Matt Taibbi's Lara Logan Takedown: 'Lara Logan, You Suck'

Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi unleashed on CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan in a post titled, "Lara Logan, You Suck" Monday.

"Lara Logan, come on down! You're the next guest on Hysterical Backstabbing Jealous Hackfest 2010!" his post began.

Taibbi was responding to Logan's appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday, during which she trashed Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings for violating an "unspoken agreement" and publishing anecdotes in his article on General McChrystal that she feels were meant to be off-the-record. Logan also maligned Hastings' methods of gaining McChrystal's trust in order to facilitate their interview.

Taibbi:

Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn't mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan. Here's CBS's chief foreign correspondent saying out loud on TV that when the man running a war that's killing thousands of young men and women every year steps on his own dick in front of a journalist, that journalist is supposed to eat the story so as not to embarrass the flag. And the part that really gets me is Logan bitching about how Hastings was dishonest to use human warmth and charm to build up enough of a rapport with his sources that they felt comfortable running their mouths off in front of him....

If I'm hearing Logan correctly, what Hastings is supposed to have done in that situation is interrupt these drunken assholes and say, "Excuse me, fellas, I know we're all having fun and all, but you're saying things that may not be in your best interest! As a reporter, it is my duty to inform you that you may end up looking like insubordinate douche bags in front of two million Rolling Stone readers if you don't shut your mouths this very instant!" I mean, where did Logan go to journalism school - the Burson-Marsteller agency?

Taibbi didn't limit his critique to just Logan — he connected her comments to a larger pattern among mainstream journalists, whether they cover wars in Afghanistan or presidential campaigns in the US, who he says prioritize access over fact-finding and truth-seeking:

Most of these reporters just want to be inside the ropeline so badly, they want to be able to say they had that beer with Hillary Clinton in a bowling alley in Scranton or whatever, that it colors their whole worldview. God forbid some important person think you're not playing for the right team!

Meanwhile, the people who don't have the resources to find out the truth and get it out in front of the public's eyes, your readers/viewers, you're supposed to be working for them -- and they're not getting your help.

Read Taibbi's full post at RollingStone.com.

Comments

[RRoadrunner]

12:51 PM on 07/06/2010

Matt Taibbi was right when he said “Most of these reporters just want to be inside the rope line”. We get all kind of fluff news coverage on how hard BP is working to clean up the gulf and the financial cost to them as news people fly over the golf escorted BP representatives. What we are not seeing are the dead animals or a discussion of the ecological damage that’s occurred.

[feddown]

12:56 PM on 07/03/2010

He's got some serious HST journalistic mojo goin on, and a little Denis Leary to boot. Funny, pertinent stuff! Also, check out his hilarious essay on why soccer SUCKS!!! LOL

http://www.mensjournal.com/taibbi-world-cup

[Soulsurfer]

10:38 AM on 07/03/2010

Logan is a victim of being co-opted by her subject. Understandable, since she's spent so much time 'over there' in dire circumstances, and she became 'one of them'. And it's a story that needs to be told, our soldiers have a thankless job, a fuzzy agenda, and the mission keeps changing. A nearly impossible task in nearly impossible conditions, without any payoff. However, protecting subjects by selectively choosing which remarks to include and which to ignore is the job of her editor, and she's obviously lost site of HER mission.

[lizipoo]

10:21 PM on 07/02/2010

Thank you Matt for exposing the truth in so many of your hard-hitting stories in RS and your blogs. You are the reason I keep my subscription to Rolling Stone current, I hardly ever look at the pictures anymore. lol

[ReedYoung]

03:38 PM on 07/02/2010

We have laws because we know that not all men are angels and we have a free press because we know that being elected or appointed to positions of grave responsibility does not turn them into angels. If she is who I think she is, then from her interviews on The Daily Show it appears that she fancies herself a real journalist. If she wishes to be considered one, she owes us an explanation of how she imagines that she or and other legitimate journalists could in theory fulfill their obligations to the public, to hold our public servants fully accountable, while at the same time she obeys such limiting "gentlemen's agreements" with those whom it is her foremost duty to hold accountable, to me and you.

[ReedYoung]

01:14 PM on 07/04/2010

A great reply to this comment has failed to appear here, but I can see it on my Social pages and comments notifications. How bizarre!

