Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
In Spite of the NSA Surveillance Overreach and Its Openly Told Lies: It's All About Greenwald
It's All About Greenwald
by BooMan
Sat Jun 29th, 2013 at 11:24:58 AM EST
There certainly is plenty to read about Glenn Greenwald today. Learning more about his life is kind of interesting but most of it feels voyeuristic to me. I think the most important revelation is that he has admitted that he approaches journalism the same way he pursued lawsuits. His style is litigious and argumentative and intentionally one-sided. If there is a counterargument to his case, it's your job to describe it, not his.
As a partisan writer, I know that I am going to be writing things from a certain perspective and I am not necessarily interested in being fair. But there is a little voice in my head that tells me when I am writing something that is factually inaccurate or that is grossly incomplete. When that voice speaks, I obey. Greenwald doesn't. He puts that voice in a little box titled "opposing counsel."
...
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/6/29/112458/736
by BooMan
Sat Jun 29th, 2013 at 11:24:58 AM EST
There certainly is plenty to read about Glenn Greenwald today. Learning more about his life is kind of interesting but most of it feels voyeuristic to me. I think the most important revelation is that he has admitted that he approaches journalism the same way he pursued lawsuits. His style is litigious and argumentative and intentionally one-sided. If there is a counterargument to his case, it's your job to describe it, not his.
As a partisan writer, I know that I am going to be writing things from a certain perspective and I am not necessarily interested in being fair. But there is a little voice in my head that tells me when I am writing something that is factually inaccurate or that is grossly incomplete. When that voice speaks, I obey. Greenwald doesn't. He puts that voice in a little box titled "opposing counsel."
...
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/6/29/112458/736
The first link in the BooMan article points to BuzzFeed:
How Glenn Greenwald Became Glenn Greenwald
Before he was the Guardian’s eyes on the National Security Agency, Greenwald was a Manhattan litigator with an itchy trigger finger. “He doesn’t care if the entire world hates him.”
posted on June 26, 2013 at 10:17pm EDT
Jessica Testa
...
Greenwald said he called on his experience as a litigator when he first spoke to Snowden.
“When I got to Hong Kong, my immediate priority was to kick the tires as hard as I could on his story and see if there was anything that he was hiding,” Greenwald said. “I spent five or six hours just relentlessly questioning him, using the same tricks that I used to use in depositions.”
...
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/how-glenn-greenwald-became-glenn-greenwald
Before he was the Guardian’s eyes on the National Security Agency, Greenwald was a Manhattan litigator with an itchy trigger finger. “He doesn’t care if the entire world hates him.”
posted on June 26, 2013 at 10:17pm EDT
Jessica Testa
...
Greenwald said he called on his experience as a litigator when he first spoke to Snowden.
“When I got to Hong Kong, my immediate priority was to kick the tires as hard as I could on his story and see if there was anything that he was hiding,” Greenwald said. “I spent five or six hours just relentlessly questioning him, using the same tricks that I used to use in depositions.”
...
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/how-glenn-greenwald-became-glenn-greenwald
The second link in the BooMan article points to New York Magazine:
Glenn Greenwald Is Ralph Nader
By Jonathan Chait
...
Greenwald, like Nader, marries an indefatigable mastery of detail with fierce moralism. Every issue he examines has a good side and an evil side. Greenwald, speaking not long ago to the New York Times, said something revealing about his intellectual style:
“I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.”
That is a highly self-aware account. Of course, the job description of a litigator does not include being fair. You take a side, assume the other side is lying, and prosecute your side full tilt. It’s not your job to account for evidence that undermines your case — it’s your adversary’s job to point that out.
I won’t pretend to be neutral here — I’ve tangled with Greenwald numerous times. So, for instance, he called me a “McCain worshiper,” and it is true that I have written some highly favorable things about John McCain. I’ve also written some highly critical things. I pointed out to Greenwald that, when I have called McCain, among other things, a “dangerous sociopath,” it would at least complicate the picture in such a way as to preclude me from being called a “worshiper.” But no, Greenwald dug in deeper, assembling all the evidence he could muster for his side and ignoring all the evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
...
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/glenn-greenwald-is-ralph-nader.html
By Jonathan Chait
...
Greenwald, like Nader, marries an indefatigable mastery of detail with fierce moralism. Every issue he examines has a good side and an evil side. Greenwald, speaking not long ago to the New York Times, said something revealing about his intellectual style:
“I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.”
That is a highly self-aware account. Of course, the job description of a litigator does not include being fair. You take a side, assume the other side is lying, and prosecute your side full tilt. It’s not your job to account for evidence that undermines your case — it’s your adversary’s job to point that out.
I won’t pretend to be neutral here — I’ve tangled with Greenwald numerous times. So, for instance, he called me a “McCain worshiper,” and it is true that I have written some highly favorable things about John McCain. I’ve also written some highly critical things. I pointed out to Greenwald that, when I have called McCain, among other things, a “dangerous sociopath,” it would at least complicate the picture in such a way as to preclude me from being called a “worshiper.” But no, Greenwald dug in deeper, assembling all the evidence he could muster for his side and ignoring all the evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
...
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/glenn-greenwald-is-ralph-nader.html
In Jonathan Chait's article, the segment that likens Greenwald's journalism to litigation has a link that points to the New York Times:
Blogger, With Focus on Surveillance, Is at Center of a Debate
By NOAM COHEN and LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: June 6, 2013
...
Being at the center of a debate is a comfortable place for Mr. Greenwald, 46, who came to mainstream journalism through his own blog, which he started in 2005. Before that he was a lawyer, including working 18 months at the high-powered New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he represented large corporate clients.
“I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.”
Mr. Greenwald’s writings at The Guardian — and before that, for Salon and on his own blog — can resemble a legal brief, with a list of points, extended arguments and detailed references and links. As Andrew Sullivan, a frequent sparring partner and sometime ally, put it, “once you get into a debate with him, it can be hard to get the last word.”
While Mr. Greenwald notes that he often conducts interviews and breaks news in his columns, he describes himself as an activist and an advocate. But with this leak about the extremely confidential legal apparatus supporting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he has lifted the veil on some of the government’s most closely held secrets.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/business/media/anti-surveillance-activist-is-at-center-of-new-leak.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
By NOAM COHEN and LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: June 6, 2013
...
Being at the center of a debate is a comfortable place for Mr. Greenwald, 46, who came to mainstream journalism through his own blog, which he started in 2005. Before that he was a lawyer, including working 18 months at the high-powered New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he represented large corporate clients.
“I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.”
Mr. Greenwald’s writings at The Guardian — and before that, for Salon and on his own blog — can resemble a legal brief, with a list of points, extended arguments and detailed references and links. As Andrew Sullivan, a frequent sparring partner and sometime ally, put it, “once you get into a debate with him, it can be hard to get the last word.”
While Mr. Greenwald notes that he often conducts interviews and breaks news in his columns, he describes himself as an activist and an advocate. But with this leak about the extremely confidential legal apparatus supporting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he has lifted the veil on some of the government’s most closely held secrets.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/business/media/anti-surveillance-activist-is-at-center-of-new-leak.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The third link in the BooMan article points to a article by Bob Cesca in The Daily Banter:
Greenwald and Nader, Cut From the Same Cloth
Posted on June 29, 2013 at 9:33 am by Bob Cesca
Jonathan Chait wrote an excellent analysis of Glenn Greenwald in which he compares his approach with the style of Ralph Nader.
We’ve seen this many time. If you disagree with one aspect of the Obama administration, you’re morally compelled to reject the whole thing.
...
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/06/greenwald-and-nader-cut-from-the-same-cloth.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=greenwald-and-nader-cut-from-the-same-cloth&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Posted on June 29, 2013 at 9:33 am by Bob Cesca
Jonathan Chait wrote an excellent analysis of Glenn Greenwald in which he compares his approach with the style of Ralph Nader.
Greenwald, like Nader, marries an indefatigable mastery of detail with fierce moralism. Every issue he examines has a good side and an evil side.
We’ve seen this many time. If you disagree with one aspect of the Obama administration, you’re morally compelled to reject the whole thing.
Greenwald, like Nader, does not believe in meliorist progress. If you are not good, you are evil. [...]
...
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/06/greenwald-and-nader-cut-from-the-same-cloth.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=greenwald-and-nader-cut-from-the-same-cloth&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
The analysis put forward in the above-referenced article in the BooMan Tribune is essentially a rehashing of the above-linked Jonathan Chait article - an article in which Chait takes the Greenwald quotation from the above-linked NYT article out of context and shifts the quotation's context from one of a search for credible substantiation of assertions to one of a relentless propagation of one's own beliefs as truth in spite of any countervailing evidence. Chait admits his bias against Greenwald, but this does not make his attempt to alter the context of the NYT quotation any more honest. The article in The Daily Banter simply refers back to Chait's above article.
All told, the underlying problems of the NSA's surveillance overreach and of the misrepresentation made to Congress regarding the NSA surveillance program are ignored and the story is shifted by the facile dodge - "It's All About Greenwald."
Once again, here is the questioning of DNI Clapper by Senator Wyden:
Watch U.S. Intel Chief Clapper Lie to Congress
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
