VIDEO: Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi talks politics at UTC

Matt Taibbi, writer for Rolling Stone, speaks at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Wednesday about his experience as an international journalist and about the inner workings of political journalism.

Photo by Jake Daniels.

Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi criticized presidential campaigns and the reporters who cover them during a speech at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Wednesday, describing connections some in the audience hadn't heard before.

Taibbi, a 2008 National Magazine Award winner who wrote for publications in Russia and Uzbekistan before joining Rolling Stone in 2004, brought out plenty of stories from the campaign trails he has covered.

"We need politicians to eloquently explain how the world works to us, to educate us," he said. "But that's exactly what they don't do."

UTC brought Taibbi to campus as part of Perspectives 2012: The Raymond and Florence Witt Lecture Series.

During an hourlong speech, Taibbi, 41, lamented a lack of access to candidates and getting a back-of-the-campaign-plane seat "for asking the wrong kind of questions."

He said those with seats up front -- mainstream media reporters -- tend to have cozy relationships with candidates.

"There's a tremendous sense of solidarity that develops between journalists and the politicians they're covering in large part because of the proximity we all share," he said. "The campaign trail's really like a flying prison."

Taibbi later used prison as a metaphor for the frustration the Occupy and tea party movements feel toward a two-party system that only blesses candidates "within an acceptable range."

"There are definite messages ... about what acceptable politics is and what acceptable opinions are," he said. "You see that in which candidates are allowed to survive and which ones aren't allowed to survive."

Taibbi cited former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and current Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul as examples of the latter.

Dave Conley, a 56-year-old Chattanooga resident, said he thought Taibbi was a funny -- if noticeably less profane -- version of the man he often reads in Rolling Stone.

"I had no idea how it worked," Conley said with a laugh. "I didn't realize that they lived in a flying prison like he said."

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Lindsey Blum didn't know presidential campaigns bankrolled meals for traveling reporters until Taibbi said it during his speech.

"Exchanging food for happiness -- I understand the idea of wanting to keep journalists happy to make your campaign seem more valid, I guess," said Blum, a 19-year-old communications major. "But it's really kind of low."