(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi pushed back against MSNBC’s attempt to delegitimize his work exposing reported collusion between government agencies, Big Tech and leftist media outlets.
In a fiery op-ed titled “Eat Me, MSNBC,” Taibbi slammed MSNBC’s years-long push of fake news and called out the leftist outlet’s recent attempts to discredit his Twitter Files investigations, which exposed pro-censorship campaigns between government agencies and Big Tech amid the 2020 COVID pandemic.
“If it sounds like my beef with MSNBC is personal, by now it is,” Taibbi said in response to the outlet’s efforts to discredit him. “When first presented with the opportunity to do [Twitter Files], my first reaction was to be extremely excited, as any reporter would be, including anyone at MSNBC. In the next second however I was terrified, because I care about my job, and knew there would be a million eyes on this thing and a long way down if I got anything wrong.”
“But people who used to be my friends at MSNBC embraced a different mode, leading to one of the biggest train wrecks in the history of our business,” Taibbi said about government collusion to censor speech. “Now they have the stones to point at me with this ‘What happened to you’ routine. It’s rare that the following words are justified on every level, but really, MSNBC: F**k you.”
Published in Taibbi’s Substack-based Racket News, the op-ed specifically came as a response to an April 7 heated exchange between MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and Taibbi over alleged inaccuracies in his Twitter Files reporting. “I’ve mocked him in the past for doing PR work for the world’s richest man and he’s accused me of being an ardent establishment moralist,” Hasan said of Taibbi.
Taibbi pushed back against Mehdi’s characterization. “So, you started off, as I expected, with the whole ‘What happened to you, man?’ routine,” Taibbi said. “There was an organized systemic structure in place for the FBI and DHS to talk – not just to Twitter and to forward thousands of moderation requests to companies like Twitter – but also to virtually every other social media platform.”
In over a dozen Twitter Files releases, Taibbi has exposed secret conversations exposing how government agencies colluded with Big Tech agencies to censor what they dubbed “mis” and “disinformation.” Mainstream media outlets, however, including MSBNC have dismissed the Twitter Files findings, going as far as calling the findings “right wing craziness.” The media’s discontent with Taibbi and his investigations was clear in the MSNBC 25-minute-long interview, which has since gone viral on Twitter.
Conservative voices touted Taibbi’s fiery op-ed on Twitter. “Oh my,” tweeted Fox News host and author Mark Levin.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) April 7, 2023
2000 Mules director and conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza shared the article with a “Crushing!” caption.
Crushing!
Eat Me, MSNBC – by Matt Taibbi – Racket News https://t.co/4rqImJlppM
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) April 7, 2023
Conservative group Media Research Center reported on the op-ed and shared it on Twitter: “Matt Taibbi decries the collusion media’s corruption: ‘Eat Me, MSNBC’”.
Matt Taibbi Decries the Collusion Media’s Corruption: ‘Eat Me, MSNBC’ https://t.co/uldZBpH1qS
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) April 9, 2023
Twitter Files #19, the latest installment of the Twitter Files, was released on March 17.
