Glenn Greenwald Leaving The Guardian For New Venture

[kpete]

Greenwald was a blogger with Salon before his move to the Guardian. Before that, he was a constitutional lawyer.

Greenwald issued the following statement:

"My partnership with the Guardian has been extremely fruitful and fulfilling: I have high regard for the editors and journalists with whom I worked and am incredibly proud of what we achieved.

The decision to leave was not an easy one, but I was presented with a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline.


Because this news leaked before we were prepared to announce it, I'm not yet able to provide any details of this momentous new venture, but it will be unveiled very shortly."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/glenn-greenwald-leaves-guardian-new-outlet_n_4102125.html

[Luminous Animal]

1. Exclusive: Glenn Greenwald Will Leave Guardian To Create New News Organization

From Buzzfeed which broke the news:

The reporter who broke the NSA story promises “a momentous new venture.” A “very substantial new media outlet” with serious backing, he says.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/exclusive-glenn-greenwald-will-leave-guardian-to-create-new

But Greenwald never functioned as a typical employee of a news organization. He told BuzzFeed in August that he had not shared all of Snowden’s files with the Guardian, and that “only [filmmaker] Laura [Poitras] and I have access to the full set of documents which Snowden provided to journalists.” The Guardian, facing intense pressure from the British government, has continued to publish Snowden’s revelations at a deliberate pace in recent weeks; but Greenwald has moved more quickly on his own, publishing stories in Brazil and India. He said recently that he will also publish stories soon in Le Monde.

Greenwald declined to comment on the precise scale of the new venture or on its budget, but he said it would be “a very well-funded… very substantial new media outlet.” He said the source of funding will be public when the venture is officially announced.

“My role, aside from reporting and writing for it, is to create the entire journalism unit from the ground up by recruiting the journalists and editors who share the same journalistic ethos and shaping the whole thing — but especially the political journalism part — in the image of the journalism I respect most,” he said.

Greenwald will continue to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he said, and would bring some staff to Rio, but the new organization’s main hubs will be New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, he said.

Congratulations, Glenn!

[Blue_Tires]

5. I'm surprised to see him cut ties with the Guardian this soon

Given the lengths they went to defend/support him and continue publishing his work...Personally, if I were the managing editor of the Guardian I'd be pissed as hell to know Greenwald held back info; so maybe there's more friction in the backstory than anyone wants to let on...I got bashed for it at the time by those who thought Greenwald was oh so smart to tightly control the access and only drip out a little at a time, but I've been proved right -- Keeping the data (mostly) under lock and key runs against counter to the prime directive of all journalists and only serves to benefit Poitras, Greenwald and Snowden...

But I understand why he did it -- Working for himself and controlling access to the data is the only way to have full ownership of his future work, and deep down we all knew the book/movie/documentary/etc. deals were being quietly negotiated...

So any hints on who's backing this venture yet??

[Thinkingabout]

2. Another leak huh

[randome]

19. He heard about it from a guy who knows a guy...

...so he doesn't have any details yet.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Thinkingabout]

24. was it from a Spy who downloaded files? Oh, well, the Guardian may be the better

In the future.

[Luminous Animal]

3. K & R

[ChangeUp106]

4. Bombshell

[LittleBlue]

6. Good. I look forward to his new site

Hopefully it's better than the Huffpost infotainment/famous guest writer BS

[Pretzel_Warrior]

7. He and Palin will team up to start an organization "It Takes a Quitter".

[Whisp]

8. He was Fired....

I will bet you bucks, he was told to get outta Dodge, you're too volatile and crazy and we don't want to associate with you and the trouble that hangs on you like stink.

I'll read the article later.

[Blue_Tires]

9. I wouldn't go that far...

He probably drew more traffic to the Guardian site than a collected year of Premiership Saturdays...

But I do suspect there were some "creative differences" on which direction the future coverage should go...And I know journalism is done differently in other countries, but it was strange to see how much freedom he was granted as an employee (living in Rio, flying everywhere on assignment, allowing him to write a column about his partner being detained, testifying before the Brazilian Senate, giving interviews everywhere, openly collaborating with other news outlets for their NSA stories, etc.)...

[Luminous Animal]

13. When he was hired at the Guardian, he insisted on that freedom. That is why he also

insisted that his column also be funded by his readership. He wanted to be responsible not to his editors but to his audience. The Guardian agreed to those terms.

[Blue_Tires]

15. Well, editors still have final say on what gets printed

so any reporter for any half-professional outlet remains responsible to them...

If he has that much freedom to pretty much write what he wants when he wants, why even part ways with the Guardian??

[Luminous Animal]

16. When the Guardian was dragging his feet on the timing of publishing the 1st Snowden docs and article

Mr. Greenwald was prepared to either publish elsewhere or publish them himself. That is the kind of freedom he exercised.

I think it is clear why he is leaving the Guardian. He has been offered the opportunity to shape a media organization... to hire the reporters and columnists... to make the ultimate decision of its content.

