CSNbbs

Quote:Good writers have a huge advantage in the task of persuasion over mediocre or poor ones. The famous music magazine, Rolling Stone, tasked a gifted writer, Matt Taibbi, with writing an expose on the Wall Street behemoth, Goldman Sachs. Somehow, Mr. Taibbi’s impressive writing skills proved quite inadequate in his recent effort to demonize the famed investment bank, for sometimes, even good writing can not cover up complete ignorance, or an utter disregard for the facts. My recommendation is that Rolling Stone stick to reviewing the next Kanye West album, for surely financial journalism is not their cup-of-tea.

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And sadly for Taibbi, the answer to that question is that it is the entire article that warrants further investigation. The article relies on unsubstantiated insinuations, guilt-by-association inferences, factual inaccuracies from start to finish, and most importantly, a rank hatred of successful elites that permeates all the way through. I appreciate the fact that it is easy to de-personalize our opponents, and blame an entity rather than human beings for things we are upset about. Goldman is an easy target, because as he so capably demonstrates, they are a company of rich people, and frankly, they are a lot richer than us. Taibbi and his sympathetic readers have a deep resentment of all parts of the establishment that have achieved more success than they. Surely, the thinking goes, they must have cheated their way to the top. My beliefs about human nature tell me that Goldman Sachs is probably inundated with bad people (past and present). Bad people seem to permeate all societal institutions (the government comes to mind as well). I am not writing this article to defend everything Goldman does, or has done. I work for a major competitor of Goldman Sachs, and have no reason whatsoever to defend them. I would be happy to write a lengthy demonization of the role Wall Street firms played in this unprecedented catastrophe. But if I were to do such, I would focus on facts, and not rhetoric. I would point out the extraordinary blame that can be easily shared with multiple parties to these transactions. I would focus on reality, and not the image I am able to conjure up for an envious audience that wants blood. In short, I would do it all very differently than Matt Taibbi and Rolling Stone did.