Matt Taibbi's recent piece on Michele Bachmann is giving the City Pages (Twin Cities) staff a case of deja vu.
In a recent interview with John Dicker that appears in the September issue of The Toilet Paper (a monthly "Monster-Truck/Gay-Cowboy tabloid" based in Colorado Springs), Taibbi talks about his new gig with Rolling Stone and his recent departure from the New York Press. Taibbi offers a characteristically heated denunciation of columnist and former New York Press owner Russ Smith; says ex-editors Jeff Koyen and Alexander Zaitchik were scapegoats for the failures of the paper's management; and predicts new editor Harry Siegel ("a Smith protege") will turn the paper "into a dumb neocon rag."
Lloyd Grove -- a gossip columnist, and one working at the New York Daily News -- found something in New York Press "shockingly offensive" and "nauseating." The offending article, written by Matt Taibbi, is titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope." Grove quotes some New York politicians who express their displeasure with the article. (Note: Recent estimates peg the percentage of New York's residents who identify themselves as Catholic at 40 percent.)
