Matt Taibbi Of 'Racket News' Blasts NYT Over Durham Report Coverage

In a scathing piece for Racket News, bestselling author and journalist Matt Taibbi critiques The New York Times, especially national security reporter Charlie Savage, for misleading coverage of the recently declassified annex to the Durham Report.

Racket News is Taibbi's independent publication, modeled after I.F. Stone’s Weekly. It features original investigative reporting, sharp satire, and the America This Week podcast co-hosted with novelist Walter Kirn.

In the piece titled, 'The New York Times Can't Stop Sucking', Taibbi notes that Savage dismisses claims by Trump allies that the Clinton campaign plotted to fabricate the Russia collusion narrative, insisting Russian spies assembled a fake email as a ruse.

Listen to This Article: The New York Times Can't Stop Sucking
How many times can one newspaper screw up a story?https://t.co/vsHGhCvcHW pic.twitter.com/1EMEewYwX2
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 2, 2025

Taibbi counters that the Times cherry-picked evidence while ignoring validated intelligence showing real hacking victims across U.S. government and think tanks. He highlights Savage's history of misreporting, especially on the Steele dossier and the FISA warrant on Carter Page.

Taibbi reminds readers that DOJ Inspector General Horowitz later confirmed Steele played a "central and essential" role in obtaining the warrant. Savage also failed to report that Page had been a CIA informant—a fact omitted by FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was criminally convicted.

Wild. https://t.co/qcB5MzEYhG
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 3, 2025

The piece also skewers the Times' infamous origin story about Trump aide George Papadopoulos. Taibbi cites both Alexander Downer and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to show that Papadopoulos' alleged "Russia tip" was a dead-end quickly dropped by investigators. Still, the Times continued to present him as a central figure.

Taibbi accuses the Times of continuing a pattern of obfuscation to preserve a discredited narrative. He calls out their failure to own past mistakes and sarcastically suggests they return their Pulitzer Prize.

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