Well, that didn’t take long.
A day after news broke that Matt Taibbi bolted start-up First Look Media eight months after joining, Taibbi is back at Rolling Stone. He made a name for himself at Rolling Stone for over 15 years for his biting and rebellious writing, often at Wall Street’s expense.
“I can confirm that he has written a piece for the next issue of Rolling Stone,” a Rolling Stone spokesperson confirmed to TheWrap.
Also read: Matt Taibbi Quits First Look Media 8 Months After Joining
Taibbi left Rolling Stone in February to head one of First Look Media’s digital magazines. First Look, funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has one publication run by former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald already in publication; Taibbi was charged with creating and running the other magazine — “Racket” — set to debut this fall.
But earlier this week, news came out Taibbi had been MIA for weeks, taking leave of absence from First Look during the buildup to Racket’s launch. On Tuesday night, First Look Media announced Taibbi’s departure on its website, thanking him for his efforts while giving no explanation for his split.
Amazingly, on Thursday, First Look’s own publication “The Intercept” reported the full behind-the-scenes primer on Taibbi’s exit, which ended up being a tale of anti-corporatist Taibbi butting heads with Omidyar over everything from hiring to seating assignments in Racket’s 5th Avenue office. The piece also reports a female Racket staffer filed a complaint to upper management after Taibbi allegedly verbally abused her. Taibbi denied those claims. This incident, coupled with the previous conflict between he and Taibbi, led Omidyar to try and strip Taibbi of his management duties.
Also read: Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi Joins Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill at First Look Media
This, apparently, was the last straw that led to Taibbi’s leave of absence — and ultimately — resignation.
Taibbi wrote a piece on Goldman Sachs while at Rolling Stone that described the bank as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” He returns to Rolling Stone at a great time for writers with an eye toward economic and political corruption. The midterm elections are Tuesday, and right after that, the countdown to 2016 — and all the corruption a financial writer can wish for — officially begins.