Glenn Greenwald Declares Independence from Journalistic Tyranny by Larry C Johnson

Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of the Intercept and best known as one of the journalists who interviewed Edward Snowden prior to Snowden's escape to Russia, fired a shot today at the corruption and rot that is permeating journalism. In a surprise move, Glenn resigned from the Intercept, his creation, because the editors refused to let him tell the truth about Joe Biden and his grifting ways.

Here are the salient points of Glenn's announcement:

Today I sent my intention to resign from The Intercept, the news outlet I co-founded in 2013 with Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras, as well as from its parent company First Look Media.

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, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.

The censored article, based on recently revealed emails and witness testimony, raised critical questions about Biden’s conduct. Not content to simply prevent publication of this article at the media outlet I co-founded, these Intercept editors also demanded that I refrain from exercising a separate contractual right to publish this article with any other publication.

Glenn Greenwald is a gay man, he lives in Brazil and he would be considered a Democrat politically. But he also is a man of principle, integrity and courage. He first gained a following because of his insightful, hard hitting pieces on the George W. Bush debacle in Iraq. Later on he gained more notoriety and fame as one of two people to report on the intelligence trove smuggled out by Edward Snowden that revealed a massive level of spying on American citizens.

Then came Russiagate and Donald Trump. Bucking the conventional journalist wisdom, Glenn Greenwald was one of the few on the left to call bullshit on what we now know was a manufactured scandal and a soft coup attempt--i.e., Vladimir Putin had Donald Trump under his thumb. Glenn's record in challenging the Russia hoax stands as a reminder that there are a few real journalists, a small few, still alive and working.  But he is an endangered species.

Glenn's declaration of independence from the stranglehold of deep state stenography, which masquerades as journalism, is worth your time to read. This snippet reveals the heart and intelligence of Glenn as he explains why he is essentially killing the corporate child he helped father:

This was not an easy choice: I am voluntarily sacrificing the support of a large institution and guaranteed salary in exchange for nothing other than a belief that there are enough people who believe in the virtues of independent journalism and the need for free discourse who will be willing to support my work by subscribing.

Like anyone with young children, a family and numerous obligations, I do this with some trepidation, but also with the conviction that there is no other choice. I could not sleep at night knowing that I allowed any institution to censor what I want to say and believe — least of all a media outlet I co-founded with the explicit goal of ensuring this never happens to other journalists, let alone to me, let alone because I have written an article critical of a powerful Democratic politician vehemently supported by the editors in the imminent national election.

But the pathologies, illiberalism, and repressive mentality that led to the bizarre spectacle of my being censored by my own media outlet are ones that are by no means unique to The Intercept. These are the viruses that have contaminated virtually every mainstream center-left political organization, academic institution, and newsroom. I began writing about politics fifteen years ago with the goal of combatting media propaganda and repression, and — regardless of the risks involved — simply cannot accept any situation, no matter how secure or lucrative, that forces me to submit my journalism and right of free expression to its suffocating constraints and dogmatic dictates.

Glenn makes this move with no guarantee that he has a financial future. He is not being reckless. He is behaving as a patriot. The same spirit that moved men such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to risk their lives and fortunes to fight British tyranny, burns in the soul of Glenn Greenwald. He is a patriot taking up symbolic arms in defense of freedom of thought and liberty. I stand with him and I immediately subscribed to his new platform. Glenn and I will differ on political issues. But we share this in common. We are Americans and we believe fervently in a free and unfettered press. Glenn and blogs like Sic Semper Tyrannis and The Gateway Pundit are essential to preserving our Republic.

Comments

[Eric Newhill]

Glenn is a good man. One of the few principled liberals.

If Trump loses this election (doubtful) his next move should be into media. Get the family out of real estate - commercial real estate will be clobbered under Green New Deal Harris anyhow - and start purchasing controlling interests in "news" outlets. Heck, he could probably even cloud finance the project. There are enough Americans that are sick and tired of the current media that he could probably raise a $billion in $10 to $100 donations.

