbart were angered by the obituary and responded with "threats and insults".

File:Matt Taibbi Occupy Wall Street 02 (cropped).jpg protest in 2012]]

In his reporting in the wake of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent Great Recession, Taibbi described Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money".{{cite web |last1=Carney |first1=John |title=Matt Taibbi's 'Vampire Squid' Takedown Of Goldman Sachs Is Finally Online |url= https://www.businessinsider.com/matt-taibbis-vampire-squid-take-down-of-goldman-sachs-is-finally-online-2009-7 |website=BusinessInsider.com |date=July 16, 2009}} In financial and political media the expression "Vampire Squids" has come to represent the perception of the financial and investment sector as entities that "sabotage production" and "sink the economy as they suck the life out of it in the form of rent."{{cite web | url= http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2014/01/16/growing-recognition-of-the-need-for-the-job-guarantee/ | first= L. Randall | last= Wray| author-link= L. Randall Wray| title= Growing recognition of the need for the Job Guarantee| work = EconoMonitor| date= January 16, 2014| access-date=}}{{Cite web| url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/jakezamansky/2013/08/08/the-great-vampire-squid-keeps-on-sucking/#11ba36e17df8| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131208004943/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jakezamansky/2013/08/08/the-great-vampire-squid-keeps-on-sucking/ |archive-date=December 8, 2013| title=The Great Vampire Squid Keeps On Sucking| last=Zamansky| first=Jake| date=August 8, 2013|website=Forbes |access-date=December 11, 2019}}{{Cite web| url= https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/the-long-life-of-the-vampire-squid-metaphor/|title=The Long Life of the Vampire Squid| last=Roose| first=Kevin| author-link=Kevin Roose| date= December 13, 2011|website=DealBook |publisher= The New York Times |access-date=December 11, 2019}}{{cite journal| last1=Taibbi| first1= Matt| first2= Larry | last2= Greer| date=2016| title='It's the Way I Deal with Everything': An Interview with Matt Taibbi |journal= Writing on the Edge| volume= 26|issue= 2| pages=6–18}} Tackling the assistance to banks given in foreclosure courts, Taibbi traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to observe the "rocket docket". He was brought in to observe a hearing with attorney April Charney.{{cite book|first=David|last=Dayen|author-link=David Dayen|title=Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pGVADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA207|date=December 19, 2017|publisher=New Press|isbn=978-1-62097-418-6| page=207}} He concluded that it processed foreclosures without regard to the legality of the financial instruments being ruled upon, and sped up the process to enable quick resale of the properties, while obscuring the fraudulent and predatory nature of the loans.{{cite magazine|last=Taibbi|first=Matt|date=November 10, 2010|title=Invasion of the Home Snatchers|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/invasion-of-the-home-snatchers-185849/|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=February 2, 2023}}

In February 2014, Taibbi left Rolling Stone and joined First Look Media to head a financial and political corruption-focused publication, Racket.{{cite news| last= Somaiya| first= Ravi| date= February 19, 2014|title=Start-Up Site Hires Critic of Wall St.| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/business/media/start-up-site-hires-critic-of-wall-st.html|url-status=live| newspaper= The New York Times |archive-url= https://archive.today/20140903081907/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/business/media/start-up-site-hires-critic-of-wall-st.html?_r=0| archive-date=September 3, 2014| access-date=February 20, 2014|url-access=limited}} However, after management disputes with First Look's leadership delayed its launch and led to its cancellation, Taibbi returned to Rolling Stone the following October.{{cite news| url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/31/matt-taibbi-rolling-stone-first-look-media| title=Matt Taibbi returning to Rolling Stone after split from First Look Media| last1= McCarthy| first1= Tom|date=October 31, 2014| access-date=December 11, 2014| work=The Guardian}}{{Cite web |url= https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/inside-story-matt-taibbis-departure-first-look-media/ |title=The Inside Story Of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media |last1=Greenwald |first1=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Greenwald |last2= Poitras |first2=Laura |author-link2= Laura Poitras |last3=Scahill |first3= Jeremy |author-link3=Jeremy Scahill |last4=Cook |first4=John |date=October 30, 2014 |website=The Intercept |access-date=December 11, 2019}}

In August 2019, Taibbi launched a political podcast, Useful Idiots, co-hosted with Katie Halper and released through Rolling Stone.{{cite web|last= Roberts |first=Will| title=Top five current podcasts to change one's outlook| url= https://www.breezejmu.org/culture/top-five-current-podcasts-to-change-ones-outlook/article_f97e9cb4-5e2d-11ea-884a-839aea73e745.html| access-date=February 2, 2021| website=The Breeze|date=March 12, 2020 |language=en}}{{Cite web| url= https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/10/headlines/2020_izzy_awards_honor_journalist_matt_taibbi_news_inside_and_the_center_for_investigative_journalism| title=2020 Izzy Awards Honor Journalist Matt Taibbi, News Inside and The Center for Investigative Journalism| access-date=February 2, 2021| website= Democracy Now!| language= en|quote=[Taibbi] is the author of the book 'Hate Inc.' and co-host of the 'Useful Idiots' podcast.}}{{Cite web|title=MSNBC Pundit Who Accused Those Who Prefer Sanders to Warren of 'Sexism' Sparks Viral Outcry From #WomenforBernie| url= https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/28/msnbc-pundit-who-accused-those-who-prefer-sanders-warren-sexism-sparks-viral-outcry| last=Queally|first=Jon|date=September 28, 2019|access-date=February 2, 2021|website=Common Dreams| language=en}} The podcast has since featured interviews with various guests including Liz Franczak,{{Cite web| title=Useful Idiots: TrueAnon's Liz Franczak on Epstein Saga| url= https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/useful-idiots-trueanon-liz-franczak-160748097.html|access-date=February 2, 2021| website= yahoo.com| language= en-US}} Andre Damon,{{Cite web|title=Andre Damon speaks to Rolling Stone on internet censorship and Trump's coup attempt|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/19/roll-j19.html|access-date=February 2, 2021|website=World Socialist Web Site|date=January 19, 2021 |language=en}} David Dayen,{{Cite web|last= Dayen|first=David|author-link=David Dayen|date=February 1, 2021| title=First 100: How the Congressional Budget Office May Determine Wages for 32 Million Workers| url= https://prospect.org/api/content/cdbf70c2-64ac-11eb-81d2-1244d5f7c7c6/|access-date=February 2, 2021| website=The American Prospect| language=en-us|quote=I was on Rolling Stone's Useful Idiots podcast with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper discussing a bunch of stuff.}} Cornel West,{{Cite web|date=June 24, 2020| title=Cornel West on James Clyburn Big Pharma and the Neoliberal Democrats| url=https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/cornel-west-on-james-clyburn-big-pharma-and-the-neoliberal-democrats/|access-date= February 2, 2021|website=Corporate Crime Reporter|language=en-US}} Glenn Greenwald,{{Cite web|date=September 21, 2020| title= Guide To Journalists And Organizations Covering Assange Extradition Trial| url=https://shadowproof.com/2020/09/21/guide-to-journalists-assange-trial-upset-by-media-blackout/|access-date=February 2, 2021|website= Shadowproof.com |language=en-US}} and Aaron Maté.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGy6c3SHWf0&list=PLL0ooGQ0asg4upSXzZA1Oinn3ALqVCndA&index=1|title=Aaron Maté on Biden's Foreign Policy, OPCW, and More|via=YouTube|date=February 19, 2021}}

In March 2021, Taibbi announced that Useful Idiots would no longer be released by Rolling Stone and would be self-published.{{Cite tweet |number= 1367991513045757954 |user=mtaibbi |last=Taibbi |first=Matt |title=The Useful Idiots Podcast is leaving the loving embrace of Rolling Stone, and will be moving to Substack, beginning next week. With a few fun tweaks, much the same show, and it will continue to be available across multiple podcast platforms. @kthalps |date=March 5, 2021 |access-date=March 22, 2021}} With a few changes in program support staff, it is published as both audio and video that features both a free subscription and a paid subscription.

In January 2022, he announced a sabbatical leave to write a book, and that in his absence, Maté would fill in for him.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjRUAmT_v2k|title=Aaron Maté Joins Useful Idiots|date=January 4, 2022}}

In 2018, Taibbi began publishing a novel, The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing: Adventures of the Unidentified Black Male, as a serialized subscription via email and a website with an anonymous partner.{{cite web| url= https://www.recode.net/2018/4/25/17277968/facebook-q1-earnings-f8-developers-snapchat-redesign-spotify-walmart-instacart-virgin-bitcoin| title=Recode Daily: Twitter is growing again|author=Recode Staff|date=April 25, 2018|publisher=Recode|access-date=June 29, 2018}} The novel is fictional with true-crime elements.

