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Tag Archives: The Intercept

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald Resigns Over Censorship Issues

31 Sat Oct 2020

Posted by ztnh in First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Freedom of the Press

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"Pierre" Parviz Morad Omidyar (b. 1967), Dr. Glenn Greenwald (b. 1967), Elizabeth "Betsy" Reed, Jeremy Scahill (b. 1974), Laura Poitras (b. 1964), The Intercept

The Intercept logo.svg

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—When The Intercept first hit the scene it was pretty exciting for many of us, who try to stay informed but are unsatisfied with corporate media.  The Intercept was co-founded by Glen Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras in 2013.  Omidyar founded First Look Media in 2014.  The Intercept became its first subsidiary.  And, today, it’s looking like its first casualty as well.

“In war, truth is the first casualty,” wrote Aeschylus.  In this drama surrounding The Intercept, the war seems to be against investigative journalism in order to defend an indefensible Democrat Party, and by extension, the two-party system, or two-party dictatorship.

Glenn Greenwald, Twitter, 29 OCT 2020. Read the full resignation letter on Twitter or Greenwald.Substack.com.

greenwald.substack.com

You’re either with us or against us is the subtext of Intercept boss, Betsy Reed‘s, article about Greenwald’s resignation. In her article, Reed accused Glenn Greenwald of “attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign – the Trump campaign – and launder them as journalism.”  Reed gave no evidence; she simply dispensed ad hominem attacks, referring to Greenwald as “a grown person throwing a tantrum” and presenting a narrative “teeming with distortions and inaccuracies.”  Reed just couldn’t recall a single one.  “It would take too long to point them all out here, but we intend to correct the record in time.”  (See article below.)

That’s convenient, right?  No proof, just smear tactics. Reed is lashing out against Greenwald because, as she wrote, “he accuses us of political bias.” Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal concisely pointed out Reed’s contempt for independent journalism in a tweet.

Max Blumenthal, tweet

On the other hand, observers like The New York Times, an establishment institution, can always be counted on to support the right-leaning angle of any news narrative. Media reporter for The New York Times, Katie Robertson, strained herself to apologize for The Intercept, for Intercept boss Betsy Reed, and to paint Greenwald as fringe and unhinged. The whole article is sophistry and bullshit.

Meanwhile, in a different variety of sophistry and bullshit, Tucker Carlson interviewed Glenn Greenwald with fake empathy and furrowed-brow concern over the mistreatment of Glenn Greenwald by that rotten, liberal outfit, The Intercept. Tucker Carlson feigned concern, as if he doesn’t also use Greenwald to fit his own narrative, strictly managing what questions will or will not be aired on Fox. Of course, Greenwald admitted on The Hill TV, he is aware Fox News is using him when he agrees to interviews. But, then, he, points out, that’s true of every media outlet. Every media outlet uses you. And, anyway, the journalist, like the citizen, is best off talking to as diverse a variety of people across the ideological spectrum as possible. As long as the journalist is factual and clear, the channel upon which the journalist is reporting shouldn’t matter. Everybody already knows what partisan leanings each channel represents.

Pretty much every media outlet tries to fit Greenwald’s analysis to fit their narratives. Fox does it, when Greenwald has exposed Democrats. And Maddow and company, et al, do it when Greenwald has exposed the Republican Party. But few, if any, are willing to step out of their partisan bubbles and question the larger antidemocratic nature of the two-party system, or two-party dictatorship. This false left-right paradigm, which divides the working classes, also perpetuates the stagnant and regressive two-party system.

When The Intercept first hit the scene, some of us thought:  Well, Omidyar’s not a right-winger; so journalistic integrity might just be possible with The Intercept, despite the apparent liberal/centrist profile of its billionaire benefactor. Most of us were impressed by the fact that First Look Media was “a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras with a promised $250 million in funding from Omidyar.” Personally, Greenwald and Scahill were two of my favorite journalists at the time; and Poitras seemed promising as well with her work around Edward Snowden and Citizenfour, for example. Then, we saw Poitras’ Risk. And we thought to ourselves: WTF? Poitras, Academy Award in hand, seemed increasingly irrelevant to many of us after that. As of Halloween 2020, her name is still attached to The Intercept, although it’s unclear what her role is at this point. Maybe she just provides extra “star power” because her contact email is not even an Intercept email address.

