Being a financial journalist was just about the last profession Matt Taibbi thought about growing up.

“If you told me years ago that I would grow up to become the world’s angriest financial journalist, I would probably die laughing,” Taibbi, a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine, said. “Growing up, being a journalist was the last thing I wanted to be.”

Hoping to persuade politically indecisive students to vote, Taibbi spoke to students about the upcoming election, the Wall Street bailout and the trials and tribulations of being a political journalist at Maxwell Auditorium on Wednesday evening.

Taibbi spoke about the start of his journalism career in Russia right after college.

“The first story I ever sold was titled ‘Communist Gorilla Eats First Banana,’” Taibbi said.

Though the crowd erupted in laughter, Taibbi continued on a serious note. Many of the stories Taibbi wrote, he said, were of similar subject matter.

He may have wanted to work on different types of stories, but Taibbi said a journalist must be aware of what sells in the media market. He described this awareness as being part of a journalistic sixth sense.

Taibbi began his career as a journalist in America by becoming a campaign reporter alongside Howard Dean. He quickly learned that his preconceived notions about the life of a campaign journalist were far from reality.

“On my first day, a fellow reporter described a journalist’s job during the campaign trail as similar to shoveling coal for Satan,” Taibbi said.

Taibbi later realized there was “no story to be found among the campaign trail,” and that cliches within political speeches became background noise.

His experience along the campaign trail revealed the idea that journalists are “there to police a narrative.

“Journalists are determined to make a narrative exist, and if it doesn’t, we’ll make it exist,” he said.

He described America’s party polarization as a “ferocious contest of opposites.”

Taibbi compared the political schisms within America to a Venn diagram, citing the middle of the diagram as an uncharted area among politicians and journalists alike.

“Americans are becoming very dissatisfied with the red vs. blue reporting styles of journalism,” he said. “I knew there was something else out there.”

Near the end of the event, Taibbi spoke directly to the audience.

“I want you all to come away from this event remembering that within political journalism, the middle does exist,” he said. “It is the most interesting and difficult side to politics, and unfortunately, it is up to the journalists to include it.”

After concluding his speech, Taibbi allowed the audience to ask him questions.

When an audience member asked how the rise of social media affects the accuracy of news coverage, Taibbi immediately said social media has negative effects on accuracy, citing Twitter as a culprit for breaking news down into small sound bytes of information.

“News stories are complex,” he said. “You need an enormous amount of time and space to truly reflect their meaning, and social media is making it harder and harder for the public to really digest what these stories are about.”

The audience received Taibbi well, clapping loudly as he exited the stage.

Published on September 13, 2012 at 1:34 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu