"When you piss off the powerful They come after your career,they try to come after your credibility"

[ram2008]

The late Michael Hastings had some great words of wisdom before his tragic passing which we should all keep in mind:

From his Reddit AMA last year:

Q: Have you ever been warned/threatened by any of the interests whose power your style of reporting threatens to jeopardize?

A: Yes. Every once and awhile, I'll get a death threat from someone--like, "if we don't like what you write, we'll hunt you down and kill you" kind of thing. But there's a more insidious response most of the time when you piss off the powerful. They come after your career, they try to come after your credibility. They do cocktail party whisper campaigns. They try to make you "controversial." Sadly, The Powers That Be are often aided by other journalists.
The Pentagon has launched three investigations into stories I've done over the past 18 months under the pretense of finding the wrongdoing we were exposing. But the investigations were really about creating a Pentagon approved official document to criticize journalism they don't like.

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/uaha0/iam_michael_hastings_a_reporter_for_buzzfeed_and/c4tri20

So with all the shit that's being spread about Greenwald, Snowden lately on these forums and the MSM, you can bet your ass people in power are pissed off and shaken

The important thing is not to be distracted by all the non-sense about these people, but to pay attention to the information they released. The things Snowden released to the public were TRUE and factual. The only reason people want to talk about Snowden is because they can't talk about the real issue: PRISM is real, the Obama admin signed off on it and this only the tip of the iceberg. Stay focused and stop being distracted by the corporate stooges. Maybe then we can start holding our government officials accountable for their actions, instead of turning a blind eye when its our own party in control.

[Whisp]

1. Hastings was a journalist. A good and rare one. n/t

[Skidmore]

2. You know, that is true in whatever hierarchy you are shaking up.

I was a whistleblower in an organization about 15 years ago. During the course of my job I came across unethical treatment of clients and illegal billing practices. A coworker and I tried to get these issues addressed within the administrative chain and then ultimately went outside. First we sought the counsel of an attorney as to how to proceed. Anyway this organization systematically set about trying to destroy our credibility. Even though there was a trial in which we were vindicated, we were still blacklisted in the field. Kinda made me wonder what went on in some of the other similar organizations in the county. Anyway I lost a career and it took several years to regroup. Systems that are threatened by a disruption to the order expel the person who whistleblows, and the greater the potential impact on the bottom line, the greater the blowback to the whistle blower. It comes with the territory.

[Scurrilous]

3. The same thing happens if you win a big lottery or (say) save someone from kidnappers.

Your name is in the news and your past gets dug up and splashed all over the media.

Messrs. Greenwald & Snowden are not exempt from this phenomenon.

[treestar]

4. Nothing happened to him career wise

He was apparently doing quite well. Did he name someone whose career was actually derailed?

If he were right, there would not be so many nationally famous journalists saying all kinds of things about the "powerful." Accusing them of anything and everything, including this. He's just wrong. You can piss off the powerful and there is nothing they can do about it.

[ram2008]

5. There's a difference between saying things and reporting things which threaten the power structure

Hastings was one of the few that threatened the power structure. He took down McChrystal and was about to do another piece about Brennan I believe. Unfortunately he is no longer alive, but he was a true journalists.

Greenwald is another whose reporting is an actual threat to the power structure because hes not playing by their book

People like Rush, O'Reilly, heck even Maddow work inside the power structure. They say whatever their corporate bosses want to and tow the party line and tailor their messages to make it seem like their outsiders and fighters, but they' really aren't.

[treestar]

7. There's not much threat to the power structure

McChrystal may have lost his job but the power structure is still there. In fact, Having done wrong, McChrystal suffered for it.

Greenwald isn't under threat. No one has threatened him he's still around, getting published and saying all he wants about the "powerful" all of it negative, and he's still there doing more and more of it. And getting money and attention.

Rush and Maddow say whatever they want. If there is some corporate line, why are what those two say so different?

[ram2008]

9. I'm not saying he's under threat

I'm saying is there will be attempts to discredit him as a person and take away from his credibility, in an attempt to distract from what it is he is reporting. What he is reporting is a threat to the power structure.

They say different things but not anything too far out of line. Most of the stuff is inflammatory rhetoric not investigative reporting.. notice how Maddow has been strikingly silent about the whole NSA/PRISM situation.

[ohheckyeah]

10. How do you know that he hasn't been threatened?

And he is still around until, like Michael Hastings, he isn't.

[Scurrilous]

6. Exhibit A: Daniel Ellsberg.

40+ years on since the Pentagon Papers and still (last I checked) kicking.

[treestar]

8. True. And still saying what he wants about the "powerful."

It's like they more they try to convince us we are living in some reconstituted USSR, the more they illustrate how ridiculous that claim actually is.

[sibelian]

11. K+R