Many of us hoped we would finally have an adversarial and anti-imperialist media company with a big budget to compete against the big corporate media companies. But big money always seems to come with strings attached. And it seems Glenn Greenwald has pulled on some of those strings when he refused to allow his work to be censored. And he seems to be unravelling the entire Intercept edifice with that slight tug of the string.

If The Intercept does unravel, Greenwald certainly doesn’t want it to, as he expresses “genuine sadness, not fury” in his resignation letter. By definition, it is a letter of resignation, not a declaration of war. More, it’s a journalistic declaration of independence, one which is backed up by his “journalist accomplishments”, his legal accomplishments, his legal analysis credibility, and all of the other accolades Glen Greenwald has justly earned. He stands as a model of courage and a trailblazer for citizen journalism, journalistic freedom, civic engagement, and fearless political engagement.

The last shred of credibility we see at The Intercept is the fact that Jeremy Scahill is still there. He is still clearly listed as Co-founding Editor and Senior Investigative Reporter on the main “About & Contacts” page, unlike Poitras.

Even though Greenwald had nothing but nice things to say about his friends, who stayed on at The Intercept, the next important question some of us will focus on is:

Where does Jeremy Scahill stand in all of this?

Does Scahill corroborate Greenwald’s allegations of censorship against The Intercept?

Does Scahill corroborate Reed’s allegations of bad journalism against Glenn Greenwald?

Does Scahill plead no comment?

N.B.: This article will be updated and expanded as time and resources allow. In the meantime, como dijo Albert Einstein, the important thing is to not stop questioning.

As much as your author would like to dedicate his entire waking life to investigative journalism, that work has not paid the bills.  Labor is scarcely rewarded. And we don’t have “reclusive billionaires” keeping us on the payroll. So, working class blokes like your author must get back to that business of providing for family.  We must leave any unanswered questions to intrepid readers to investigate, to analyze, to report, to testify.

Messina

***

THE INTERCEPT— [29 OCT 2020] GLENN GREENWALD’S DECISION to resign from The Intercept stems from a fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism and the nature of censorship. Glenn demands the absolute right to determine what he will publish. He believes that anyone who disagrees with him is corrupt, and anyone who presumes to edit his words is a censor. Thus, the preposterous charge that The Intercept’s editors and reporters, with the lone, noble exception of Glenn Greenwald, have betrayed our mission to engage in fearless investigative journalism because we have been seduced by the lure of a Joe Biden presidency. A brief glance at the stories The Intercept has published on Biden will suffice to refute those claims.

The narrative Glenn presents about his departure is teeming with distortions and inaccuracies — all of them designed to make him appear as a victim, rather than a grown person throwing a tantrum. It would take too long to point them all out here, but we intend to correct the record in time. For now, it is important to make clear that our goal in editing his work was to ensure that it would be accurate and fair. While he accuses us of political bias, it was he who was attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign — the Trump campaign — and launder them as journalism.

Read more at THE INTERCEPT.

***

THE HILL—[29 OCT 2020] Journalist Glenn Greenwald has resigned from The Intercept, seven years after co-founding the online publication, citing censorship by his own editors over an article concerning former Vice President Joe Biden.

The 53-year-old shared his resignation letter in a tweet to his more than 1.5 million followers on Thursday afternoon, in which he accused editors of refusing to publish an article he wrote unless he removed “all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.”

Learn more at THE HILL.

***

ALJAZEERA—[30 OCT 2020] Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald said on Thursday he had resigned from The Intercept after the US investigative media outlet purportedly refused to publish his article critical of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Greenwald, one of the first journalists to report on the Edward Snowden documents on 2013 US mass surveillance scandal, said he was leaving the website he started in 2014 with two other journalists.

“The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden,” Greenwald said in a Substack blog post.

Learn more at AL JAZEERA.

***

THE HILL—[30 OCT 2020] Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of the news site The Intercept, said Friday that he resigned from the publication in order to maintain his “editorial freedom,” adding that editors were wary of publishing articles of his that were critical of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“I would never accept somebody telling me that I can’t publish my views or perspectives without having other people first agree with what it is that I’m saying,” Greenwald told Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

“I never wanted to enter media outlets, and when they began trying to invite me to go and join those media outlets, my condition was always I need to keep this same exact editorial freedom where I post directly to the internet without editorial intervention except in rare cases,” he added.

Learn more at THE HILL.

