‘I Lost Friends’: Former Rolling Stone Journalist Talks Reaction To Him Reviewing ‘What Is A Woman’

Old-school liberal investigative journalist Matt Taibbi told Ben Shapiro on this week’s episode of “Sunday Special” that he “lost friends” for merely reviewing Matt Walsh and The Daily Wire’s groundbreaking documentary, “What is a Woman?”

Taibbi was a star writer at “Rolling Stone” magazine and beloved by the elite liberal media, but as the Left radicalized, and Taibbi stayed the same, the journalist found himself in a new space. Like, for example, sitting down for a lengthy conversation with one of the most prominent conservative figures in American politics — and seeing a lot of agreement.

“The response was unbelievable, just for reviewing the movie — forget about what I said about it,” Taibbi told Shapiro about his review. “I lost friends over that. There were people who I’ve known for decades who basically said I’m a transphobe and I’m … out of their loop.”

Taibbi explained that he first noticed an unwillingness from the Left even to discuss the transgender issue before he chose to review The Daily Wire documentary.

“With the trans issue, there would be some people who would talk to me, and then there would be some people who were furious that you even called, would refuse to have any kind of discussion, would call you a transphobe for even asking certain kinds of questions — and this is before you even have a point of view on the subject,” he said, recalling a time he tried to gather quotes for a story. “I thought that was odd.”

Taibbi noted that this was a rehash of what he witnessed as a journalist in 2016 when reporting on former President Donald Trump. He recalled including a quote from a pro-union lifelong Democrat who said he voted Republican for the first time, for Trump, because he felt lied to about the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

The pushback from the leftist media community told Taibbi he wasn’t allowed to report or say true things if they went against the greater narrative.

Taibbi didn’t abide by the leftist media rules with Trump and didn’t with the trans issue, either.

Though, he admitted, the trans issue pushback did give Taibbi a momentary pause. “I had kinda tried to stay away from the issue. It’s complicated, and I try to stay away from issues I don’t know a whole lot about,” he said.

More to the point, Taibbi even briefly shelved an interview he did with a prominent feminist who’s critical of radical gender theory. Eventually, Taibbi said his conscience got to him, and he knew he had to release the interview. And he did just that, coupling it with the release of his “What is a Woman?” review, where he called out the Left, specifically academia.

“[T]he movie shows academic after academic and activist after activist seething at the mere implication that they should have to explain themselves,” he wrote. “Their attitude is positively medieval: ‘We keep the Bible in Latin for a reason!’”

In the same review, Taibbi applauded the humor in “What is a Woman?”, something the journalist told Shapiro had been completely lost on the Left.

“It’s done with a sense of humor and satirical bend that’s taboo on our side of the aisle now, which I find really strange, because that shift happened almost overnight and imperceptibly,” he said.

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Related: Matt On Matt: Old-School Liberal Taibbi Reviews ‘What Is A Woman?’ And Pans The Radical Left