Rolling Stone’s Recent Critique of Political Media Dead On
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008I have a lukewarm relationship with Rolling Stone. I hate the fawning reporters who glorify people like Kid Rock, T.I. and other musicians who already have plenty of people sucking up to them. The portions of Rolling Stone that I enjoy have nothing to do with music. I will use the latest issue with a Johnny Depp cover story as an example. I could care less about Sweeney Todd and Depp’s musical acumen but I loved stories on Dr. Drew and Matt Taibbi’s scathing rebuke of the political media.
I will focus my attention on Taibbi’s work in this post. This regular contributor to Rolling Stone has infiltrated the Republican Party as a volunteer for the purpose of exposing the failings of the party at its nadir. His keen eye for politics may seem wasted in Rolling Stone but a magazine aimed at younger readers needs a reporter like Taibbi.
The story I refer to, “Merchants of Trivia,? takes the media to task for the tone of the political dialogue during the 2008 primary season. I loved Taibbi’s description of the cub reporter who goes from healthy skepticism of the spectacle in American politics to providing advice to talking heads on cable news. His eyewitness report of cameras snapping photos of Obama supporters throwing out T-shirts show gives a view of how ridiculous American politics has become that sounds like it is coming from an outside observer.
If Taibbi worked for MSNBC, The Washington Post or a blog like Politico (which he skewers), his voice would be silenced. I may dislike the music reviews and interviews in Rolling Stone but I will continue to read it because Matt Taibbi and others are keeping an eye on the process of American politics. Fellow skeptics need to check out the regular political reports in Rolling Stone if only to maintain hope that someone cares about reporting instead of dictating a horse race.