***

Halloween 2020 Update:

I just read the passage below from Glenn Greenwald’s resignation letter article he published on his new Substack blog, Greenwald, after resigning from The Intercept last week over censorship issues.  This very much resonated with me as to the nature and purpose of my own blog, Lumpenproletariat.  Ultimately, we hope to connect with like-minded people to advance democracy at the ballot box, democracy at work, media democracy, and the emancipation of the working classes.  Until then, we testify.

From the time I began writing about politics in 2005, journalistic freedom and editorial independence have been sacrosanct to me. Fifteen years ago, I created a blog on the free Blogspot software when I was still working as a lawyer: not with any hopes or plans of starting a new career as a journalist, but just as a citizen concerned about what I was seeing with the War on Terror and civil liberties, and wanting to express what I believed needed to be heard. It was a labor of love, based in an ethos of cause and conviction, dependent upon a guarantee of complete editorial freedom.

So much of Glenn Greenwald’s love of free speech reflects my own, which is why I love engaging with his work so much. I can always relate to Glenn Greenwald’s reasoning. I imagine many people feel the same, which is probably why he has 1.5 million followers on Twitter. That is a huge audience. 

In his letter of resignation from The Intercept, despite the censorship, he went on to add his continued love for The Intercept, which he co-founded with Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras.  His description of the editorial capture of The Intercept by east coast Democrat Party partisans reminds me of my first-hand experiences witnessing the editorial capture by west coast Democrat partisans of the original listener-supported free speech radio outlet and network in the United States, perhaps in the world—KPFA radio, 94.1 FM, Berkeley, California. 

Even as I have watched KPFA, and its parent company Pacifica, betray its original mission, one is left with sadness, rather than fury, and always a lingering sense of hope of restoring the organization to its original mission.  Like The Intercept, KPFA and Pacifica Radio still have some honest journalists.  But, increasingly, Democrat Party apologism and dogma tends to dominate.  We saw the same thing happen with The Nation, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen and Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), and any media outlet or organization, who critiques or otherwise challenges the Democrat Party or, by extension, the two-party dictatorship. 

We have even seen the same thing in academia, as economics departments adhere to orthodoxy and marginalize heterodox economics perspectives.  We could say the same of the majority of social science curriculums across the nation.  Anything left of center is marginalized.  Such is the nature of thought police, censorship, and political dictatorships.

And none of the critiques I have voiced about The Intercept are unique to it. To the contrary: these are the raging battles over free expression and the right of dissent raging within every major cultural, political and journalistic institution. That’s the crisis that journalism, and more broadly values of liberalism, faces. Our discourse is becoming increasingly intolerant of dissenting views, and our culture is demanding more and more submission to prevailing orthodoxies imposed by self-anointed monopolists of Truth and Righteousness, backed up by armies of online enforcement mobs.

And nothing is crippled by that trend more severely than journalism, which, above all else, requires the ability of journalists to offend and anger power centers, question or reject sacred pieties, unearth facts that reflect negatively even on (especially on) the most beloved and powerful figures, and highlight corruption no matter where it is found and regardless of who is benefited or injured by its exposure.

*

Thank you for reading Lumpenproletariat.org. Please share. Support free speech.

***

Thanksgiving 2020 Update:

In case you hadn’t noticed, Glenn Greenwald finally went on The Jimmy Dore Show to discuss his resignation from The Intercept over censorship issues, I’m including this update here.

Sometime around 2018, I began noticing an old high school buddy of mine started sharing political posts on social media from some joker named Jimmy Dore. I kind of agreed with a lot of his snarky and snide commentaries, although I didn’t really care for his uncouth style. But I thought, whatever, maybe liberals need a brash voice out there, too, to counter the brash conservative voices…

But, over time, I’ve come to appreciate The Jimmy Dore Show, as one of the few sizeable media platforms (nearly one million subscribers), which is critical, not only of Republican Party politics, but is also critical of Democrat Party politics, and, at times, even critical of the two-party system and advocating for a multi-party system, ranked-choice voting, and electoral reform.

Just for that, alone, Jimmy Dore is an important voice on politics. Recall Joe Rogan’s a-ha moment, when Dore explained ranked-choice voting to him. Jimmy Dore pulls no punches, though, unlike Joe Rogan. And Jimmy Dore is intellectually sincere, unlike Joe Rogan, because Jimmy Dore is consistent in his ideology, unlike Joe Rogan, who sends mixed signals, which invariably apologizes for, and enables, the two-party system. We notice how progressive ideas, such as ranked-choice voting, become part of the ideological fiber of somebody like Jimmy Dore, but not Joe Rogan. After his a-ha moment, Rogan will probably never bring up ranked-choice voting again in conversation with any of his many influential guests he interviews, who need to be informed and challenged on such topics, yet who have still never heard of ranked-choice voting.