In April 2020, Taibbi announced he would no longer publish his online writing through Rolling Stone, and henceforth, would publish his online writing independently. He stated that he would continue to contribute print features for Rolling Stone and maintain the Useful Idiots podcast with Katie Halper. (In April 2021, Useful Idiots, under its same name, but with some support staff changes, also would move to self-publication.) Taibbi stated that his decision to move his writing to a self-published newsletter service was made independently and that he was not asked to leave Rolling Stone.{{Cite web|last=Taibbi| first=Matt| date=April 6, 2020|title= Announcement to Readers: I'm Moving |url= https://taibbi.substack.com/p/announcement-to-readers-im-moving|access-date=April 6, 2020|website=Substack}}{{Cite news| date=April 20, 2020|title= Entrepreneurial expat journalist urges media to look beyond ads| url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018743188/entrepreneurial-expat-journalist-urges-media-to-look-beyond-ads|access-date=January 12, 2021|work=Radio New Zealand}} Taibbi branded his newsletter TK News, after a term used in manuscript preparation for publication and journalism, TK, that stands for "to come", indicating that more will follow.{{cite web| url = https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-announcing-new-features| title = Note to Readers: Announcing New Features}} After a period of publication with free subscriptions only, Taibbi introduced an additional, paid subscription featuring content that will not be provided as part of the free subscriptions. As of October 2021, TK News had more than 30,000 paying subscribers. On January 24, 2023, the name was changed from TK News to Racket News.

Racket News is a newsletter, blog, podcast, and book collection made available largely for free and the rest by subscription at www.racket.news.{{cite news |last1=Taibbi |first1=Matt |title=About - Racket News |url=http://www.racket.news/about |work=www.racket.news |language=en}} Racket News is published online.{{Primary source inline|date=April 2024}} It is among a growing number of worker-owned journalism outlets including, 404 Media, Defector Media, and Hell Gate NYC.{{Cite web |last=Silverman |first=Justin R. |date=April 18, 2024 |title=404 Media and the hopes of worker-owned journalism |url=https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/404-media-and-the-hopes-of-worker-owned-journalism.php |access-date=April 28, 2024 |website=Columbia Journalism Review |language=en}}

In addition to Taibbi, contributors include Jane Burn, Ford Fischer, Walter Kirn and Eric Salzman. Other contributors include Emily Bivens, Andrew Lowenthal, Jared Moore, cartoonist Daniel Medina and Matt Orfalea.

On August 12, 2022, the podcast America This Week was added to TK news. It is a weekly national news wrap-up with Taibbi and Walter Kirn, novelist and literary critic, that is released on Fridays. The duo also discuss a short story at the end of each episode.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Thomas Chatterton |date=May 3, 2024 |title=The Blindness of Elites |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/walter-kirn/678187/ |access-date=October 3, 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} A transcript of each episode is also published weekly and the podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, in addition to Racket News.{{cite web|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/america-this-week/id1640531112|title=America This Week, with Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn|publisher=Apple Podcasts}}

Taibbi is one of the most popular writers on Substack and earns much more from the platform than he did writing for Rolling Stone.{{Cite web |date=July 26, 2023 |title=Matt Taibbi: How the left lost its mind and legacy media its audience |url=https://reason.com/podcast/2023/07/26/matt-taibbi-how-the-left-lost-its-mind-and-legacy-media-its-audience/ |last=Gillespie |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Gillespie |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US}}

{{main|Twitter Files}}

On December 2, 2022, Taibbi began tweeting about and screenshotting emails that executives of Twitter sent each other concerning content moderation in 2020. The emails were provided to Taibbi{{Disputed inline|Add more information on key Twitter exposes?|for=emails were provided|date=August 2023}} by Twitter CEO Elon Musk and documented parts of the discussions among Twitter's communication team about how Twitter should handle a New York Post article about a laptop computer that had been owned by Hunter Biden.{{cite news|last= Spangler| first=Todd|date=December 2, 2022| title='Twitter Files' Touted by Musk Reveal How Execs Debated Decision to Block NY Post Account Over Hunter Biden Articles| url=https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/twitter-files-blocked-ny-post-hunter-biden-censor-1235448481/ |magazine=Variety|access-date= December 2, 2022}}{{cite news|last=Wagner| first=Kurt| date=December 2, 2022|title=Musk Hails Release of Twitter Emails on Hunter Biden Story |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-03/musk-hails-release-of-twitter-emails-on-hunter-biden-story|work=Bloomberg News|access-date=December 3, 2022}}{{cite news|last= Ingram|first=David|date=December 2, 2022|title=Elon Musk promotes release of internal Twitter documents rehashing platform's block of Hunter Biden story| url= https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-promotes-release-internal-twitter-documents-rehashing-platfo-rcna59897|work=NBC News|access-date=December 2, 2022}}{{cite news|last=Grynbaum|first=Michael M.|date=December 4, 2022|title=Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and a Very Modern Media Maelstrom|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/business/media/elon-musk-twitter-matt-taibbi.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=December 7, 2022}} The documents, dubbed the "Twitter Files" and retweeted by Musk, were selected from "thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter". Taibbi's report was in the form of a Twitter thread with screen shots of email exchanges between Twitter executives. Taibbi noted, "in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions" that he did not specify.{{cite news |title=Elon Musk's 'Twitter Files' ignite divisions, but haven't changed minds |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/03/elon-musk-twitter-files/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=December 3, 2022| first1= Cat| last1= Zakrzewski|first2=Faiz|last2=Siddiqui}}{{cite news |last1=Taibbi |first1=Matt |title=Note to Readers |url=https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-8d4 |work=TK News |date=December 2, 2022}}