[dehawk44]

03:01 PM on 07/02/2010

Matt, thanks for tearing the blanket off "sugar-coaty" journalism. You give it to us unsanitized...just the way we like it!!

[metalcrafter]

11:24 AM on 07/02/2010

Rolling Stone Magazine blows because they never put the rock band RUSH on their cover and they do not vote them in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. CLUELESS, but they put ABBA in it. Get a life bias magazine.

[madashellvoter]

01:57 PM on 07/02/2010

That is not the story. BOO HOO! Who the f@%k cares!

[blacksmithn]

06:43 PM on 07/02/2010

Dude, you give "clueless" a whole new definition. But it ain't Rolling Stone....

[splathrop]

09:40 AM on 07/02/2010

By extraordinary coincidence ALL television news people are physically presentable. Completely UNLIKE the population of talented journalists. That's a worse problem than you may think. Presentable people who are being lavishly rewarded by large corporations rarely have anything in their lives to make them skeptical—even their divorces work out.

That's why you want a working class white guy, not notably attractive, with a history of social trouble in High School, but a high IQ—basically David Bernstein. You knew journalism was going sour when he dropped out of sight.

[captainindustry]

11:50 AM on 07/02/2010

I'm available!!!! No wait. I'm gorgeous,

[trustnoone]

09:00 AM on 07/02/2010

Taibbi rocks!!! Clone him and put one in every news organization.

[godipo]

08:49 AM on 07/02/2010

I hope that Lara Logan's description of the current state of journalism becomes a strong incentive to change it. She has pinned down what all of us know and deplore. Unfortunately the kind of thinking that underlies Lara's kind of 'journalism' is in sync with a widespread method of thinking prevalent in our country today. Don't engage, seek truth, argue, influence...just neutralize facts and leave the status quo alone. Have no convictions that reflect a search for truth because there is no truth, only 'balance'. To me this lack of the use of the brains we all have is the problem. How can we seek common ground? How can we solve problems? We have unlearned how to perceive reality, how to compare notes on reality...the vacuum is filled by the interests pursued by those who have interests. In a world in which critical judgment is a no-no, there can be nothing but self-interest that survives. A narrow world indeed.

[doctor who]

08:39 AM on 07/02/2010

Logan is a pathetic excuse for a journalist, but hey! She looks good on TV!

[CMarks]

08:30 AM on 07/02/2010

Actually I think McCrystal did a pretty good job of manning up to his comments and take the appropriate steps to apologize personally to those he, and his staff, degraded. It's the right wing media who seem to think that Rolling Stone and their reporter are somehow at fault for the bad behavior of a 4 star general - sounds more like sour grapes to me. McCrystal did it, admitted it, apologized for it, and offered his resignation which ultimately ended this assignment as well as him military career.

[richsmith]

08:56 AM on 07/02/2010

The Taibbi piece was about Logan in particular and the spineless, kowtowing, corporate US media in general (the BBC and Sueddeutsche Zeitung are doing just fine, thank you). Hastings did a bang up job with McCrystal and his gang and didn't need Taibbi's help or support. As far McCrystal's manning up is concerned, what was going to do, lie about what he said? I know that's standard practice among politicians but soldiers aren't supposed to do that, are they? Oops, I forgot the Tillman affair.

[richsmith]

08:02 AM on 07/02/2010

Matt, the scourge of Goldman. What a guy. He was detailing their criminal activity long before the housing bubble burst. The reason he uses what HP would consider off color phrases is because the bad guys really are Sc*mBa*s and that is the only way he can reasonably expect to get the public's (or HP's for that matter) attention.

[Yeah-sure]

03:55 AM on 07/02/2010

Glad to hear Matt go after one of major problems we have today. But he didn't go far enough. Lara Logan isn't the problem, she's the symptom. The problem is that most journalism is owned by corporations. And corporations are run for the status quo, and profit. Not to shake things up. The way most journalism is run today is completely antithetical to what journalism really should be.

[Tenfour]

06:16 AM on 07/02/2010

he did, if you read the whole thing

[bjwtaylor]

03:46 AM on 07/02/2010

Seems to me that Ms Logan also conveniently overlooks the fact that anyone stupid enough to say things in front of a reporter that not only could get him fired, but also threaten the conduct of a war, dishonor the country by trashing its civilian leadership, insult badly needed allies, and defies our civilian control of the military is too stupid to run the war and darn well should be reported on.