Are you claiming that Glenn Greenwald, one of the most respected journalists, is publishing a garbage article?
I... kind of think this wouldn't be the first time?
Greenwald rose to fame on the back of Snowden's revelations, and I don't want to downplay how important that was. But much of his journalism since then has had, well, a pretty conspiratorial no one else is writing this because THEY don't want you to know the TRUTH! slant to it, and he is always specifically -- often, it seems, exclusively -- concerned with failings of The Left, either "The Left is baselessly accusing The Right of something" (cf. Russian interference with the 2016 election) or "The Left is suppressing an important story that makes them look bad" (cf. Hunter Biden's magical mystery laptop).
And, look, sometimes THEY don't want you to know the TRUTH! is true! It was true with Snowden! But the boring, pedestrian reality is that most of the time when someone is the lone voice with the "big story" that other major news outlets are "suppressing," it's not because those other outlets are afraid to offend their Deep State, it's because the story doesn't have a lot of there there.
I mean, the Hunter Biden laptop story starts with asking us to believe that he dropped off three personal laptops for repair at a small computer repair shop, in a different state than he lived or worked in, and then forgot about those laptops, and that then those laptops were subpoenaed by the FBI and the shop owner illicitly made copies of the laptop's hard drive and that made its way to a tabloid -- the only publication that would run it, apparently -- by way of Rudy Guiliani. I'm just saying, it's not hard to imagine reasons other than they're part of the deep state conspiracy, man! that the Washington Post took a pass on this.
The thing is, this kind of story appeals to Greenwald because he's become -- or maybe always was -- the kind of person who doesn't believe he's doing his job properly unless he's taking the contrary position. Well, actually, there's no evidence Russia wanted Trump to win the election, they really wanted Clinton. Well, actually, there are no far-right conspiracies promoted by Trump, just far-left conspiracies against Trump. As New York (the magazine) put it a couple years ago,
It is of course important to keep one’s own side honest and to prevent conspiracy theories or bad arguments from taking hold. The problem is that the search for anti-Trump conspiracy theories is the whole of Greenwald’s analysis. He sees, or allows himself to see, nothing but crazy charges against Trump, to the point where there is no room in his field of vision for Trump himself. And so it seems obvious for him to casually observe that the conspiracy theories of the far right have disappeared, when in reality they have more power and influence than ever before.
That was written in 2018,[1] but I don't see much sign of that attitude changing since. Glenn is now stomping out of The Intercept because they challenged him to back up his "well, actually, this Hunter Biden stuff is a really big deal" contrarian take, which proves that they're part of the deep state conspiracy theory too, man.
I know this is harsh on Greenwald. He's absolutely correct that the conspiratorial mindset isn't something found just in right-wing circles; it's something I noticed occasionally many years ago when I was a more regular listener to Pacifica Radio. The problem is that he has repeatedlty demonstrated his own susceptibility to that mindset, and it's a real hard one to break out of. Removing himself from all editorial constraints and pushback is... not likely to help.
> But much of his journalism since then has had, well, a pretty conspiratorial no one else is writing this because THEY don't want you to know the TRUTH! slant to it,
Not only since then, but also before then. Unclaimed Territory was sensational first, news second. I mean I read and liked it, post-9/11 everyone was desperate for any views not drip-fed by the Bush administration. But if you had told me this guy's resignation from his own news startup would be pitched as the presidential-crisis-cum-journalistic-scandal in the 2020 elections I wouldn't've believed a word.
I... kind of think this wouldn't be the first time?
Greenwald rose to fame on the back of Snowden's revelations, and I don't want to downplay how important that was. But much of his journalism since then has had, well, a pretty conspiratorial no one else is writing this because THEY don't want you to know the TRUTH! slant to it, and he is always specifically -- often, it seems, exclusively -- concerned with failings of The Left, either "The Left is baselessly accusing The Right of something" (cf. Russian interference with the 2016 election) or "The Left is suppressing an important story that makes them look bad" (cf. Hunter Biden's magical mystery laptop).
And, look, sometimes THEY don't want you to know the TRUTH! is true! It was true with Snowden! But the boring, pedestrian reality is that most of the time when someone is the lone voice with the "big story" that other major news outlets are "suppressing," it's not because those other outlets are afraid to offend their Deep State, it's because the story doesn't have a lot of there there.
I mean, the Hunter Biden laptop story starts with asking us to believe that he dropped off three personal laptops for repair at a small computer repair shop, in a different state than he lived or worked in, and then forgot about those laptops, and that then those laptops were subpoenaed by the FBI and the shop owner illicitly made copies of the laptop's hard drive and that made its way to a tabloid -- the only publication that would run it, apparently -- by way of Rudy Guiliani. I'm just saying, it's not hard to imagine reasons other than they're part of the deep state conspiracy, man! that the Washington Post took a pass on this.
The thing is, this kind of story appeals to Greenwald because he's become -- or maybe always was -- the kind of person who doesn't believe he's doing his job properly unless he's taking the contrary position. Well, actually, there's no evidence Russia wanted Trump to win the election, they really wanted Clinton. Well, actually, there are no far-right conspiracies promoted by Trump, just far-left conspiracies against Trump. As New York (the magazine) put it a couple years ago,
It is of course important to keep one’s own side honest and to prevent conspiracy theories or bad arguments from taking hold. The problem is that the search for anti-Trump conspiracy theories is the whole of Greenwald’s analysis. He sees, or allows himself to see, nothing but crazy charges against Trump, to the point where there is no room in his field of vision for Trump himself. And so it seems obvious for him to casually observe that the conspiracy theories of the far right have disappeared, when in reality they have more power and influence than ever before.
That was written in 2018,[1] but I don't see much sign of that attitude changing since. Glenn is now stomping out of The Intercept because they challenged him to back up his "well, actually, this Hunter Biden stuff is a really big deal" contrarian take, which proves that they're part of the deep state conspiracy theory too, man.
I know this is harsh on Greenwald. He's absolutely correct that the conspiratorial mindset isn't something found just in right-wing circles; it's something I noticed occasionally many years ago when I was a more regular listener to Pacifica Radio. The problem is that he has repeatedlty demonstrated his own susceptibility to that mindset, and it's a real hard one to break out of. Removing himself from all editorial constraints and pushback is... not likely to help.
[1]: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/how-glenn-greenwald-...