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My Resignation from the Intercept

greenwald.substack.com

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Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#751

Post by zaroth »

facet1ous wrote: post #701

I read through Glenn's draft after seeing the outrage on this thread and... it reads like a generic opinion piece. I think he makes some good points and some dumb ones, but that's besides the point in all honesty - most of the article is him just complaining about the state of the media, making accusations of double-standards, and full of inflammatory language. There's little investigative journalism, no interviews w…

It is an op-ed and was supposed to be published by the Intercept as an op-ed...

The NY Times reports;

> In a phone interview, Mr. Greenwald said he had received emails from Intercept editors outlining what the publication would allow and not allow in his article. “My arrangement with The Intercept since it began is my opinion pieces are not edited by anyone,” he said.

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#752

Post by reilly3000 »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #651
reilly3000 wrote: post #608

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/how-fake-persona-laid-... This is why the Intercept didn't want to run Glenn's story. FYI this sob story has some precedent: In 2014: "I absolutely refuse to be exiled from my own country for the crime of doing journalism and I'm going to force the issue just on principle. And I think going back for a ceremony like the Polk Awards or other forms of journalistic awards would be a…

The NBC article is focused on an anonymously drafted report, which was mostly a dump of open source intel. The article criticizes that report for using a fake persona as its author. The initial disseminator of the report (who may or may not be the author of it as well) cites privacy and fear of retribution as reasons for publishing anonymously. What the NBC article does not do is address or refute any of the facts in…

You are correct that it doesn't address the laptop emails directly. The issue here is that this provably false dump that NBC identified is pushing the same basic story the laptop email attempted to expose. You're seeing domestically coordinated smear campaign. It was organized by a domestic PR firm and wrongly characterized as Russian disinformation. Certainly foreign assets (its not just Russia)have amplified it like anything else that is divisive, but at its core it was a plot to make an October surprise. NYPost broke embargo on the story and published ahead of the plan, and that kind of threw everything into chaos. They've been trying to get something out of it, but there is nothing but outrage over supression of a non-story. Emails are a remarkably verifiable thing, and ones these just aren't.

Tony Bobulinski's tale has not been corroborated, even by Murdock's own WSJ journalists.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/29/tony-bobulins...

I find this whole thrust rather remarkable anyhow. If true, Biden's family committed nepotism and would do so again if they were put into power. Really? Coming from an administration which is openly profiting from the office and giving insane amounts of power to their family members?

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#753

Post by thinking2smll0 »

gfodor wrote: post #6

The media has fallen into the well-known trap of optimizing the wrong KPI. You want to maximize trust with the public, not engagement, if you want your media company to survive if its value proposition is providing journalism and the usual benefits that come with a free press. Unfortunately, not only is engagement the wrong metric, but it's also one which incentivizes the undermining of the actual metric you need to…

If your goal is fighting oppression or war, does it make sense to give Trump an edge?

Who died an made Glenn Greenwald the arbiter of other people’s truth?

I’m afraid Glenn just does this for new attention, as a grift, at this point.

Rabble rouse over press oppression, go start new big press corp, rinse repeat.

Greenwald would be more interesting if he wasn’t as repetitive as Chris Mathews with a different career trajectory.

Just publish under “Glenn Greenwald” if that’s his wish? What’s with hoping traditional business mentality will result in something different?

Laws alone don’t dictate the hierarchy. Interpretation goes a long way. We’ve optimized for it.

Ymmv

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#754

Post by free_rms »

r-w wrote: post #497
marcusverus wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glenn Greenwald is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. He broke the Snowden story--another sensational-sounding scoop which likely sounded like total bullshit at first. Is it possible that Mr. Greenwald is a better judge of whether or not there is a story here?

The namesake of the Pulitzer prize, Joseph Pulitzer, was one of the foremost proponents of yellow journalism. Rudy Giuliani, an American hero for a couple of years after 9/11, is now a foreign asset for all intents and purposes. Having prestige doesn't make you infallible, it just means you were in the right place at the right time.

Giuliani is a moron but there's no evidence that he's a foreign asset, besides saying things (and lies) that democrats don't like. It's possible, but there's no evidence, and occam's razor says he's just a regular moron.

Think about it: if everything you don't like is the product of the dastardly Russians, what does that make you? A McCarthyist? What kind of liberal is that?

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#755

Post by [deleted] »

michaelmrose wrote: post #694
mikestew wrote: post #571

Now that WSJ is included in Apple News+, the NYT has a month after the election to clean their shit up, or I dump a decade-long subscription. And by "clean their shit up", I want news on my front page, not political discussion. And by news I mean "Hurricane FooBar Hits FL Coast", not "Hurricane FooBar Hits FL Coast While Trump Plays Golf". Though I shall stay far, far away from that crazy train WSJ calls an "opinion…

Ultimately hurricane foobar hits FL coast is usually of purely regional interest whereas in the current context we are in the midst of an election that will be the most significant issue this decade.

[deleted]

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#756

Post by chongli »

whimsicalism wrote: post #58
throwaway3699 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you make of the idea that independent journalists on the web being the future?

They are an alternative, but not a substitute for institutional journalism. News exists to give you an approximate representation of what is happening without having to invest too much effort in actual investigation. It is built on trust. If you have to build trust with each individual journalist you follow a la carte, then that makes the entry barrier to following the news much higher.