[Fred]

Eric,

" his next move should be into media"

You caught on to that? He'll be doing that four years from now when he leaves his second term.

[Polish Janitor]

This is the reason why the the real fight is not between the Dems and the G.O.P. but the one between Statism/Collectivism and Individualism. My hats off to Glenn Greenwald and his courageous decision to declare indipendence from Democratic party collectivist tyranny. He can now sleep at night with clear conscience knowing he did the "Right Thing".

[AK]

His interview with Joe Rogan from Wednesday of this week is rather excellent and very much worth a listen. I agree with Eric Newhill - Greenwald seems to put journalistic principle above politics, and this is apparent in the disgust he expresses for his colleagues in the "newz biz". Having listened to that interview, this resignation came as no shock to me. One of my favorite segments was their discussion of the MSM's uniform hatred of Joe Rogan. In short, Rogan's format of long-form, free discussion is a 10,000-pound gorilla of a threat to their existence. The podcast format is a game-changer. Rogan reaches millions upon millions of listeners and viewers with a crew of two (himself and his producer). This is independence from major institutions will come to be the new power structure in media. And the fact that he is free to dispense what content he deems fit according to his own principles makes them apoplectic. He has smashed their beloved golden gate to the world of public information.

[blue peacock]

Larry,

I agree with you and have subscribed on substack. While I don't agree with Glenn on all his positions, I am completely in agreement with him on the need for independent journalism. Reporting that focuses on the manipulation by the powerful including the "organs of state security". Glenn's courage in reporting on the nexus of media and the intelligence apparatus is unparalleled. In fact there were very few conservative journalists who challenged the "orthodoxy" during the intense domestic propaganda operations by the Republican Bush/Cheney administration and I would say the vast majority of the conservative outlets were rabid in their opposition to the revelations in the Snowden reporting that demonstrated the lies of both Democrat & Republican governments that they did not run mass surveillance of all Americans. So many on the right consider Snowden a traitor when he risked so much including exile to inform the American people that their government has been lying consistently for a long period and their constitutional natural rights were being violated with impunity as the surveillance state was operating in secret in the best traditions of the Stasi in communist East Germany.

There are other liberals like Glenn who consistently stand up for civil liberties. One I would recommend highly is Matt Stoller who writes consistently on the growing economic consolidation leading to monopolies & cartels that stifle free competitive markets. One doesn't have to agree with his politics but his well researched and empirical writing on the collusion between Big Business & Big Government is well worth consideration.

https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1321990052881272833?s=20

Another is Matt Taibbi.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/glenn-greenwald-on-his-resignation

Who in your opinion on the conservative side have a consistent independent reporting track record that span the lies that led to the Iraq invasion to the propaganda obfuscating mass surveillance revealed by Snowden and have pulled punches against the intelligence apparatus for propagandizing the American people?

[vig]

Glenn is a good man. One of the few principled liberals.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | 30 October 2020 at 09:42 AM

You get the irony of your further statements?

Put your money where your American fake news awareness is? Trump as alternative Rupert Murdoch to help deliver real vs fake news as true patriot? Really???

Whom should he put in charge in your new envisoned American media universe. Alex Jones?

I checked Glenn's Twitter feed occasionally during the last years and wondered. Much longer withdrawal symptoms it feels.

What are your thoughts about Snowdon and Assange?

[J]

Larry,

Here is Glenn's article uncensored about the Bidens that the Intercept refused to publish.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-biden-censored

[Leith]

Greenwald quote from August 2017:

"I think the Trump White House lies more often. I think it lies more readily. I think it lies more blatantly."

Mixed feelings from me on Greenwald. I never liked his support of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. But I admire his support of Tulsi Gabbard:

https://youtu.be/iYgfj0OcHjk?t=637

[james]

larry,

i like what you write in the last paragraph... i can relate to that... thanks..

[Fred]

Larry,

Glenn Greenwald has escaped from behind the digital Iron Curtain through Checkpoint Charlie. Kamala will make sure that gets slammed shut once they push Joe out of the way - due to his corruption, which got publicized 6 months sooner than the radical left and their deep state allies wanted.

