Chicago City Wire

Reporter Matt Taibbi recently went before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government that organized Twitter Files to testify on how the government used social media platforms as a form of censorship of Americans.

“A focus of this growing network is making lists of people whose opinions, beliefs, associations or sympathies are deemed to be misinformation, disinformation or malinformation,” Taibbi said in a statement to the subcommittee. “The latter term is just a euphemism for ‘true but inconvenient.’ Plain and simple, the making of such lists is a form of digital McCarthyism.”

Taibbi explained to the committee that he has 30 years of experience and has been a “staunch advocate for the First Amendment.” He has spent much of his career writing for Rolling Stone and has won a number of awards and written four New York Times bestsellers. He is currently the editor of the online magazine Racket.

Taibbi received a note online that said, “Are you interested in doing a deep dive into what censorship and manipulation… was going on at Twitter?” A week later Twitter Files reports came out, and through research he found that there was a “sweeping effort” to reverse the promise of the internet to “democratize the exchange of information globally.” He said it appeared that the U.S. government was leading the way in doing so.

Through his research, Taibbi said he and other researchers found that Americans are reported to Twitter and firms like PayPal, Xandr and GoFundMe. He also noted that the site became an arm of a state-sponsored thought-policing system.

During the subcommittee hearing, Taibbi refused to name his source based on the oath of journalism. He was accused of being paid to testify and called a “so-called” journalist, despite his experience and awards.

Dan Proft, host of 560 AM’s “Chicago Morning Answers,” said on a March 13 segment that Taibbi is the target of a smear campaign. He spoke about how the term “wrap-up smear” was popularized by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, describing a political tactic used by both parties. Examples have been documented by the New York Post, including one by Daily Beast columnist and New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali who said, “Matt Taibbi… what sad, disgraceful downfall. Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth.”

"This is where they are welcome,” Proft said. “Because we actually believe in debate and freedom of expression on our show, as many conservatives do. So, they can have their say, even when there is a lot of disagreement.”