Review: Hate, Inc. by Matt Taibbi
May. 15th, 2022 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ritaerHate, Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another
Matt Taibbi
Off Books, New York: 2019
9781949017250
HB $24.95
I have followed Taibbi's journalism since reading his takedowns of Wall Street during the 2008 Crash. His description Goldman Sachs as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money" is perhaps the most striking description of predatory capitalism every penned.
Those who have not followed Taibbi's career in subsequent decades may be surprised to learn that _Hate, Inc._ is a severely judgmental examination of Taibbi's own profession, journalism. Taibbi begins by describing his own coming of age in journalism under the influence of Noam Chomsky's _Manufacturing Consent_. Chomsky asserted that censorship in the US was accomplished not by crude state intervention but by media themselves weeding out unpopular opinions. Since media outlets were limited by the expense of running a newspaper and the limited availability of broadcast licenses each newspaper, radio station or television network was in pursuit of as wide a section of the audience as possible. The best way to do this was to appear to be even handed in the reporting of news. Reporters who ventured toward an unpopular topic would get feedback that told them such pursuits would not benefit their careers. If a story outside the parameters of accepted thought is aired there would be a deluge of letters, calls, petitions and even lawsuits organized by various think tanks and industry organizations. Taibbi describes the process of generating the acceptable limits of discussion, including the manufacture of the impression that "both sides" were being aired, in detail.
Now, however, we see a split in the media. The removal of the Fairness Doctrine, the rise of cable TV, and of internet news has made it possible and desirable to court one portion of the audience to the exclusion of others. Taibbi refers to this as the siloing of news. Each viewer knows where to find the news they want to hear, told the way they want it told. Fox News executives know that their format will not attract viewers away from MSNBC; they don't have to care because they have a secure hold on their audience. Likewise, Rachel Maddow's viewers are unlikely to stray to Shawn Hannity's end of the dial. But Taibbi is not targeting Fox and similar outlets--he blames both sides for adopting a business model that requires them to spend most of their resources on whipping up hatred and fear of the other side. Progressive sources assert that the other side are racists and religious bigots and anti-intellectuals while the right describes their opponents as mentally ill traitors. This patterned outrage includes complete forgetfulness of the faults and errors of one's own side. The following example is my own, not Taibbi's. After Barak Obama was elected several progressives expressed outrage at right wing publications publishing cartoons in which Obama was drawn with monkey-like features. Oh, the disrespect for the office; Oh, the racism; the horror! the horror! But a very brief internet search will turn up several cartoons from the previous four years in which George W. Bush was likened to a monkey, in particular to the hero of the children's "Curious George" series. Oh, the hypocrisy!
Taibbi concentrates on the more serious matter of the allegations that Trump was elected with Russian help and was somehow under the control of Vladimir Putin. Much of this speculation was based on the so-called Steele Dosier. Taibbi proceeds to savage the liberal media for failure to investigate. "The Steele report was the Magna Carta of #Russiagate. It provided the implied context for thousands of news stories to come, yet no journalist was ever able to confirm its most salacious allegations: the five-year cultivation plan, the blackmail, the bribes from Sechin, the Prague trip, the pee romp, etc. In metaphorical terms, we were unable to independently produce Steele's results in the lab. Failure to reckon with this corrupts the narrative from the start." (241)
A sample of chapter titles will give an idea of the range of Taibbi's critique: 4. The High Priests of Averageness, on the Campaign Trail; 6. The Invisible Primary: or, How we Decide Elections Before You Decide Them; 7. How the News Media Stole From Pro Wrestling; 11. The Class Taboo; 14. Turn it Off.
This is an important book for anyone who is concerned about the split in American society and politics. If interested you may also wish to follow Taibbi.Substack.com
Matt Taibbi
Off Books, New York: 2019
9781949017250
HB $24.95
I have followed Taibbi's journalism since reading his takedowns of Wall Street during the 2008 Crash. His description Goldman Sachs as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money" is perhaps the most striking description of predatory capitalism every penned.
Those who have not followed Taibbi's career in subsequent decades may be surprised to learn that _Hate, Inc._ is a severely judgmental examination of Taibbi's own profession, journalism. Taibbi begins by describing his own coming of age in journalism under the influence of Noam Chomsky's _Manufacturing Consent_. Chomsky asserted that censorship in the US was accomplished not by crude state intervention but by media themselves weeding out unpopular opinions. Since media outlets were limited by the expense of running a newspaper and the limited availability of broadcast licenses each newspaper, radio station or television network was in pursuit of as wide a section of the audience as possible. The best way to do this was to appear to be even handed in the reporting of news. Reporters who ventured toward an unpopular topic would get feedback that told them such pursuits would not benefit their careers. If a story outside the parameters of accepted thought is aired there would be a deluge of letters, calls, petitions and even lawsuits organized by various think tanks and industry organizations. Taibbi describes the process of generating the acceptable limits of discussion, including the manufacture of the impression that "both sides" were being aired, in detail.
Now, however, we see a split in the media. The removal of the Fairness Doctrine, the rise of cable TV, and of internet news has made it possible and desirable to court one portion of the audience to the exclusion of others. Taibbi refers to this as the siloing of news. Each viewer knows where to find the news they want to hear, told the way they want it told. Fox News executives know that their format will not attract viewers away from MSNBC; they don't have to care because they have a secure hold on their audience. Likewise, Rachel Maddow's viewers are unlikely to stray to Shawn Hannity's end of the dial. But Taibbi is not targeting Fox and similar outlets--he blames both sides for adopting a business model that requires them to spend most of their resources on whipping up hatred and fear of the other side. Progressive sources assert that the other side are racists and religious bigots and anti-intellectuals while the right describes their opponents as mentally ill traitors. This patterned outrage includes complete forgetfulness of the faults and errors of one's own side. The following example is my own, not Taibbi's. After Barak Obama was elected several progressives expressed outrage at right wing publications publishing cartoons in which Obama was drawn with monkey-like features. Oh, the disrespect for the office; Oh, the racism; the horror! the horror! But a very brief internet search will turn up several cartoons from the previous four years in which George W. Bush was likened to a monkey, in particular to the hero of the children's "Curious George" series. Oh, the hypocrisy!
Taibbi concentrates on the more serious matter of the allegations that Trump was elected with Russian help and was somehow under the control of Vladimir Putin. Much of this speculation was based on the so-called Steele Dosier. Taibbi proceeds to savage the liberal media for failure to investigate. "The Steele report was the Magna Carta of #Russiagate. It provided the implied context for thousands of news stories to come, yet no journalist was ever able to confirm its most salacious allegations: the five-year cultivation plan, the blackmail, the bribes from Sechin, the Prague trip, the pee romp, etc. In metaphorical terms, we were unable to independently produce Steele's results in the lab. Failure to reckon with this corrupts the narrative from the start." (241)
A sample of chapter titles will give an idea of the range of Taibbi's critique: 4. The High Priests of Averageness, on the Campaign Trail; 6. The Invisible Primary: or, How we Decide Elections Before You Decide Them; 7. How the News Media Stole From Pro Wrestling; 11. The Class Taboo; 14. Turn it Off.
This is an important book for anyone who is concerned about the split in American society and politics. If interested you may also wish to follow Taibbi.Substack.com