AK,

"The podcast format is a game-changer."
It means nothing when 90% of internet search is through Google and they suppress the search results.

[Deap]

Steve Bannon, "on the right" has put out some pull no punches documentaries on stories MSM refused to cover--"Occupy Unmaksed" is one of them.

[Deap]

Politics is the art of compromise; cannot be the demands of a ideological litmus test. We can't "come together" until we learn to live with a certain degree of give and take. Yet we will never be a one-party nation - just moving the needle back and forth away from the center from both sides. A tug of war nation; not a divisive and broken nation.

Even one-party California is showing cracks since its current one-party failings are becoming too serious to ignore: https://redstate.com/kiradavis/2020/10/30/group-405-trump-sign-campaign-ad-n272061 What is the real story about growing Trump support in California - among younger persons.

[Ewan Maclean]

Mr. Greenwald is "a gay man, but..."? Don't taint a good post with that "but".

[Eric Newhill]

Vig,
Why must you go to extremes? TDS much? Is that your image of the modern conservative? Alex Jones? Really?

I would volunteer to be in charge for a modest salary. I'd bring on board people like Greenwald and Tucker. There's judicial Watch and Project Veritas. So many good people to approach.. Maybe Larry Johnson would like to work for us. Good reporters are all over YouTube and other venues. They'd love to have a shot at the big league. We used to have something resembling solid investigative journalism before the lefties/deep state took over. No reason we can't have it again.

No one living in NYC or DC would be allowed on the staff.

[Charlie Wilson]

“British tyranny”. I didn’t realize they broke down doors in the middle of the night and dragged out men, women and children who didn’t look like them, or spoke an incomprehensible language or professed a weird faith.

[Fred]

Ewan,

You should quote waht was what was written.

[Leith]

@Charlie Wilson: "didn’t realize they broke down doors in the middle of the night ..."

Actually they did. Political corruption and persecution of those who resisted. Quartering British troops in the homes of citizens without requiring permission of the owner. An occupying army that included mercenaries who spoke that incomprehensible language. Paying Native American tribes to go on the warpath.

Smells like tyranny to me.

[akaPatience]

I subscribed yesterday. Greenwald may be a lefty but he has integrity and a sense of fairness. When it comes to the tyranny of the Deep State, Establishment, MSM, elitists, etc., he's a Brother In Arms.

Thank you J for the link to his censored article. It was obvious to me that he made every attempt to give Biden the benefit of the doubt. Shame on his reprehensible colleagues for refusing to publish it.

[Alves]

I find it ironical that the kind of corruption that Glenn is trying to bring to attention in the USA is not even 1/10 as big as the one he did his best to cover up here in Brazil.

And the reason is even the same one that he blames in the USA.

Funny, but not. Oh well.

[Ewan Maclean]

Fred,
You think the "But also" does not refer back to gay as well as Democrat and resident in Brazil? If so, why say it? I'm only asking because it is an odd form of words. How do you think my reading wrong? How many articles start with "X is heterosexual and lives in Bonnie Scotland and votes Scottish National Party. But he is also..." The sexual proclivities are irrelevant to the article.

[turcopolier]

Ewan Mclean

Listen to me! Any more PC bullshit about the sensitivities of gay people will get you banned. I judge what language is acceptably here and no one else!

[vig]

Eric, you may want to add Horowitz' Discover the Networks and a couple of others. Why not Bannon?

[Ewan Maclean]

Turcopolier,
?

What is the relevance of gay or straight, celibate or active, or whatever, to the question of Mr. Greenwald's integrity as a journalist? Why drag it in? Why entertain any bullshit sensitivities of anyone, gay or straight, active etc., wholly irrelevant to the subject?

This is not a question of the language you find acceptable (which is self-evidently your decision alone). It's trying to work out what the author is trying to say. What has "gay" or resident in Brazil or Democrat got to do with journalistic integrity?

[turcopolier]

Ewan Maclean

you are banned.

[Charlie Wilson]

Keith

That’s not tyranny. That’s COIN.