Reporter-on-Reporter Violence: Coffee-Hurling

Star reporter Matt Taibbi apparently has a thin skin. In a new Vanity Fair piece, James Verini sets out to tell the story of The Exile, the irreverent Russian magazine the Rolling Stone and True/Slant writer helped start. The Russian government shut the publication down in 2008—though founder Mark Ames blames Taibbi for running it into the ground. When Verini finally interviews Taibbi, it doesn’t go well.

Taibbi resists doing the interview, noting the book he and Ames wrote about the magazine describes incidents Verini is interested in. Verini says the book wasn’t very good, and Taibbi replies, “f--- you.” He then “picked up his mug from the table, threw his coffee at me, and stormed out,” Verini writes. He followed, and Taibbi acted as though he might hit him before storming off again. (More Matt Taibbi stories.)