Wanted: one good candidate “Why both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are right about the 2012 election”: Matt Taibbi, contributing editor of Rolling Stone presents Perspectives 2012, The Raymond and Florence Witt Lecture Series.
Taibbi will offer a fresh look at the presidential race on Wednesday, February 1, 4 p.m., UTC University Center Auditorium. This lecture is free and open to everyone. Seating will be first come, first served.
Taibbi will cover:
- What it’s really like to cover a presidential campaign, and the truths he believes are missing in mainstream media
- What happened (and continues to happen) in the financial crisis. He sees it as more a white-collar crime story than the traditional story of left-right politics.
Taibbi founded the Buffalo-based newspaper The Beast in 2002. He left that paper a year later to work as a columnist for the New York Press, and eventually became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone.
Taibbi won the 2008 National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary for three columns he wrote in Rolling Stone, “Worse Than Bush”; “My Favorite Nut Job”; and “Obama’s Moment.” His New York Press column on George Bush’s prewar press conference, “Cleaning the Pool,” was included in the Best Political Writing 2003 anthology, and a year later he was named one of the 35 most influential New Yorkers under 35 by the New York Observer.
In his first original book, The Great Derangement, Taibbi dives into the heart of the American psyche in a madcap journey that brings into focus life in the American Empire, right here, right now.
He’s also the author of two essay collections, Spanking the Donkey and Smells Like Dead Elephants.
In its 18th year, the Perspectives lecture series invites a speaker the UTC campus who brings “into focus and emphasizing the concept of analytical thinking by individuals.” The Witt-Bagley Endowment fund annually provides funding for the lecture series.
The late Raymond Witt was a Chattanooga community leader, UTC Distinguished Alumnus, University of Chattanooga Foundation member and officer and a former University Echo editor.
Florence Witt has served on the boards of Hospice of Chattanooga, Partnership for Families Children and Adults, Girls Preparatory School, and First Centenary Church. Both she and Raymond were recipients of the Kiwanis Club Distinguished Service Award.
Read more about the Perspectives Lecture series here.
