The veteran reporter and #TwitterFiles contributor leaves the Intercept and comes to Substack, kicking off with a fact-check of last week’s MSNBC fiasco
Understood. And I'm not asking for free anything. I pay for this one, and at one point had like 10 paid subs plus Patreons etc. and I had to cancel almost all of them to manage a cash flow issue. No, I'm not a heroin addict.
I had to reassess, too. I'm afraid I went with the ones that were more frequent. I had a few I was paying for that had no posts for months. I very much support the authors but thought the $$$ could go to someone posting at least a couple times a month.
I'm with you Kathleen. I understand things like Matt taking a week off for vacation, but the ones that post every other month or so had to go. I want to help support everyone fighting the good fight for real journalism, but that's not within my means.
I am with you Gnome, I have had to scale back big time due to fixed income and inflation. t sucks, I want to support everyone, but I can't. Just a fact of life. I am still here, though.
Yeah! 'Free speach isn't free' or 'Freedom isn't Free'. Usually, when we used to hear that last, it was usually wrapped up with some apologia for militarism and empire, with the empire part obscured. Other people would cite that, more in the Ralph Nader sense. 'You better find some time for a 'civic life', or you may wake up without having much control over your personal life.'
Here is one thing that is creeping in the direction of the absurd, though. I have a number of print subscriptions, many for decades. I (and family) have been paying sustainers to Pacifica/KPFA for decades. I now have subs to Substack, Rumble, Locals, Super Stack, through multiple producers through, many paid through Patreon, Spotify (Which I picked up when I was banned from my You Tube Premium account for writing a rather bland piece which described the extent of Zionist confiscation of Palestinian lands. The article was more like a spreadsheet than a polemic. I provided links supporting all of the points I raised. The links to these sources, were, maybe not ironically, all easily available with a click or two on You Tube or Google. My You Tube account was restored 6 months later, with no explanation as to why it was cancelled in the first place.)
I write under my own name and my contact info is easy to get. I got some nasty little piece from some Zionist, who concluded that "...Israel is getting stronger by the minute". Of course I didn't reply to this person, but I couldn't help but remember something I heard my 6th & 7th grade history teacher say, a number of times. He was a WW2 Euro theatre combat vet: "The Riech of a Thousand Years fell a little short".
There is truth to this but then I compare to the cable bill I paid 15 years ago. I dunno, it is interesting, I am sure scribed to way more writers than I thought I would be, but when I add up the monthly cost, it is comparable to 15 years ago. Always depends on your budget though. There is real quality here and an absence of that ubiquitous internet toxicity.
I totally agree with you. There are so many ways to cut costs to get accurate information. All you need is cheap internet, Linux (free) and a VPN. Why on earth are people still paying for cable? I’ve saved literally thousands of dollars by cutting cable years ago.
Hmm... Could collaborate into something like a newspaper, eh? Or does that harken too much back to the reasons they left the Rolling Stone and The Intercept?
Newspapers existed because of advertisers. Those advertisers in turn were able to influence news coverage of their industry: favorable coverage for themselves and unfavorable coverage for their competitors.
Look at it this way: because you have a limited budget and you can't support everyone, now you're forced to choose which writers are really important to you.
When each of us make that choice individually, we collectively send a signal back to the writers. The writers compete for our hard earned cash. In this way, both readers' and writers' incentives are aligned.
That's one way of looking at it. The other is this: there's a lot of great smaller writers that are not going to get a foot in because people are running out of "disposable" income.
The downside of that, though, is the very real risk of ending up in an information bubble. It's probably not a good thing to be only reading a small number of writers, no matter how good they are.
I agree that bundling would be good. I don’t mind paying but have to keep up with legacy media as well, as their paywalls rise quality news is becoming too expensive for many of us.
Why do you need to keep up with legacy media? They're called legacy for a reason: they feed you propaganda, not real journalism. That is why they are dying. Why do you need to continue to support dying liars?
I agree with you, however until recently I did keep a NYT subscription specifically so I could keep tabs on what MSM and their cucky peanut gallery commenters were saying. However in the end I just could no longer stomach giving them any more of my money. And anyway you can still get a free all you can eat buffet of that garbage on ...wait for it...TWITTER
You asked.. for one thing, I want to support local news. So there is a local rural newspaper, a local suburban newspaper, and the local city newspaper.
Then, because I live in a rural area, the local city newspaper won't deliver. So I get the WSJ because they mail me their Sunday edition and I get to feel newsprint with my fingers. I get the WaPo and the NYT to follow and critique their coverage of the issues I know about, and finally, the LA Times because I want one reporter's stories, Sammy Roth, and they won't give me just his reporting (but they have very good specials). Add that to six or seven Substacks.. and you're talking real money.
