I don't think Gladwell argued particularly deductively. He just kept making the (true) point that Taibbi is wrong when he says the media used to "talk to everybody."

It was a bad point on Taibbi’s part and Gladwell’s original rebuttal was on point, but Taibbi didn’t defend it or continue appealing to Cronkite. He let it go, yet Gladwell kept coming back to it. Which, quite frankly, speaks to the ethos of a lot of modern day journalist: If you’re on the wrong side, any and all sentiment expressed by them is to be interpreted in the least charitable way and repeated ad nauseam.

I don't think it's necessarily tantamount to calling Taibbi racist.

Repeatedly insisting that someone harkens back to a time when white men ran everything is absolutely an insinuation of racism.