Case dismissed
Matt Taibbi takes an L.
Welcome to The Flashpoint
Please buy my book.
That’s a wrap.
Matt Taibbi’s defamation case against me and my publisher Hachette for the cover and content of my book, Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, was dismissed today, May 5.
The entire judgement is worth reading (here’s the link to the full case), but if you want a quick summation, this is a good breakdown:
Aside from the scattered words and phrases discussed below, Plaintiff does not dispute the accuracy of the vast majority of the Book’s factual content that informs these views or point to language suggesting the opinions are based on facts other than those disclosed in the book.
So, that’s over. At least it provided some entertainment:
But for all the fun we’re having at Taibbi’s expense—and that’s a good thing he should, at the very least, be publicly humiliated for this—what he did is part of a worrying trend I’ve written about recently.
From what I can tell, this case wasn’t filed to win, it was filed to do two things:
harass me to cost me time and money and to make publishers think twice about working with me in the future, in other words, attacking me personally and professionally
putting other would-be critics on notice that if you come for Taibbi, he’ll make it cost you
That’s exactly the kind of anti-speech behavior we should all abhor and reject.
More to come, but for now, thanks all for the support.
And, please, buy the book.
Wooo! Great news. Sorry this happened in the first place, but I salute you for standing firm