Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Editor Wanted

Experience, thick-skin required.

Remember way back when "the story" was about a leaker named Edward Snowden and the practices he participated in while working at the CIA, the NSA and various NSA contractors?

Well a good 48 hours have passed since that large and consequential story broke, which means it is just about time for Mr. Greenwald's runaway spleen to shove the actual story out of the way to tell us all what the real story is.

Wanna guess what the real story is?

Glenn Greenwald: 'Slavishly Partisan' Democrats In The Media Are Cheerleading Policies They Used To Hate
Still, it starts out reasonably enough, with specific briefs against two -- count 'em two -- specific people:
...Greenwald told Business Insider late Tuesday night that he thinks some left-leaning members of the media — such as Time magazine's Joe Klein and The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin — have shifted stances on surveillance and civil liberties for "principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic" reasons.
Mr. Toobin...I have no idea about.  I have seen his face pop up here and there, but he never made much of an impression on me.  

As for Joe Klein -- or Jokeline as we on the Left have been calling him since before I was a blogger -- well, he is certainly a member of the Beltway Media.  One who has been mercilessly and repeatedly mocked by the Left (here is one of my small contributions to the genre) and who has been a reliable voice of Fake Centrism in the mold of David Brooks for years.  But as for being one of ours of for being a proxy for the opinions of anyone outside of Joe Klein, uh, no.

Still, no argument from me.  Also at this point I am still feeling like too much of a gentleman to suggest that just because Mr. Greenwald's own opinion on this subject also changed radically from what it was under the Bush Administration -- 
"Warrentless wiretapping? Without the FISA court? Are you shitting me? Look, you Bushite fascist, go peddle that "But the President is superman who doesn't need your stinkin' FISA court supervision" Koolaid somewhere else. 
 -- to what it is now under the Obama Administration -- 
"FISA court? Those assholes? Are you shitting me? Look, you Obot hypocrite, go peddle that "But this was all done under FISA court supervision" Koolaid somewhere else.
-- does not mean that I have any cause to suspect that his motives are in any way  "principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic".

All I ask, Glenn, is that you not ruin this special moment we're sharing by feeling like you need to add anything more that, say, goes both super-overboard and is super-assholish, OK?

What's that?  

You do have more to add?  

Really?  Because you have already made a valid point, so maybe it would be best for everyone if you just took the win and moved on

No?

OK then.

Mr. Greenwald proceeds:
"I'm not surprised," Greenwald said in an email. "I've been amazed and disappointed for a long time at how the most slavishly partisan media Democrats who pretended to care so much about these issues when doing so helped undermine George Bush are now the loudest apologists and cheerleaders for these very same policies."
Ok, see that there?  Right where you went from a clear, court-ready bill-of-particulars against two specific people to a speen-venting swipe at some larger, unspecified enemy's list called "the most slavishly partisan media Democrats"?  That's the point where an editor would probably tell you that you are letting your uncontrollable rage against everyone who disagrees with you get in the way of the actual story.  
But it's not too late to stop.  I mean, it's not as if you have inflated a reasonable critique of two individual into some kind of bitchy, over-the-top screed against virtually everyone on the Left who can work a keyboard.
Because to do that would be nuts.  
And not just nuts nuts, but from a professional standpoint, going out of your way to step on your own story for no reason other than to interjecting yet another heaping helping of your bilious, alienating contempt for the entire Universe of people on the Left who may not agree with you 100% would an amazing act of egotism for a journalist working on the biggest story in the country to indulge in. 
And, of course, Mr. Greenwald goes exactly there:
"If they started a club called Liberal Pundits to Defend the National Security State, no auditorium in the country would be large enough to accommodate them. 
"To call them principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic is to be overly generous."
And, of course, this little outburst is just about the only part of the story that outfits like The Breitbart Collective are remotely interested in covering:
GREENWALD: MEDIA FILLED WITH 'SLAVISHLY PARTISAN…DEMOCRATS'
Because for Mr. Greenwald, the real story is always, always the story of the Out-Heroding Herod! hypocritical douchbaggery of Liberals who might not agree with Mr. Greenwald on  100% of the details of 100% of his issues 100% of the time.

26 comments:

Compound F said...

I can totally see how you're helping to not step on the main story.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...I for one can't wait to get Lumpy's take on all of this..
What will he say? Will he call you Droneglass?
Will he bust out a Thesaurus and label you "lickspittle"?
Only time will tell.
I guess GG will be showing up at FOX here pretty soon (since there is now literally no air between his rants and say Beck's anymore)...the transition is complete...the pod is empty.. Resistance is futile..There can be only one....or some such shit..



mahakal said...

Compound F has a good point, and many establishment liberals like, say, Josh Marshall, are being incredibly silly about this. I think Brad Friedman had a pretty good take on this today.

Unknown said...

GG could certainly point to the type of Dems represented by Droneglass - who's main interest appears to be diverting attention from the state's attack on democratic rights.

As Big Bill Haywood once said:
"A liberal is the guy who leaves the room when a fight starts."

That needs to be updated - liberals now stay in the room, explaining (from a safe distance) how the Dirty Hippies had it coming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLqKXrlD1TU

Anonymous said...


'I can totally see how you're helping to not step on the main story."