But two men, who don’t pull any punches and tell it like it is are Glenn Greenwald and Jimmy Dore. Of all the channels I wanted to see cover Greenwald’s resignation from The Intercept over censorship, Greenwald finally appeared on The Jimmy Dore Show in late November 2020.

The Jimmy Dore Show, posted 22 NOV 2020 (YouTube, https://youtu.be/K_xmYwr6qt8), accessed 22 NOV 2020

Dig Jimmy Dore’s November 2020 interview with Glenn Greenwald here.

***

“Saint Honesty” by Sara Bareilles

So, we won’t sleep tonight While we brace against the wind Oh, these hearts, they’re weather-makers We’ll go where they take us Until we find ourselves shelter again We won’t settle for the silence We won’t drown in the tears We’ll say every single word, even if we think they’ll hurt Let the rain wash away these tears Rain on us,

Saint Honesty…

—from “Saint Honesty” by Sara Bareilles

***

[31 OCT 2020]

[Last modified on 27 NOV 2020 at 05:28 PST]

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System Update: Explaining Ruling Class Contempt for Joe Rogan

09 Fri Oct 2020

Posted by ztnh in Civic Engagement (Activism), Democratic Party (USA), First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Political Science, Presidential Election 2020, Republican Party (USA), Sociology

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Dr. Glenn Greenwald (b. 1967), Joseph James Rogan (b. 1967), System Update, The Intercept

What explains elite contempt for Joe Rogan? - System Update with Glenn  Greenwald - YouTube

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—It’s true that a big problem with mass media and journalism today is the atomization of the public into narrow media silos. So, we do our best to read a diversity of perspectives. But, I gotta tell ya, after listening to loads of right-wing rhetoric, tuning in to a Glenn Greenwald podcast is like a breath of fresh air. He simply makes so much more sense to me and, evidently, to his growing audience than many other legal or political analysts. With clear, sober, and articulate analyses and explanations of contemporary issues, Dr. Greenwald speaks sincerely.

On this episode of System Update, “What Explains Elite Contempt for Joe Rogan?”, Greenwald is in conversation with Shant Mesrobian, who was “formerly with the Obama 2008 campaign” and is the “current co-host of ‘The Backchannel’”.

Greenwald and Mesrobian discussed the social impact of Joe Rogan’s platform, which amassed over 15 million views recently with an Edward Snowden interview. That’s many times more than prime-time news on their best night. And the establishment seems to be taking note. Some even say Joe Rogan ‘sold out‘ by migrating his popular podcast exclusively to Spotify, just as his political clout and influence is growing large enough to wield electoral influence.

Yet, the Democratic Party is averse to allying themselves with someone ‘on the fence’, like Joe Rogan is, willing to switch his political endorsements from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump, bypassing Biden on account of ‘senior mental decline’ and whatnot, also bypassing any ideological loyalties. Mesrobian argued that the two corporate political parties, within a two-party system, care less about winning elections or even holding the Oval Office, than they do about keeping control of their party and keeping the political cartel-like racket going: serving the corporate funders and banksters, whilst leaving the public hanging out to dry.

Democrats would rather push Biden to the presidential ticket, and watch him lose to Trump, than allow Bernie Sanders or any other more viable candidate to win and take control of the Democratic Party. Greenwald reminded us how we observed the same toxic two-party dynamic in the UK when the Labour Party bosses lost control of their party to Jeremy Corbin.

They preferred to destroy Corbin and retake control of the party, even if it meant empowering the Tories and making Boris Johnson prime minister because […] their top priority is insuring that they maintain control of their party, and secondary, or even more distantly, is actually winning elections.

Messina

***

Channel: The Intercept

Program: System Update with Glenn Greenwald, “What explains elite contempt for Joe Rogan?”, 22 SEP 2020

[Transcript excerpts by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and The Intercept.]

—snip—

SHANT MESROBIAN: (c. 1:02:08)

“I mean it’s the argument, that the left’s been making, you know, for years now. Right? Like, this is the guy to be studying. Right? [Someone like Joe Rogan’s] the one that we can kind of crack the code on.

