[lbo-talk] interview with Matt Taibbi

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
><http://toiletpaperonline.typepad.com/the_blog/2005/08/an_exclusive_in.html>
>
>MT: ...  when the former owner, the conservative writer Russ Smith (aka 
>Mugger), sold the paper, he negotiated an arrangement with the new 
>management whereby he kept his column at an exorbitant fee price, and could 
>not be fired. ... I think Russ has wanted the paper to go back to being a 
>conservative outlet ever since he sold it, and I understand that. But I 
>think the way he went about it - forcing himself editorially on the paper, 
>and blasting his colleagues in print over the objections of editors who 
>could not stop him - I think that was totally unprofessional.

Unprofessional maybe, but much in tune with the zeitgeist -- once a boss, 
always a boss.

Shows how outdated A. J. Liebling (1904-1963) is.  "Freedom of the press," 
said AJL, "is limited to those who own one."  Nowadays, though, that freedom 
extends even to former owners.

Carl