Taibbi's presentation largely confirmed what was already known and did not contain any significant new revelations on the Hunter Biden story.{{Cite web |last=Bushard |first=Brian |title=Musk's 'Twitter Files': Internal Hunter Biden Debate Revealed With Much Hype But No Bombshells |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/12/03/musks-twitter-files-internal-hunter-biden-debate-revealed-with-much-hype-but-no-bombshells/ |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=Forbes |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Fung |first=Brian |date=December 3, 2022 |title=Released Twitter emails show how employees debated how to handle 2020 New York Post Hunter Biden story {{!}} CNN Business |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/tech/musk-twitter-hunter-biden/index.html |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=CNN |language=en}} Jeffrey Blehar, writing for National Review, said that Taibbi's reporting "contained few, if any, explosive revelations for people who have been tuned in to the debacle surrounding Twitter's suppression of the New York Post story on Hunter Biden's laptop".{{cite news|last= Blehar| first=Jeffrey|date=December 3, 2022| title=Thoughts on the 'Twitter Files'|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/thoughts-on-the-twitter-files/|magazine=National Review| access-date=December 3, 2022}} Taibbi's thread included emails from Ro Khanna to former Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde, in which Khanna expressed concern about Twitter's decision to limit the circulation of the New York Post article about Hunter Biden. Khanna wrote that Twitter's actions violated "1st Amendment principles".{{cite news |last1=Lima |first1=Cristiano |last2=Schaffer |first2=Aaron |title=Ro Khanna had no clue he'd star in Musk's 'Twitter Files' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/05/ro-khanna-had-no-clue-hed-star-musks-twitter-files/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=December 6, 2022 |date=December 5, 2022}}