That is, he is going from a columnist for a news org to running his own. That is a big fucking deal.

[Blue_Tires]

22. I'll hold off until seeing the setup

of contributors, quality control, coverage, and transparency before declaring it a big deal...I remember Tucker Carlson (at the height of his popularity) getting a blank check to build his online media empire, and we see how that turned out (I know, apples and oranges comparison)...

It goes without saying that the *only* reason Greenwald has the juice to make something this big happen this fast is because he's dangling the carrot of unreleased info, which in my opinion is a breach of professionalism (but then again "new media" threw most of the old rules out the window long ago)...But having said that, more power to him -- I'm not too proud to send in my resume once it gets up and running...

[Luminous Animal]

10. Ahahahahaha!!!! Yes, he was fired and then miraculously someone approaches him to invest in a media

venture over which Greenwald will have control.

Ahahahahahaha!!!

[grantcart]

11. I agree, he wasn't fired, he's cashing in. Which in itself is neither good or bad.

[Luminous Animal]

12. How do you know how much he will be paid? What if molding his own media organization comes with a

pay cut?

You've nothing but speculation.

[grantcart]

14. Of course I am speculating.

I am speculating that he wasn't fired but that he is getting involved in a new venture which he will have some equity in.

once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity

The reality in the media is that the Guardian is about as stable and reliable media outlet as you can get.

There are lots of new media forms being invented and if you are saying it is once-in-a-career dream opportunity that would seem to indicate that you aren't simply going to get a byline but a piece of action.

There is nothing wrong with that, in fact it would be unwise to make a move in this media market from the Guardian if you didn't get some type of equity opportunity, and it probably will mean that he will take a cut in pay in lieu of profit participation down the line.

But yes guessing what the new unnamed position will be is pure speculation, GG stopped passing me copies of emails with his agent.

[Blue_Tires]

20. I think it's pretty evident Greenwald is doing some kind of

Bill Simmons/Nate Silver/Joe Posnanski site, since that seems to be the in-style business model for those with the clout to pull it off...It's much better to have fewer big-name contributors writing longer, more thoughtful, heavily researched content rather than the old HuffPo/Examiner model of thousands of amateurs writing shit....

So if he is going this route, who is the first big name in investigative journalism he'll sign?? If I was running a site and had enough influence, the first thing I'd do is steal Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone...

[Luminous Animal]

28. Also, I'd like to see Alexa O'Brien, Jeremy Scahill (I know he's currently

collaborating with Greenwald), Marcy Wheeler doing analysis... there are dozens.

[Mimosa]

25. Prediction?

Will Glenn Greenwald get sucked into something which 'passes his tests, seems legit' but will trap him?

Trust: it's fooled the best.

[Blue_Tires]

29. Not sure...

But running his own thing is going to be a completely different animal than anything he's done in the past...There is potential for this to blow up in his face since the buck will stop at his desk now with no managing editors to shield him, and he will get full blame if one of his contributors is caught screwing up...Not to mention the fact that even Greenwald's biggest fans will admit that he has tall ears, thin skin, and doesn't take criticism well...But then again Bill Simmons continues to skyrocket in popularity and profile despite his increasingly whiny, immature pissing contests with his contemporaries....So maybe I'm way off the mark here...

[arely staircase]

17. I guess they got tired of having to print clarifications nt

[Scurrilous]

23. Bingo!

[Luminous Animal]

27. Really? Could you point them out? Any links?

[DirkGently]

18. Interesting. Love the hapless "He was fired!" spin. Riiiight.

Like him or not, Greenwald's not in a position where he'd be trading down right now.

Should be interesting to see what's so attractive he'd jump at this moment.

[randome]

21. Every move like this is heralded the same. Remember when Ed Schultz moved to weekends?

It was an 'opportunity' for him. Not buying it about Greenwald. But then I didn't buy much of what he had to say in the first place.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Luminous Animal]

26. It is being funded by eBay founder Omidyar.

Forbes pegged the 46-year-old Omidyar's net worth at $8.5 billion.

Among his ventures is Honolulu Civil Beat, a news website covering public affairs in Hawaii. Civil Beat aimed to create a new online journalism model with paid subscriptions and respectful comment threads, though it is unclear how successful it has been.

Omidyar, a French-born Iranian-American, also founded the Democracy Fund to support "social entrepreneurs working to ensure that our political system is responsive to the public," according to its website.

Omidyar's active Twitter account suggests he is very concerned about the government spying programs exposed by Greenwald and Snowden.

The former NSA contractor was granted asylum in Russia on August 1. He is living in a secret location beyond the reach of U.S. authorities who want him on espionage charges because he leaked the details of top-secret electronic spying programs to the media.

"There goes freedom of association: NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally," Omidyar tweeted on Tuesday, pointing to a new Washington Post story based on Snowden documents.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99E18D20131015?irpc=932