I have a page that I'm still putting together- I'd like to get it in shape to charge subscriptions within the next six months.
However, I'd rather charge more like $3/mo than $6/mo. And I'm not sure that Substack is set up to charge a rate that low.
I'm handling some of my current paid subscriptions by rotating between them; six months or a year of one, than switching to a different one, and then switching back again. I've always been a fan of Shareware, too, like Patreon donations- unfortunately it hasn't caught on as much as it should, because of the Free Myth. Some Substack page authors are also book authors. I'm into supporting them by buying their books.
Okay, Matt. Enough! Time for you to get out there and enjoy the sun. If you have to investigate something, find out if it’s true that flip-flops are called “fly swatters” in Hawaii. ?
Impressed you managed to stay out of the fracas yesterday, even if on vacation.
It brought a huge smile to my face when Mehdi did the Islamophobia tweet. It was an instant loss, and something to be brought out whenever his dumb fans try to bump him up. (Yes, this is all extremely juvenile, but I can't help it.)
Also, loved the whining that Glenn didn't give him a "heads up" that he was going to criticize him. The whole reason his stans thought he was such a master debater was because he browbeat you to explain errors that were never presented to you. It would have been a lot more protective to note them in advance so you could have an actual adult discussion.
My biggest problem with Hasan's interview (and there were many) was that, if Hasan cared about the public truth, he would have notified Taibbi about the errors once he'd learned of them and mentioned he'll be discussing them. Instead, he hoarded them like ammo to use in his broadside against Taibbi.
If Hasan is a journalist, this seems unethical. If he's an entertainer, I guess it is all about making a spectacle.
Lee rules. Keep fighting the good fight. I hope the honesty and integrity of yourself, Lee Fang and others like Aaron Mate can eventually convince people to stop being manipulated by the worst media people in history, who all just happen to think exactly alike on every subject.
Well, there's a clear difference between Hasan and Taibbi. Taibbi is a professional, investigative journalist who actually pounds the pavement looking for answers, whereas, Hasan is little more than a marginally clever sounding, but obnoxious junkyard dog.
If I thought writing multiple thousands-word articles about how much MSNBC sucks was worth my time, I would. I have a hard time believing that there’s an enthusiastic audience who wants to read the same thing over and over and over again, but apparently there is.
Didn't Postman Elon do most of the pavement pounding when he swung by on his daily appointed rounds and slid the latest installment of the twitter files through Taibbi's mail slot?
I remember when Lee Fang got a lot of heat from his own colleagues at the Intercept when he factually reported on some of the riots that happened during the summer of 2020. I knew then that he was not the typical Intercept activist-journalist. Welcome, indeed.
As for Medhi, the guy is a pompous tool. The only good thing he ever did was join Ilan Pappe in a debate against pro-Zionist scholars regarding the plight of the Palestinian people.
Considering how close he came to getting fired and the fact that he had to write that groveling apology letter just to (I would guess that's likely Lee's #1 career regret, but I totally get why he did--Intercept pays a ton), I'm surprised he hung on for so long (esp since he likely would have been fired if GG wasn't there).
Matt, please keep repeating more easily understood language, like "the government bullied social media companies to silence dissenting opinion. They did it directly and often cleverly using agencies they funded."
Lead with the point: the government abused its power.
Lee's twitter file threads were comically ignored. They couldn't tar them with the "what about TRUMP?!" angle because they were on foreign policy so they just ignored.
Come on guys - remember “the laborer is worthy of his hire.” That comes from the Good Book. It’s $5. A bag of chips costs more! Am on my way to create a paid sub for our man Lee. 😊
That Hasan guy is the most insufferable person I have seen on teevee since O Reilly when he was in his post 911 heyday.
Back then I used to make jokes about O Reilly going home for dinner and his wife would present something nice, like a roasted turkey, and O Reilly would say, "Well, whats wrong with chicken?" And then the wife would say, "Nothing is wrong with chicken, you like turkey, too, I made turkey." And then Bill would chastise her, "Yes, I like turkey.... ON THANKSGIVING! Is it Thanksgiving? I am looking at the calendar and does it say THANKSGIVING? NO! What is wrong with CHICKEN?!"
Anyway, I see this word salad shooter Hasan as being the reincarnation of that archetype. He reminds of that Monty Python bit on paying for an argument, he could be the Cleese character.
I doubt you can speak on this, but in the off chance you can--any more clarity on the issue with Elon (really only care as it relates to future Twitter files stuff)?