The third installment, released on December 9 by Taibbi, highlighted events within Twitter leading to Donald Trump's suspension from Twitter.{{cite news|last=Wulfsohn|first=Joseph A.|date=December 9, 2022|title=Twitter Files Part 3 reveals what led to Trump's removal from social media platform|url=https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-files-part-3-reveals-what-led-trumps-removal-social-media-platform|work=Fox News|access-date=January 17, 2023}}{{better source needed|Fox is a bad source for politics, per RSP|date=March 2023}} The sixth installment, released on December 16 by Taibbi, described how the FBI contacted Twitter to suggest that action be taken against several accounts for allegedly spreading election disinformation.{{cite news|last=Wulfsohn|first=Joseph A.|date=December 16, 2022|title=Twitter Files Part 6 reveals FBI's ties to tech giant: 'As if it were a subsidiary'|url=https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-files-part-6-reveals-fbis-ties-tech-giant|work=Fox News|access-date=January 17, 2023}}{{Cite web |last=Soave |first=Robby |author-link=Robby Soave |date=December 16, 2022 |title=Twitter Files: The FBI frequently flagged joke tweets, asked for moderation |url=https://reason.com/2022/12/16/fbi-reported-jokes-tweets-twitter-files-censorship/ |access-date=December 18, 2022 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US |archive-date=January 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113154159/https://reason.com/2022/12/16/fbi-reported-jokes-tweets-twitter-files-censorship/ |url-status=live }}{{better source needed|Fox is a bad source for politics, per RSP, and reason.com piece is RSOPINION which should be attributed|date=March 2023}} Taibbi's ninth installment, released on December 24, relates to the CIA and FBI's alleged involvement in Twitter content moderation.{{cite news|last=Whitlock|first=Scott|date=December 24, 2022|title=Twitter Files part 9: Vast web of coordination between tech giant and CIA, State Department, other agencies|url=https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-files-part-9-vast-web-coordination-between-tech-giant-cia-state-department|work=Fox News|access-date=January 27, 2023}}{{better source needed|Fox is a bad source for politics, per RSP|date=March 2023}} The fifteenth installment, released on January 27, 2023, by Taibbi, reports on the Hamilton 68 Dashboard maintained by the Alliance for Securing Democracy.{{Cite web |last=Soave |first=Robby |author-link=Robby Soave |date=January 27, 2023 |title=Twitter Files: Employees knew the media's favorite Russian bots list was fake |url=https://reason.com/2023/01/27/twitter-files-matt-taibbi-hamilton-68-russian-bots-fake/ |access-date=January 27, 2023 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US}}{{better source needed|RSOPINION which should be sourced|date=March 2023}} The sixteenth installment, released on February 18 by Taibbi, reports on messages to Twitter by Maine senator Angus King and U.S. State Department security engineer Mark Lenzi expressing concern regarding Twitter accounts they deemed suspicious.{{cite tweet|user=mtaibbi|number=1627098945359867904|date=February 18, 2023|title=TWITTER FILES #16 Comic Interlude: A Media Experiment|access-date=February 18, 2023}}{{primary source inline|date=March 2023}} The seventeenth installment, released on March 2, by Taibbi, reports on the Global Engagement Center, which was established by the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act.{{cite tweet|user=mtaibbi|number=1631338650901389322|date=March 2, 2023|title=1. TWITTER FILES #17 New Knowledge, the Global Engagement Center, and State-Sponsored Blacklists|access-date=March 4, 2023}}{{primary source inline|date=March 2023}} The nineteenth installment of the Twitter Files, "The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine, Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of "True Stories" raises questions about the government and social media censorship.{{cite web|url=https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/tech/twitter-files-virality-project/|title=Latest 'Twitter Files' allege censorship of proven facts|work=NewsNation|first=Brian|last=Entin|date=March 17, 2023}}

On March 9, Taibbi testified, with Michael Shellenberger, before the United States House Committee on the Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in a hearing on the Twitter Files.{{cite web|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?526578-1/house-panel-examines-twitter-moderation-practices|title=Hearing on Twitter Documents About Content Moderation Decisions|publisher=U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government|website=C-SPAN|date=March 9, 2023}}{{cite news|last=Zakrzewski|first=Cat|date=March 9, 2023|title=House Republicans defend Musk from FTC's 'harassment campaign'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/09/musk-ftc-house-republicans-twitter/|url-status=live|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230309133616/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/09/musk-ftc-house-republicans-twitter/|archive-date=March 9, 2023|access-date=March 31, 2023|url-access=limited}} Several Democrats at the hearing criticized both Taibbi and Shellenberger, including Stacey Plaskett, who referred to both as "so-called journalists."{{Cite web |last=Soave |first=Robby |author-link=Robby Soave |date=March 10, 2023 |title=Democrats deride the Twitter Files reporters as 'so-called journalists' |url=https://reason.com/2023/03/10/twitter-files-hearing-weaponization-matt-taibbi-democrats-elon/ |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US}}

Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC interviewed Taibbi on April 6, presenting several errors in the Twitter Files reporting. Taibbi asserted that these errors were trivial. The next day, Taibbi announced he was leaving Twitter within days in response to Twitter banning links to Substack after it announced its new feature Notes, which has been characterized as a competitor to Twitter. Musk unfollowed Taibbi later that day.{{cite news |last1=Baragona |first1=Justin |title='Twitter Files' Reporter Bails on Twitter After Elon Makes It 'Unusable' |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/twitter-files-reporter-matt-taibbi-bails-on-twitter-after-elon-musk-makes-it-unusable |work=The Daily Beast |date=April 7, 2023}}{{cite news|last=Lorenz|first=Taylor|author-link=Taylor Lorenz|date=April 7, 2023|title=Twitter targets its rival Substack, forcing well-known journalists to choose|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/07/twitter-substack-taibbi-musk-split/|url-status=live|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230407231849/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/07/twitter-substack-taibbi-musk-split/|archive-date=April 7, 2023|access-date=April 8, 2023|url-access=limited}}

Taibbi received a visit from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents the day he testified to Congress about the Twitter Files. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has demanded that IRS turn over copies of documents related to its search.{{Cite web |last=Kika |first=Thomas |date=March 28, 2023 |title=Jim Jordan gives IRS hard deadline to hand over documents on Matt Taibbi |url=https://www.newsweek.com/jim-jordan-gives-irs-hard-deadline-hand-over-documents-matt-taibbi-1790942 |access-date=May 28, 2023 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}

