Today on the Huffington Post, Ben Cohen interviews National Magazine Award-winning Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi.

Back in April, Mr. Taibbi got into a spat with another HuffPo writer, novelist Erica Jong, that hinged mostly on his description of Hillary Clinton's "flabby arms." In the interview with Mr. Cohen, Mr. Taibbi explains why he chooses to write about his subjects' physical flaws:

Um ... it's funny? (Laughs) That's one thing. ... You know, I make these caricatures of people, and a lot of it sure is gratuitous, and on some level I am trying to be funny, but I'm also trying to make it an easier read for some of the people who maybe aren't so interested in politics.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/taibbi-mocking-people-easy-tv-hard#comments Erica Jong Matt Taibbi Mike Taibbi Rolling Stone The Huffington Post Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:22:46 -0400 Matt Haber 70960 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/ancient-order-magazine-people-not-so-secret-celebration

A little after 6 p.m. at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Condé Nast president Richard Beckman was sharing a drink—vodka, olives—with Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend. The two were discussing the same thing everyone in the lobby of Jazz at Lincoln Center at the Time Warner Center was talking about: What the National Magazine Awards can do, or not do, for a magazine.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/ancient-order-magazine-people-not-so-secret-celebration#comments Media Adam Moss Ann Moore Buzz Bissinger Conde Nast Publications Inc. David Remnick GQ Jim Nelson Matt Taibbi New York Magazine Rachel Sklar Si Newhouse The Huffington Post The New Yorker Fri, 02 May 2008 07:40:16 -0400 Matt Haber and John Koblin 68657 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/flab-flap-flares-between-jong-and-taibbi-0

Things are getting a bit heated over at the Huffington Post.

Yesterday, Erica Jong called out Rolling Stone's political correspondent Matt Taibbi for making a joke about Hillary Clinton's (allegedly) flabby arms in an April 3 RS column. "Physical mockery ended in seventh grade, I thought—but apparently not where women pols are concerned," Ms. Jong wrote in a piece headlined Misogyny, Momism and Militarism. "I find it bizarre that a grown man would invoke a physical put-down in an opinion piece. It smacks of a complex of some sort."  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/flab-flap-flares-between-jong-and-taibbi-0#comments Erica Jong Huffington Post Matt Taibbi Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:18:34 -0400 Matt Haber 67743 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/node/48544 Downtown bomb-thrower, Gen-X John Reed, better read than Red: Pissed-off prodigal son returns to tar  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/48544#comments Sports Matt Taibbi New York Jets Tom Friedman Wesley Clark Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:00:00 -0500 Sridhar Pappu 48544 at http://www.observer.com