It's gotten to the point where any reporters WITHOUT a Substack will be understood as having been captured by corporate or governmental masters.
Now if only Substack would create some kind of bundling deal. This is getting expensive for us plebs.
Is good journalism getting expensive or are we learning with the real cost of good journalism actually is?
At this point, it is a great investment in my yet-to-born grandchildren. But Gnome Chonky has a valid point.
Oh yea, and I get great information from the Readers here too. It is a very unique and special community. Thank God for Substack.
The latter. When it’s free, you’re the product.
The day we see Matt Taibbi writing "The Substack Files" expose is the day I'll pack it all in and move to a finca in Mexico.
I was asking a rhetorical question for Gnome Chonky's benefit. ;)
Understood. And I'm not asking for free anything. I pay for this one, and at one point had like 10 paid subs plus Patreons etc. and I had to cancel almost all of them to manage a cash flow issue. No, I'm not a heroin addict.
I had to reassess, too. I'm afraid I went with the ones that were more frequent. I had a few I was paying for that had no posts for months. I very much support the authors but thought the $$$ could go to someone posting at least a couple times a month.
I'm with you Kathleen. I understand things like Matt taking a week off for vacation, but the ones that post every other month or so had to go. I want to help support everyone fighting the good fight for real journalism, but that's not within my means.
I am with you Gnome, I have had to scale back big time due to fixed income and inflation. t sucks, I want to support everyone, but I can't. Just a fact of life. I am still here, though.
It’s a good one.
Also yes plz on bundle deal haha
Yeah! 'Free speach isn't free' or 'Freedom isn't Free'. Usually, when we used to hear that last, it was usually wrapped up with some apologia for militarism and empire, with the empire part obscured. Other people would cite that, more in the Ralph Nader sense. 'You better find some time for a 'civic life', or you may wake up without having much control over your personal life.'
Here is one thing that is creeping in the direction of the absurd, though. I have a number of print subscriptions, many for decades. I (and family) have been paying sustainers to Pacifica/KPFA for decades. I now have subs to Substack, Rumble, Locals, Super Stack, through multiple producers through, many paid through Patreon, Spotify (Which I picked up when I was banned from my You Tube Premium account for writing a rather bland piece which described the extent of Zionist confiscation of Palestinian lands. The article was more like a spreadsheet than a polemic. I provided links supporting all of the points I raised. The links to these sources, were, maybe not ironically, all easily available with a click or two on You Tube or Google. My You Tube account was restored 6 months later, with no explanation as to why it was cancelled in the first place.)
I write under my own name and my contact info is easy to get. I got some nasty little piece from some Zionist, who concluded that "...Israel is getting stronger by the minute". Of course I didn't reply to this person, but I couldn't help but remember something I heard my 6th & 7th grade history teacher say, a number of times. He was a WW2 Euro theatre combat vet: "The Riech of a Thousand Years fell a little short".
This might absolutely be true, but money is always going to be a factor.
That’s my problem. I am happy to support Matt and Sy Hersh, but the cost mounts up. There needs to be some sort of bundling feature.
There is truth to this but then I compare to the cable bill I paid 15 years ago. I dunno, it is interesting, I am sure scribed to way more writers than I thought I would be, but when I add up the monthly cost, it is comparable to 15 years ago. Always depends on your budget though. There is real quality here and an absence of that ubiquitous internet toxicity.
I totally agree with you. There are so many ways to cut costs to get accurate information. All you need is cheap internet, Linux (free) and a VPN. Why on earth are people still paying for cable? I’ve saved literally thousands of dollars by cutting cable years ago.
Hmm... Could collaborate into something like a newspaper, eh? Or does that harken too much back to the reasons they left the Rolling Stone and The Intercept?
Newspapers existed because of advertisers. Those advertisers in turn were able to influence news coverage of their industry: favorable coverage for themselves and unfavorable coverage for their competitors.
You want to go back to that?
Not all newspapers were ad supported, nor need to be.
It's worth every penny
"Now if only Substack would create some kind of bundling deal. This is getting expensive for us plebs."
I am so with you. There are so many people I want to read and support and I can't do them all.
Look at it this way: because you have a limited budget and you can't support everyone, now you're forced to choose which writers are really important to you.
When each of us make that choice individually, we collectively send a signal back to the writers. The writers compete for our hard earned cash. In this way, both readers' and writers' incentives are aligned.
That's one way of looking at it. The other is this: there's a lot of great smaller writers that are not going to get a foot in because people are running out of "disposable" income.