In February 2024, Taibbi revealed that he and Musk had a falling out which culminated in Musk messaging him, "You are dead to me. Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack".{{Cite magazine |last=Metzner |first=Ben |date=February 16, 2024 |title=Twitter Files' Matt Taibbi Says Elon Musk Sent Him Unhinged Messages |url=https://newrepublic.com/post/179067/twitter-files-matt-taibbi-messages-elon-musk |access-date=October 13, 2024 |magazine=The New Republic |language=en-us}} Taibbi later said Musk had been "very disappointing" on the issue of free speech.{{cite news|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4536394-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi-musk-disappointing-free-speech/|title='Twitter Files' journalist Matt Taibbi: Musk proved to be 'very disappointing' on free speech issue|last=Timotija|first=Filip|date=March 16, 2024|work=The Hill|access-date=January 10, 2025}}

Since the mid-2010s, Taibbi's reporting has increasingly focused on culture war topics and cancel culture. He has also criticized mainstream media and their coverage of Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. His writing has since polarized readers and fellow journalists.

Taibbi argues that both sides of the political media spectrum are complicit in dividing the country and fueling hate. In 2019, Taibbi self-published the book Hate Inc., a critique of the mainstream media landscape.{{Cite web |url= https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-949017-25-0 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi |date=August 8, 2019 |website= Publishers Weekly }} Reviewing the book for Paste, Jason Rhode called it a "brilliant indictment of American media", praising the majority of the book but criticized Taibbi for "[spending] a section of his book both-sidesing both MSNBC and FOX".{{Cite web |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/04/matt-taibbis-hate-inc-is-a-mostly-brilliant-indict.html |title= Matt Taibbi's Hate, Inc. Is a (Mostly) Brilliant Indictment of American Media |last=Rhode |first=Jason |date=April 12, 2019 |website= Paste | access-date =}}

During the Munk Debates on November 22, 2022, Taibbi and conservative Douglas Murray successfully argued in favor of the motion "Be it resolved, don't trust Mainstream Media".{{cite news |title=Matt Taibbi, Douglas Murray Dominate Trust-in-Media Debate |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/news/matt-taibbi-douglas-murray-dominate-trust-in-media-debate/ |access-date=September 27, 2023 |work=National Review |date=December 1, 2022}}{{cite news |title=Munk Debate: Mainstream Media |url=https://munkdebates.com/debates/mainstream-media |work=munkdebates.com |language=en}}

In a June 2023 interview with The Hub, Taibbi said that "I want the mainstream media to succeed. I think it needs to. The countries are not healthy if they don't have a functioning mass media and nobody believes them. And I think increasingly that's kind of the problem, is there's this lingering worsening trust issue that can only be addressed by dealing with some of the factual issues."{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=June 1, 2023 |title='It's the Wild West right now': Journalist Matt Taibbi talks Elon Musk, the Twitter Files, and the state of media |url=https://thehub.ca/2023-06-01/its-the-wild-west-right-now-journalist-matt-taibbi-talks-elon-musk-the-twitter-files-and-the-state-of-media/ |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=The Hub |language=en-CA}}

Using the term "Russiagate", Taibbi covered the story around Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and criticized the mainstream media coverage of the Special Counsel investigation.{{cite magazine|last=Taibbi|first=Matt|date=March 29, 2019|title=Taibbi: On Russiagate and Our Refusal to Face Why Trump Won|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/taibbi-trump-russia-mueller-investigation-815060/|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=April 8, 2023}}{{cite magazine|last=Taibbi|first=Matt|date=April 23, 2019|title=The Press Will Learn Nothing From the Russiagate Fiasco|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russiagate-fiasco-taibbi-news-media-826246/|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=April 8, 2023}} Taibbi's book Hate Inc. includes a chapter, "Why Russiagate Is This Generation's WMD", in which he compares "Russiagate" to 2002–2003 allegations that Iraq had access to weapons of mass destruction, which were used by George W. Bush's administration as the most prominent rationale for the Iraq War.{{Cite journal |url= https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/12/05/trump-television-medium-is-the-mistake/|title=The Medium Is the Mistake|last=Bromwich|first=David|journal=The New York Review of Books| author-link=David Bromwich| date= December 5, 2019|volume=66 |issue=19 |access-date= August 20, 2021 |language=en-US| issn= 0028-7504}}

In October 2019, Taibbi argued that the whistleblower in the Trump–Ukraine scandal was not a "real whistleblower" because the whistleblower would have had their life affected by prosecution or being sent to prison.{{Cite web| url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/why-theyre-attacking-the-whistle-blower/599680/|title=So What If the Whistle-Blower Has a Political Motive?|last=Serwer| first= Adam |author-link=Adam Serwer |date=October 9, 2019| work= The Atlantic |language=en-US| access-date=December 11, 2019}} Taibbi also quoted former CIA analyst Robert Baer who argued that the whistleblower was part of a "palace coup against Trump".

