Just days before Matt Taibbi detailed Twitter’s intentional cover up of the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden and his laptop, he participated in the semi-annual Munk Debates in Toronto, joining forces with British conservative author Douglas Murray..The two took the ‘pro’ side of the resolution: ‘don’t trust mainstream media,’ with author Malcolm Gladwell and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg taking the con side, in front of a live audience..Before the debate began the four were presented with the supposition (in part): Public trust in mainstream media is at an all-time low. Critics point to coverage of COVID-19, the 2020 election, and the Ottawa trucker protest as proof that legacy outlets like the New York Times, The Globe and Mail and CNN can no longer be relied upon to provide unbiased reporting. Activist journalists are using pen and paper to push political agendas while their bosses lean into the profitability of polarization..The Munk Debates are a semi-annual series of debates on major policy issues held in Toronto, run by the Aurea Foundation..At all Munk Debates, the audience votes before and after the debaters engage. In the before vote, 52% of the audience voted against distrusting the media, while 48% supported the resolution. In the pre-vote, 82% also said they were agreeable to be swayed in either direction..Murray was well prepared to present to his Toronto audience, highlighting how the Canadian mainstream media “not only is funded by the state but also worked hand-in-glove with the Justin Trudeau government” and its attacks on the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters.."Your prime minister decided in advance that these people ... were Nazis, they were white supremacists, they were anti-Semites, they were probably homophobes, they were misogynists, they were probably transphobes. ... He did all the things you do in the modern political age if you want to just defenestrate somebody who's awkward to you," said Murray..“At such a time, what would the mainstream media do? It would question it. It would question it. The Canadian mainstream media did not. The Canadian mainstream media acted as an 'amen chorus' of the Canadian government.".After listing COVID falsehoods the Canadian media peddled, he emphasized how the Canadian media's government funding all but guaranteed its deference and justified citizens' distrust..Taibbi supported the resolution from a personal perspective.."I grew up in the press. My father was a reporter. My stepmother was a reporter. My godparents were reporters. Every adult I knew growing up seemed to be in media," he said, adding he now mourns for it: "It's destroyed itself.".He said the job of the mainstream media now isn't to "call things as we see them and leave the rest up to you" but instead to "sell narrative, as part of a new business that's increasingly indifferent to fact.".Although "no fan of Donald Trump," Taibbi underlined how Goldberg's New York Times and other mainstream publications appear "unashamed" for having peddled falsehoods and dubious narratives about the former president and others..Goldberg said there’s a difference between the public's perception of the media and the behind-the-doors reality in newsrooms, contending the mainstream media always has been interested in unexpected or counterintuitive stories and prioritized these over their political affiliations and liberal ideologies..Gladwell maintained "trust is not about content. Trust is about process," suggesting non-mainstream media cannot adhere to a "strict set of professional norms," which he said the mainstream media otherwise tends to abide by..He also scoffed when his opponents referenced the media's overwhelming complicity in deriding the Hunter Biden laptop story, intimating Taibbi's and Murray's arguments against trusting the media "resemble the kind of classic structure of a conspiracy theory.".Elon Musk derided this line of thinking tweeting “You represent the problem: journalists who think they are the only source of legitimate information. That’s the big lie.”.A Gallop poll in showed just 34% of Americans trust the mass media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly," 28% of US adults have little confidence in newspapers, TV, and radio news, and 38% have none at all..After the debate, Taibbi and Murray posted a vote gain of 39%. The final result, in favor of the resolution "Don’t trust mainstream media" was 67% to 33%, with The National Review reporting it was the largest margin of victory ever recorded at a Munk Debate.."Until we get back to the basics, we don't deserve to be trusted. And we won't be," concluded Taibbi..Watch Murray here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1598334823591866369
Just days before Matt Taibbi detailed Twitter’s intentional cover up of the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden and his laptop, he participated in the semi-annual Munk Debates in Toronto, joining forces with British conservative author Douglas Murray..The two took the ‘pro’ side of the resolution: ‘don’t trust mainstream media,’ with author Malcolm Gladwell and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg taking the con side, in front of a live audience..Before the debate began the four were presented with the supposition (in part): Public trust in mainstream media is at an all-time low. Critics point to coverage of COVID-19, the 2020 election, and the Ottawa trucker protest as proof that legacy outlets like the New York Times, The Globe and Mail and CNN can no longer be relied upon to provide unbiased reporting. Activist journalists are using pen and paper to push political agendas while their bosses lean into the profitability of polarization..The Munk Debates are a semi-annual series of debates on major policy issues held in Toronto, run by the Aurea Foundation..At all Munk Debates, the audience votes before and after the debaters engage. In the before vote, 52% of the audience voted against distrusting the media, while 48% supported the resolution. In the pre-vote, 82% also said they were agreeable to be swayed in either direction..Murray was well prepared to present to his Toronto audience, highlighting how the Canadian mainstream media “not only is funded by the state but also worked hand-in-glove with the Justin Trudeau government” and its attacks on the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters.."Your prime minister decided in advance that these people ... were Nazis, they were white supremacists, they were anti-Semites, they were probably homophobes, they were misogynists, they were probably transphobes. ... He did all the things you do in the modern political age if you want to just defenestrate somebody who's awkward to you," said Murray..“At such a time, what would the mainstream media do? It would question it. It would question it. The Canadian mainstream media did not. The Canadian mainstream media acted as an 'amen chorus' of the Canadian government.".After listing COVID falsehoods the Canadian media peddled, he emphasized how the Canadian media's government funding all but guaranteed its deference and justified citizens' distrust..Taibbi supported the resolution from a personal perspective.."I grew up in the press. My father was a reporter. My stepmother was a reporter. My godparents were reporters. Every adult I knew growing up seemed to be in media," he said, adding he now mourns for it: "It's destroyed itself.".He said the job of the mainstream media now isn't to "call things as we see them and leave the rest up to you" but instead to "sell narrative, as part of a new business that's increasingly indifferent to fact.".Although "no fan of Donald Trump," Taibbi underlined how Goldberg's New York Times and other mainstream publications appear "unashamed" for having peddled falsehoods and dubious narratives about the former president and others..Goldberg said there’s a difference between the public's perception of the media and the behind-the-doors reality in newsrooms, contending the mainstream media always has been interested in unexpected or counterintuitive stories and prioritized these over their political affiliations and liberal ideologies..Gladwell maintained "trust is not about content. Trust is about process," suggesting non-mainstream media cannot adhere to a "strict set of professional norms," which he said the mainstream media otherwise tends to abide by..He also scoffed when his opponents referenced the media's overwhelming complicity in deriding the Hunter Biden laptop story, intimating Taibbi's and Murray's arguments against trusting the media "resemble the kind of classic structure of a conspiracy theory.".Elon Musk derided this line of thinking tweeting “You represent the problem: journalists who think they are the only source of legitimate information. That’s the big lie.”.A Gallop poll in showed just 34% of Americans trust the mass media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly," 28% of US adults have little confidence in newspapers, TV, and radio news, and 38% have none at all..After the debate, Taibbi and Murray posted a vote gain of 39%. The final result, in favor of the resolution "Don’t trust mainstream media" was 67% to 33%, with The National Review reporting it was the largest margin of victory ever recorded at a Munk Debate.."Until we get back to the basics, we don't deserve to be trusted. And we won't be," concluded Taibbi..Watch Murray here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1598334823591866369
