Poisoning the Well
Poisoning the well discredits a source or an opponent in advance so that anything they say will be dismissed. Debaters answer by asking the audience to judge each claim on its merits and pointing out that the attack is not an argument.
Poisoning the Well as it appears in championship debate rounds. Each example below is a moment from a real round, with a note on why it illustrates the technique and how a debater can use it, or answer it.
Example 1
The 2AR tells the judge not to trust any new negative explanations because Emory is 'notorious' for scrambled documents and is 'lying through their teeth' about a card. Rather than answering the argument, it attacks the opponents' credibility up front to discredit whatever they say next, which is poisoning the well. Students facing this should keep the judge's focus on the flow record and on what was actually read, and avoid this tactic themselves since it can backfire with judges.
Sources: every example links to the YouTube video of the championship debate it comes from, at the moment described.
All techniques and fallacies