My Disappointment with Greenwald and Taibbi

I’ve been a long time fan of the journalists Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. I think Greenwald’s investigation into the US security state and Taibbi’s investigation into the actions of the banks around the 2008 economic crisis are the two most important stories of the still young 21st century. However, they’ve come to disappoint me this year.

Taibbi and Greenwald were both with recognized media companies until 2020. Then, they both left to start their own ventures on the self-publishing platform Substack. I thought it was a great move by both of them. They each had reached the kind of name recognition that they would have no problem gathering readings and even some paying contributors that would help them build their own journalistic entities.

That’s not what they’ve been doing though. They have both been doing media analysis, mainly complaining that the mainstream media is both irrelevant and corrupt. Both have complained that the media is in cahoots with big pharma to push vaccination and how they are in bed wit the US security state and obsessed with Russia. Greenwald whines about how the Democratic party has become authoritarian and is trying to suppress all criticism.

I don’t disagree with much of their criticism, but I’m disappointed that it is just about the only thing they produce. Also, it’s this kind of shallow media analysis that is the biggest problem in journalism. It’s way easier to write a weekly blog about how Tucker Carlson is a fascist or Rachel Maddow is in the pocket of big Democratic donors than it is find a story, investigate it and report on it. But, investigative reporting is what we need.

Taibbi and Greenwald could do it too, even while reporting on the media. Find direct evidence. It’s easy to see media bias, but the media can always shrug this off as coincidence. Find the emails prove it. Find the whistle-blowers from the newsrooms. Blow these stories up! Otherwise, make these analysis something you do monthly and not daily. I’m tired of it!