There is no royal road to trust in journalism, to paraphrase a famous mathematician. If venerable institutions such as the New York Times can be corrupted by the transition to new media and the excesses of the zeitgeist, then there is no quick fix in the form of trust in institutions.

The web, more than any other medium before it, has elevated the individual. Therefore, it stands to reason that we ought to place our trust in the individual alone, for whom reputation remains meaningful, and for whom the holding of accountability remains possible.

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#757

Post by strangeattractr »

I actually don't have very much respect for Glenn Greenwald. Whilst I largely agree with his views on free speech, he has repeatedly shown himself to be a petty and narcissistic man who seems to be unable to have a healthy disagreement with anyone. Once he decides someone is an enemy he seems to lose his head - his attacks on Sam Harris, who I'm by no means an acolyte of, saw him repeatedly seek to discredit Harris not through argument but by claiming Harris was "radicalising" people to adopt extreme right-wing views.

I've seen a few people in this thread refer to his reputation to affirm his account. This is a very dangerous way to evaluate the veracity of conflicting claims. Particularly when part of his reputation is built atop Snowden's choosing of him rather than anything he uncovered himself.

Having read the piece and the emails I don't think this justifies the hysteria, I've had far more aggressive email exchanges at work that didn't blow up this badly. I can see why the editors felt revisions were needed, the title was clickbaity and it read more like an angry blog post with facts interlaced with strangely personal attacks e.g.

by Thomas Rid, one of those centrists establishmentarian professors whom media outlets routinely use to provide the facade of expert approval for deranged conspiracy theories

That is certainly not what I would consider dispassionate and impartial analysis. He has a problem with this person having in the past called him a 'cold war grifter'. He seems to consider any suggestions that Russia may be using internet disinformation to sow discord in the US ridiculous and conspiratorial. Which I find as naive as all the democrats who dismiss all negative stories as Russian disinformation. If the NSA had the opportunity to undermine Russia for geopolitical advantage it would, I have no doubt the GRU/FSB would seek to capitalise on this opportunity.

However, I do think he has some valid general points re: Biden's refusal to engage, as well as the criticisms of the blatantly partisan news media - that includes his sources. I just don't think that particular piece is a good exploration of it.

Disclaimer: I'm not an American and I have no particular affinity for Biden or Trump.

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#758

Post by free_rms »

dragonwriter wrote: post #154
blhack wrote: post #27

Glenn had a 3 hour long conversation on a podcast a few days ago where he laid out the problem really well: Journalists have essentially become socialites. They don't want to publish articles that will rock the boat, because the people they are friends with are the ones that own that boat, invite them to parties, and are a part of their friend groups. The reporting around this story has been absolutely unbelievable t…

> Journalists have essentially become socialites. They don't want to publish articles that will rock the boat, because the people they are friends with are the ones that own that boat, invite them to parties, and are a part of their friend groups. To the extent this is arguably true of etablishment journalist, the mirror image seems to be true of anti-establishment journalists. Instead of being unreasonably resistant…

That's a really good and fair point, but we're at a junction where looking at the Ukraine situation and saying "yeah but that looks fucked tho" is met with ABSOLUTE OPPROBRIUM. Come on.

The same people who'd happily get someone fired for tweeting something insensitive are all closing ranks against any criticism of Mr. "You ain't black". Come on.

I can't wait until the election is over.

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#759

Post by lliamander »

alisonkisk wrote: post #705
lliamander wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There absolutely is a "there" there. The DOJ has acknowledged that it has had a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden "and associates" for money laundering since 2019, and there is evidence and a credible witness that the Biden's (including Joe Biden) were involved in a bribery scheme with foreign governments. Just start here: https://abc3340.com/amp/news/nation-world/tony-bobulinksi-i-...

Sinclair is a self-admitted Republican media enterprise. The supposed witness is a Trump campaign member who has provided no evident except oral interviews on right-wing media.

Bobulinski is a member of the campaign? I've seen no evidence of that. Btw, he handed over phones with emails and documents to the FBI.

Re: My Resignation from the Intercept

#760

Post by zaroth »

monkeydreams wrote: post #670
pvarangot wrote: post #621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read his story? It's good, it's serious and it calls out the democrats about some real bullshit like inventing a fake Russian intelligence operation to not respond to allegations that come from the emails. I don't care if a journalist has a paranoid delusion as long as they are doing good writing and due diligence, and Glenn's story has both. He's not the most stable individual and he has made mistakes in the…

> Did you read his story? It's good, it's serious I have read it, and it's not good. It is an example of the worst aspects of pearl-clutching, can-you-imagine-what-this-means, ignore-the-actual-facts tendencies of the media today. He starts from a ludicrous premise and then doubles down on the ramifications, all without actually addressing the question of whether or not it is true. You certainly don't question the su…

At this point the emails/texts have been authenticated by many people who were actually on the email chains, and people who were direct recipients of the text messages.

We are about a week past the point where people were falsely claiming this was disinformation, and several days past the point of any credible claim that the emails are not authentic.

We are actually, as of tonight, at the point where anonymous Justice Department sources are alleging that the Biden’s have been and continue to be under investigation for money laundering since 2019.

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