In response to the March 30, 2023, indictment of Donald Trump, Taibbi said, "If presidents think they will be chased into jail under thin pretexts as ex-presidents, they'll try even harder to never leave office. This is how autocracies are born."{{cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/171532/right-wing-response-trumps-indictment |title=A Field Guide to the Right's Hysterical and Desperate Response to Trump's Indictment |last=Shephard |first=Alex |date=March 31, 2023 |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=April 1, 2023}}

Regarding the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, Taibbi said that the problem "is not even so much whether or not that story was important or whether it was terribly damning, it was more the behavior of the media during that story that was really troubling. Not just turning a blind eye to it being suppressed, but also as we found out, planning these what they call a tabletop exercise to 'How should we all respond when this story comes out?'".{{Third-party inline|date=August 2023|reason=needed for WP:DUEWEIGHT}}

Taibbi has testified before congress on multiple occasions on the topic of censorship.

In 2021, Ross Barkan of New York wrote, "Taibbi is—or was, depending on your view—one of the most celebrated investigative journalists of his generation." He continued, "Taibbi's critics view him as a reporter turned red-pilled culture warrior chasing subscriptions", while "Taibbi's defenders say he hasn't changed. Rather, it's the world that has grown more illiberal and hysterical." Taibbi argued that he had not changed, but rather that reactions to Trump had "fundamentally changed the business". In 2023, Nick Gillespie of Reason wrote that when Taibbi attacked Hillary Clinton "as a sellout, argued that the Russiagate narrative was mostly bullshit, and equated the manipulative tactics of right and left media personalities, progressives gave him the cold shoulder."

On April 1, 2025, U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove accused Taibbi of being a "serial sexual harrasser" during a hearing on a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On April 3, Taibbi announced a $10 million libel suit against her.{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalreview.com/news/matt-taibbi-files-10-million-libel-lawsuit-against-democratic-congresswoman/|title=Matt Taibbi Files $10 Million Libel Lawsuit Against Democratic Congresswoman|first=James|last=Lynch|work=National Review|date=April 3, 2025|accessdate=April 6, 2025}}

Taibbi is married to Jeanne, a family physician.{{cite news|last=Shaer|first=Matthew|date=March 9, 2014|title=Raging Against Hacks With Muckraker Turned Magazine-Maker Matt Taibbi|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/03/matt-taibbi-on-wall-street-first-look-media.html|url-status=live|work=Intelligencer|publisher=New York|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200131031911/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/03/matt-taibbi-on-wall-street-first-look-media.html|archive-date=January 31, 2020|access-date=December 9, 2022}} They have three children.{{Cite podcast |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lee-fang-on-iowa-shadow-app-bloombergs-growing-political/id1476110521?i=1000464950107 |title=Lee Fang on Iowa Shadow App and Bloomberg's Growing Political Machine, Plus the Whole World Sucks After Iowa |website=Useful Idiots |host=Matt Taibbi |host2=Katie Halper |date=February 7, 2020 |time=02:33 |access-date=February 14, 2020}}

Taibbi previously lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. As of 2021, he lives in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.

In a 2008 interview with Hemant Mehta for Patheos, Taibbi described himself as an "atheist/agnostic".{{cite web|url=http://friendlyatheist.com/2008/04/29/interview-with-rolling-stones-matt-taibbi/|title=Interview with Rolling Stone{{'}}s Matt Taibbi|last=Mehta|first=Hemant|author-link=Hemant Mehta|date=April 29, 2008|website=Friendly Atheist|access-date=November 11, 2023|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522042847/http://friendlyatheist.com/2008/04/29/interview-with-rolling-stones-matt-taibbi/|archive-date=May 22, 2011}}

