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Celerity

(50,974 posts)
Thu Mar 17, 2022, 10:36 PM Mar 2022

When Glenn Greenwald Attacks

Greenwald attacked me on Twitter but botched it so badly he ran off without a fight.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/when-glenn-greenwald-attacks



Perhaps the saddest spectacle in journalism is the transformation of a respected voice into a right wing shill. It happens to the greats; Christopher Hitchens famously left decades of serious reporting and commentary to join the rabid neocon movement in the early 2000s. David Horowitz went all the way from radical Leftist, to conservative, to MAGA nutjob over a six decade career. Matt Taibbi went from lobbing bombs at Wall St to brown nosing Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Greenwald went from Pulitzer prize winning journalism to trolling liberals on a former cat sharing site filled with White Nationalists.

It is one thing to refine one’s thinking over time, but to abandon basic moral decency is something entirely different. Hitchens didn’t just “evolve” his thinking, he spent years promoting George W. Bush’s horrendous lies about Iraq when he knew better. Horowitz abandoned any sense of decency entirely when fervently boarding the MAGA train, his main achievement now being the careful mentorship of Trump’s anti immigration psychopath Stephen Miller. Greenwald now revels in saddling up to racists and ethno-nationalists, mostly because it irritates liberals. The younger versions of these journalists would be repulsed by their older selves.

I still follow Matt Taibbi on Twitter and read his Substack newsletter in the vague hope that the once great journalist may someday return. Taibbi has at least shown flashes of his former self and some intellectual honesty when he gets things terribly wrong. Like most of his former fans though, I fear he is lost to the fringes of Alt Left/Alt Right grifterdom for good.

Of all the depressing conversion stories though, Greenwald’s is the most egregious, and the most wretched. And I speak from experience here having recently been subjected to one of his venomous attacks on Twitter. It is a story worth telling because it reveals just how low Greenwald can sink, and just how bad his “journalism” has become.

The background...........

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leftstreet

(36,868 posts)
1. Ugh. So tired of pundits making themselves the news
Thu Mar 17, 2022, 10:47 PM
Mar 2022

They spend all their time on social media tracking each other, calling each other out, throwing a fit, keyboard warrioring away

Maybe if they could just bring us some actual news...

hlthe2b

(110,717 posts)
9. So? I was NOT among them, but he was very very very different early on.
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 06:43 AM
Mar 2022

People change (or their spots start showing through)

AZProgressive

(29,699 posts)
11. I agree
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 06:50 AM
Mar 2022

He was much better under Bush but he slowly changed during the Obama administration and became a lot worse under Trump especially when it came to defending Russia all the time.

UTUSN

(74,844 posts)
5. My b.s. antennae were shimmying at GREENWALD (& SNOWDON) from the start & had to
Thu Mar 17, 2022, 11:43 PM
Mar 2022

bite my tongue all through their fandom here.

A DUer already posted how SNOWY's views on PUTEEN/Ukraine haven't come to mind.






pnwmom

(109,979 posts)
7. That was a sickening period of time. I wonder where most of those people went. nt
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 01:15 AM
Mar 2022

Haggis 4 Breakfast

(1,469 posts)
6. At least, Hitch returned to us before we lost him.
Thu Mar 17, 2022, 11:45 PM
Mar 2022

I would LOVE to know his take on all this rubbish right now.

orwell

(8,003 posts)
8. Hitch was at least droll and entertaining...
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 01:22 AM
Mar 2022

...the rest turned into self-important bores.

As "journalism" now has become "infotainment", there is nothing worse than being boring.

I knew we were fucked when one of the big nightly anchors stated with a straight face, "We don't report the news, we tell stories."

Glenn Greenwald is the worst. The Intercept has become the Johnny-one-note of US bashing.

How's that old Vladdy love workin' out for 'ya?

AZProgressive

(29,699 posts)
10. Greenwald is no longer with The Intercept
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 06:46 AM
Mar 2022

They have become much better without his columns and he had a falling out with his co-workers.

orwell

(8,003 posts)
12. Was that over...
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 08:15 AM
Mar 2022

..the Biden laptop debacle?

Then there was the Reality Winner screw job...

JHB

(37,793 posts)
14. I don't recall the exact topic, but it's about what you'd expect
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 08:47 AM
Mar 2022

He quit in a melodramatic tantrum over editorial review. Refusing to simply post his screeds sight-unseen was draconian censorship, blah, blah, argle bargle, and so on.

JHB

(37,793 posts)
13. David Horowitz didn't go from radical Leftist, to conservative, to MAGA nutjob over 6 decades
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 08:35 AM
Mar 2022

He flipped from radical leftist to radical rightist/conservative in a very short time, without even an overnighter in the land of moderation.

He's a professional radical, and he flipped when he figure out which type paid better.

msfiddlestix

(8,114 posts)
15. Tell us about the Banter and Substack..
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 09:18 AM
Mar 2022

If you are amenable... don't want to google it.. just want a brief take on your experience and knowledge of what it is.. I think I've seen reference to "substack" before, but can't remember the context.

And I respect your writings and perspective on an array of political topics, just so you know.

thanks in advance..

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