If people want more disposable income, they should be careful about who they vote for. Elections have consequences like insane economic policies.
We've been losing "disposable" income since at least the 70s. Unless I got my history entirely wrong, one party hasn't been in power that entire time.
Not sure if you’ve seen this website, but if not I think you will get a kick out of it:
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
Actually, we’ve been loosing value since at least 1913.
The downside of that, though, is the very real risk of ending up in an information bubble. It's probably not a good thing to be only reading a small number of writers, no matter how good they are.
I agree that bundling would be good. I don’t mind paying but have to keep up with legacy media as well, as their paywalls rise quality news is becoming too expensive for many of us.
Why do you need to keep up with legacy media? They're called legacy for a reason: they feed you propaganda, not real journalism. That is why they are dying. Why do you need to continue to support dying liars?
I agree with you, however until recently I did keep a NYT subscription specifically so I could keep tabs on what MSM and their cucky peanut gallery commenters were saying. However in the end I just could no longer stomach giving them any more of my money. And anyway you can still get a free all you can eat buffet of that garbage on ...wait for it...TWITTER
You asked.. for one thing, I want to support local news. So there is a local rural newspaper, a local suburban newspaper, and the local city newspaper.
Then, because I live in a rural area, the local city newspaper won't deliver. So I get the WSJ because they mail me their Sunday edition and I get to feel newsprint with my fingers. I get the WaPo and the NYT to follow and critique their coverage of the issues I know about, and finally, the LA Times because I want one reporter's stories, Sammy Roth, and they won't give me just his reporting (but they have very good specials). Add that to six or seven Substacks.. and you're talking real money.
I want a "Newsstand" feature - the ability to buy single articles without subscribing.
I want to "second" that bundling idea.
Gnome...Good seed to plant. Hope it might take root and sprout. In
times past you had that variety under one roof called a real
newspaper with a real journalistic professional editorial board
at the helm that was not owned as much. A bundle of authors
based on your genre tastes would be welcomed and also
give the up and comers some exposure and be mentored under
the lifers. Would help the subscribers as yes .. many others
I would like to pony up for but I can't afford it. I could perhaps
afford a cooperative packaging though.
GOOD POINTS!!!!... Automatically called them FAKE.
I have a page that I'm still putting together- I'd like to get it in shape to charge subscriptions within the next six months.
However, I'd rather charge more like $3/mo than $6/mo. And I'm not sure that Substack is set up to charge a rate that low.
I'm handling some of my current paid subscriptions by rotating between them; six months or a year of one, than switching to a different one, and then switching back again. I've always been a fan of Shareware, too, like Patreon donations- unfortunately it hasn't caught on as much as it should, because of the Free Myth. Some Substack page authors are also book authors. I'm into supporting them by buying their books.
I agree. It would be nice to get a deal without denying the writers their due. Buy 12, get 2 free is a good start.
It's worth every penny
Welcome Lee, you legend.
Matt, this is the worst not-vacationing since the Civil War!! Go drink some tallboys and get out the Steely Dan records. ;)
Okay, Matt. Enough! Time for you to get out there and enjoy the sun. If you have to investigate something, find out if it’s true that flip-flops are called “fly swatters” in Hawaii. ?
Pretzel Logic...one of the greatest albums of all time - I say that without a hint of hyperbole
I prefer "Gaucho".
Impressed you managed to stay out of the fracas yesterday, even if on vacation.
It brought a huge smile to my face when Mehdi did the Islamophobia tweet. It was an instant loss, and something to be brought out whenever his dumb fans try to bump him up. (Yes, this is all extremely juvenile, but I can't help it.)
Also, loved the whining that Glenn didn't give him a "heads up" that he was going to criticize him. The whole reason his stans thought he was such a master debater was because he browbeat you to explain errors that were never presented to you. It would have been a lot more protective to note them in advance so you could have an actual adult discussion.
My biggest problem with Hasan's interview (and there were many) was that, if Hasan cared about the public truth, he would have notified Taibbi about the errors once he'd learned of them and mentioned he'll be discussing them. Instead, he hoarded them like ammo to use in his broadside against Taibbi.
If Hasan is a journalist, this seems unethical. If he's an entertainer, I guess it is all about making a spectacle.
I didn’t watch the interview, but, uh, shouldn’t Matt have been aware of any aforementioned “errors” before he published them?
The New York Times has a news staff of ~2000 and still has “errors” make it to print.
As long as reporters and editors are still human, there will be the occasional mistake.
Ethical journalists, like Matt, correct them promptly once brought to their attention.
Always be on the offensive, boys.
The defensive ain't worth a damn.
