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MIXED MEDIA by Jeff Bercovici
Why America's Hottest Young Political Writer Fails
What is the point of Matt Taibbi? I'm asking this earnestly, not in snark. Rolling Stone's youthful national-affairs columnist is one of the hot political writers of the season, frequently described as a latter-day Hunter S. Thompson. He even won the National Magazine Award for columns and commentary this year.
I find that puzzling. Taibbi's writing, to my taste, does the opposite of what good political commentary ought to do: persuade through original arguments. His rhetorical style consists of little more than in-your-face vulgarity, hyperbole and cliché. Read his latest column, on Sarah Palin, if you don't believe me. (It's not Rolling Stone's website yet, thanks to that magazine's backward approach to the internet, but you can find it here.)
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