• 2008: The National Magazine Award in the category "Columns and Commentary" for Rolling Stone columns.{{Cite web |last=Shea |first=Danny |date=May 10, 2008 |title=National Magazine Awards 2008: The Winners |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/national-magazine-awards_n_99770 |access-date=March 19, 2025 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}
• 2009: The Sidney Award for "The Great American Bubble Machine."{{cite web|title=Matt Taibbi |date=August 12, 2009|publisher=Hillman Foundation|url=http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/sidney-awards/matt-taibbi|access-date=October 3, 2015}}{{Primary source inline|date=April 2024}}
• 2020: The Izzy Award—honors the independent journalism of I. F. Stone for work outside of corporate control. The Award is given by the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. Taibbi was honored "for his exceptional stories on media bias in conservative and liberal news that culminated in his book, Hate, Inc." {{cite web|url=https://www.ithaca.edu/news/independent-media-award-winners-announced|title=Independent Media Award Winners Announced|publisher=Ithaca College|first=Dave|last=Maley|date=March 10, 2020}}{{Primary source inline|date=April 2024}}
• 2023: The inaugural Dao Prize of $100,000 for the "Twitter Files" to Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger. The prize is awarded by the conservative group National Journalism Center in partnership with the Daofeng and Angela Foundation. The prize began after Gabe Kaminsky, an investigative reporter, was awarded the National Journalism Center's inaugural prize for excellence in investigative journalism in 2022.{{cite news|title=Twitter Files Awarded Inaugural Dao Prize for Excellence In Investigative Journalism|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twitter-files-awarded-inaugural-dao-110000474.html|date=November 2, 2023}}{{cite news|date=November 3, 2023|title=Twitter Files triumphant at the Dao Prize|url=https://thespectator.com/newsletter/twitter-files-triumphant-at-the-dao-prize-cockburn-gossip-11-3-2023/|department=Cockburn|newspaper=The Spectator|access-date=November 13, 2023}}{{Cite web |date=February 2024 |title=Dao Prize Application |url=https://yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Dao-Prize-Application.pdf}}
• 2024: The inaugural Samizdat Prize from Real Clear Politics for First Amendment Courage with Miranda Devine and Jay Bhattacharya.{{cite web|url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2024/03/07/samizdat_prize_awards_1st_amendment_courage_619351.html|title=Samizdat Prize Awards 1st Amendment Courage|work=Real Clear Politics|date=March 7, 2024}}

• [https://archive.org/details/exilesexdrugslib0000ames/mode/2up The eXile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia] ({{ISBN|0-8021-3652-4}}). Co-authored with Mark Ames, and published in 2000 with a foreword by Eduard Limonov.
• Spanking the Donkey: On the Campaign Trail with the Democrats, ({{ISBN|1-56584-891-8}}). A campaign diary from the 2004 United States presidential election, published by New Press in 2005.
• Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season, ({{ISBN|978-0307345714}}). Published by Three Rivers Press (August 22, 2006).
• Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire, ({{ISBN|0-8021-7041-2}}). Published by Grove Press, Black Cat in 2007.
• The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire, ({{ISBN|0-385-52034-4}}). Published by Spiegel & Grau in 2008.
• Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America, ({{ISBN|0-385-52995-3}}). Published by Spiegel & Grau (2010).
• The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, ({{ISBN|978-0812993424}}). Published by Spiegel & Grau (April 8, 2014).
• Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus, ({{ISBN|978-0399592461}}). Published by Spiegel & Grau (January 17, 2017).
• I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street, ({{ISBN|978-0812988840}}). Published by Spiegel & Grau (October 24, 2017).
• Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, ({{ISBN|978-1949017250}}). Published by OR Books (October 8, 2019).
• {{Cite book |last1=Taibbi |first1=Matt |title=The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing: An Almost True Account |last2=Anonymous |publisher=OR Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-68219-403-4}}{{Cite web |title=The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing |url=https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-business-secrets-of-drug-dealing/ |access-date=April 15, 2021 |website=OR Books|date=August 11, 2020 }}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://www.racket.news/ Racket News]
• {{IMDb name|id=1976365}}
• {{C-SPAN|1011360}}
• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?428727-1/depth-matt-taibbi Interview with Taibbi], In Depth, June 4, 2017, C-SPAN
• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?526578-1/house-panel-examines-twitter-moderation-practices "Hearing on Twitter Documents About Content Moderation Decisions."] U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. C-SPAN. March 9, 2023.
• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?538925-5/matt-taibbi-challenges-free-speech-america Matt Taibbi on Challenges to Free Speech in America] October 4, 2024 | Part of Washington Journal.
• {{Muck Rack}}
• "[https://www.parkindymedia.org/izzy-awards-2020/ Matt Taibbi, "News Inside," and CPI Accept 12th Izzy Award]." Park Center for Independent Media, Ithaca College, 2020.

{{Matt Taibbi}}

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