I am never going to learn that.
Lee rules. Keep fighting the good fight. I hope the honesty and integrity of yourself, Lee Fang and others like Aaron Mate can eventually convince people to stop being manipulated by the worst media people in history, who all just happen to think exactly alike on every subject.
Well, there's a clear difference between Hasan and Taibbi. Taibbi is a professional, investigative journalist who actually pounds the pavement looking for answers, whereas, Hasan is little more than a marginally clever sounding, but obnoxious junkyard dog.
That's not fair to junk yard dogs.
Matt “pounded” the pavement; now all he does is bitch about MSNBC and CNN, cable “news” channels that nobody watches.
You or I could write this shit.
You're welcome to do so. Get your own Substack account.
If I thought writing multiple thousands-word articles about how much MSNBC sucks was worth my time, I would. I have a hard time believing that there’s an enthusiastic audience who wants to read the same thing over and over and over again, but apparently there is.
How many times over have you been reading the same thing?
Didn't Postman Elon do most of the pavement pounding when he swung by on his daily appointed rounds and slid the latest installment of the twitter files through Taibbi's mail slot?
I think Taibbi had to go to the central distribution center and sort the mail.
@JeffKeener @feldspar you two are funny. Imagine what it must be like reading this comment thread if you’re “Taibbi”.
I remember when Lee Fang got a lot of heat from his own colleagues at the Intercept when he factually reported on some of the riots that happened during the summer of 2020. I knew then that he was not the typical Intercept activist-journalist. Welcome, indeed.
As for Medhi, the guy is a pompous tool. The only good thing he ever did was join Ilan Pappe in a debate against pro-Zionist scholars regarding the plight of the Palestinian people.
Apparently, the Intercept doesn’t like facts. Just ask Glenn Greenwald.
Considering how close he came to getting fired and the fact that he had to write that groveling apology letter just to (I would guess that's likely Lee's #1 career regret, but I totally get why he did--Intercept pays a ton), I'm surprised he hung on for so long (esp since he likely would have been fired if GG wasn't there).
HUGE get.
Lee is well above the Intercept in his reporting and I am glad to see him move on to a place I can trust more.
Matt, please keep repeating more easily understood language, like "the government bullied social media companies to silence dissenting opinion. They did it directly and often cleverly using agencies they funded."
Lead with the point: the government abused its power.
Lee's twitter file threads were comically ignored. They couldn't tar them with the "what about TRUMP?!" angle because they were on foreign policy so they just ignored.
Thrilled to hear about Lee but please fuck off while you're on vacation
Any chance we could pay ten bucks a month for Racket and get Lee and Aaron as part of the deal? This thing could get huge pretty quick.
I’d be in.
Come on guys - remember “the laborer is worthy of his hire.” That comes from the Good Book. It’s $5. A bag of chips costs more! Am on my way to create a paid sub for our man Lee. 😊
What I meant was, how about Lee and Aaron join Racket, and we'll gladly pay double for what will surely become the next great reporting enterprise.
Er --- $6.00 still cheaper than a dozen eggs LOLOLOL
$6 is one dollar more than a $5 blow job. If you don’t know the value of a dollar now, you soon will.
Me too.. !
Hasan is not worth the time and effort of such a stellar journalist.
That Hasan guy is the most insufferable person I have seen on teevee since O Reilly when he was in his post 911 heyday.
Back then I used to make jokes about O Reilly going home for dinner and his wife would present something nice, like a roasted turkey, and O Reilly would say, "Well, whats wrong with chicken?" And then the wife would say, "Nothing is wrong with chicken, you like turkey, too, I made turkey." And then Bill would chastise her, "Yes, I like turkey.... ON THANKSGIVING! Is it Thanksgiving? I am looking at the calendar and does it say THANKSGIVING? NO! What is wrong with CHICKEN?!"
Anyway, I see this word salad shooter Hasan as being the reincarnation of that archetype. He reminds of that Monty Python bit on paying for an argument, he could be the Cleese character.
But he isn't a skit, he is a real person.
https://youtu.be/xpAvcGcEc0k
Never forget: Debbie Wasserman Schultz
The brillo pad that just scrubbed an oily pan?
What about her? I am always trying to forget her.
sorry, my bad
Lol ok, but now I am thinking about her, for shame!
My wife used to get really peeved when I vacationed this way.
I doubt you can speak on this, but in the off chance you can--any more clarity on the issue with Elon (really only care as it relates to future Twitter files stuff)?
Yes. Coming… I have a very patient family.
Big fan of Lee! Thanks for sharing and networking with other great journalists.