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Be It Resolved: Taibbi & Murray: 1 — Gladwell & Goldberg: 0
Canada’s annual Munk Debates didn’t go well for the team defending mainstream media trustworthiness.
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” according to great generals, past and present.
Heavy-weight boxing champ Mike Tyson said the same thing about combat in the ring: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
As the annual Munk Debates in Canada were approaching, event organizers for the intellectual battle royale asked former Rolling Stone contributor turned independent journalist folk hero Matt Taibbi to participate.
Taibbi, along with writer Douglas Murray agreed to represent the pro side of 2022’s debate question. And it was a doozy.
“Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media.”
On December 1, 2022, the eve of the debate, Taibbi treated his Substack subscribers to a little preview of the battle plan.
“Tonight at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, I’m teaming up with The War on the West author Douglas Murray in the prestigious Munk Debates,” Taibbi told his readers. “Our opponents are Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author and New Yorker staff writer, and Michelle Goldberg, MSNBC contributor and columnist for the New York Times.”