Today New York magazine moderated—egged on?—an instant messaging bout between Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi and The National Review’s Byron York.

The concept of making these two men type out their differences is at least as funny as the results, but click through to read Taibbi work himself into a lather on the origins of the credit crisis. York doesn’t take the bait, or respond to Taibbi’s question.

Lesson: Even IM debates sometimes need monitors