“As for, you know, why that’s the case, I think it’s real, again, it’s really threatening. I don’t think—you know, the Democratic establishment, what I tend to tell people is that the democratic establishment, their main priority is not really to actually even win elections. It’s to keep control of the Democratic Party. Right?

“Like, that’s where most of their power comes from. It’s certainly where their most reliable source of power comes from; it’s keeping control of the party because as long as you can keep control, and you keep control of the cultural levers of power in the country, you’re always going to be able to command 50% of the political system. You’re always going to be able to command, you know, the entire media apparatus, that’s devoted to politics—Right? You’re good—or at least half of it. Right? You’re going to control the liberal half.

“And, so, I think it’s—I mean it’s—I’m sorry to say. But I think it’s a very cynical calculation that cultural elites and democratic party elites are making when they make these decisions because when you engage Joe Rogan, and you engage his viewers, you are bringing in a ton of people you can’t necessarily rely on to keep these clean lines of political and cultural engagement. You’re completely blowing up the political system.

“You’re blowing up the political racket. Right? And why would you want to do that because, at the end of the day, hell, Trump could get re-elected and they’d still control the party. They can still control the other half. They’d be raising hundreds of millions of dollars for their think tanks. And, therefore, you know, the media institutions and—so, it’s a great racket. Why would you risk that just for winning the presidency for maybe four years, eight years. Don’t get me wrong. Obviously, they’d like to win that, too. But I don’t think that’s the real game. I don’t think that’s ever been the real game.”

GLENN GREENWALD: “We saw that in the UK—right?—where the centrists and Blairites and moderates, who controlled the Labour Party, the levers of power forever, whether they were in power or out of power. When they lost control of their own party to Jeremy Corbin, they—it was very obvious, if you were just paying minimal attention, but we now know from documents, that have been leaked and reports, that have been issued—they were actively working against the Labour Party. They preferred to destroy Corbin and retake control of the party, even if it meant empowering the Tories and making Boris Johnson prime minister because, as you say, their top priority is insuring that they maintain control of their party, and secondary, or even more distantly, is actually winning elections. (c. 1:05:19)

—snip—

***

Follow Shant Mesrobian: https://twitter.com/ShantMM The Backchannel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBackchannel Follow Glenn Greenwald on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald Read Glenn’s work: https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-…

***

[9 OCT 2020]

[Last modified on 11 OCT 2020 at 22:41 PDT]

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Mint Press News: Intercept Teams Up With War-Propaganda Firm Bellingcat

08 Mon Oct 2018

Posted by ztnh in First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Freedom of the Press

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Bellingcat, Dr. Glenn Greenwald (b. 1967), Google, Jeremy Scahill (b. 1974), Mint Press News, The Intercept

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—For some of us Project Censored was our first introduction to Mint Press News. Since they first hit our radar, we have counted on Mint Press News to deliver excellent work. They haven’t let readers down yet, unlike The Intercept, which appears to have been caught riding dirty. Are Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill okay with all of this? Let’s read and learn what we can.

Messina

***

Despite promoting itself as an “independent” and open-source investigation site, Bellingcat has received a significant portion of its funding from Google, which is also one of the most powerful U.S. military contractors and whose rise to prominence was directly aided by the CIA.

Mint Press News, 8 OCT 2018

***

MINT PRESS NEWS — [8 OCT 2018] The Intercept, along with its parent company First Look Media, recently hosted a workshop for pro-war, Google-funded organization Bellingcat in New York. The workshop, which cost $2,500 per person to attend and lasted five days, aimed to instruct participants in how to perform investigations using “open source” tools — with Bellingcat’s past, controversial investigations for use as case studies. The exact details of what occurred during the workshop have not been made public and Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins declined to elaborate on the workshop when pressed on social media.

The decision on the part of The Intercept is particularly troubling given that the publication has long been associated with the track records of its founding members, such as Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald, who have long been promoted as important “progressive” and “anti-war” voices in the U.S. media landscape.

Greenwald publicly distanced himself from the decision to host the workshop, stating on Twitter that he was not involved in making that decision and that — if he had been — it was not one “that I would have made.” However, he stopped short of condemning the decision.

—snip—

Learn more at MINT PRESS NEWS.

***

Glenn Greenwald, tweet, 08 JUL 2018

***

[31 OCT 2020]

[Last modified on 31 OCT 2020 at 21:59 PDT]

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