Yes...because the real story today is how GG's personal "Deepthoughtthroat"tm
is at this moment handing over documents to the Chinese government detailing exactly how we gather intelligence in ...China.
That's right..not how the evil Obummer administration is reading your emails and or scouring your cell phone bills in order to enslave you for some reason (because all of that has fallen by the wayside..even at the venerable, badly named "Guardian" as it did days ago at the Post).
Yes, the "hero" GG brought in to the light to save your freedoms..is explaining in great detail...to the Chinese exactly how we monitor their communications.
So Bravo Glen!
Maybe next week you can scrape up some other Randite computer clerk to hand over our nuclear codes to some random Somali pirates! Fight the power!













zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Greenwald and Peter King are now trading insults.

Imma run out for some popcorn and liquor.

driftglass said...

ZRM,

Get some 'a them Bugles while you're up.

Anonymous said...

I hate the ever expanding global surveillance State and want to do use the democratic process to stop it or at least curtail it. I'm even willing to move. Should I move to California so I can help reelect democratic senator Diane Feinstein or should I move to South Carolina so I can help reelect Lindsey Graham?

driftglass said...

'I can totally see how you're helping to not step on the main story."

First, you G-Bots crack me right up :-)

Second, even the hardest hardcore Glenn fan would have to admit that "Spleenwald and the G-Bots" would make a fantastic garage band name.

Third, go now to The Internet.

Search Twitter for "'Slavishly Partisan' Democrats" and take note of the dozens and dozens and dozens of times that story has been copied and forwarded verbatim by Mr. Greenwald's followers so far.

Then take note of how many times each carbon-copy Tweet of the same story has been individually retweeted so far.

Then search Twitter for the Breitbart clone of that story using something like "GREENWALD: MEDIA FILLED WITH" and take note of the dozens of times that story has been copied and forwarded verbatim by Breitbart fans and affiliates so far.

Then take note of how many times each carbon-copy Tweet of the same Breitbart clone of the story has been individually retweeted so far.

Then come back and explain to me again exactly how my little post pushing back against that massive tide (a post that has so far been tweeted once by me) on my little blog is the problem.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Third, go now to The Internet.


...and bring some goddam Bugles when you come back.

driftglass said...

I hate the ever expanding global surveillance State and want to do use the democratic process to stop it or at least curtail it.

I agree. Emphatically.

And if that is your issue -- your only issue -- then you are doing better than me. I'd like all of that plus I'd like to live in a state and support politicians who do not surveille women by jamming ultrasound wands up their vaginae because Jesus tells them to or work overtime to strip workers of their rights including their basic right to have a private life off the job. I'd like to live in a state and support politicians who do not allow private corporations to collect your personal medical history and then use it against you. Who do not permit extraction industries to dig up and then burn the country. I'd like to live in a state and support politicians who do not think every psychotic has the right to own as many bazookas as he wants. I'd like to live in a state and support politicians who do not actively interfere in American citizen's right to vote. Who do not think science should be driven out of the public schools along with those nasty union thugs who teach our children. Who do not treat LGBT citizens as subhuman freaks that do not deserve the same, basic rights as we hets.

I have not yet found the formula that lets me reduce my entire constellation of concerns down to one issue...and then to condemn the entire system for not delivering on my one issue to my exact specifications.

steeve said...

"I have not yet found the formula that lets me reduce my entire constellation of concerns down to one issue"

I have. Republicans are ruining the country and need to be eradicated. It's not harder than that.

If you want a political party to the left of democrats, step one is getting rid of the republicans. If you want to deal with climate change, step one is getting rid of the republicans. If you want basic economic theory followed, step one is getting rid of the republicans. If you want real checks and balances in washington, step one is getting rid of the republicans. If you want "centrist" media stooges to face real consequences, step one is getting rid of the republicans.

And it goes on and on.

Neo Tuxedo said...

steeve skrev:

If you want "centrist" media stooges to face real consequences, step one is getting rid of the republicans.

The problem is that, if you want to get rid of the republicans, step one is making "centrist" media stooges face real consequences. Or, at least, that's how it looks from where I sit.

mahakal said...

I'm really glad for your engagement in the comments drifty, and furthermore I find them as entertaining to read as your formal post so nothing is lost as far as I can see by coming down here to converse directly.

I don't think I'm a G-Bot, personally, neither am I an O-Bot or a D-Bot or whatever that would be. Not really much of a Bot at all.

But you and I are basically on the same side of this as on most things, including the fact that GG can be a giant doucheosaurus.

Having said that we also agree this is a really big and important story he's broken. And that doesn't make him less of a doucheosaurus, maybe it makes him grow into a bigger one. So I get your point there too.

But Josh Marshall and the folks that are putting down this leak as a bad thing deserve some criticism too, don't you think? And doesn't Brad make a good point that even the people who think it's a bad thing are saying it's a good thing we're talking about this issue now. I mean, seriously, how are we supposed to ever have a transparent government if we aren't going to have people make things transparent without, you know, permission?

mahakal said...

Oh and couldn't LL be banned as some kind of obvious conservative troll?

Coldtype said...

I'm gratified that these are the kinds of politicians that you would prefer to support Drifty but how do you reconcile this with your support for Obama? This the man who has arrogated to himself the "right" to indefinitely detain or kill anyone on earth including Americans without due process based on secret evidence? Everything on your list of preferences is nullified by this entirely.

Imagine it: I'll work to ensure the rights of women, I'll bring forth effective legislation regarding gun control, and my administration will not erect barriers to your right to marry whom you choose regardless of gender, but if I determine it prudent I'll have you killed and you will have no recourse.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Oh and couldn't LL be banned as some kind of obvious conservative troll?

I have grown to be fond of old Lumber Lung.

Anonymous said...

So... This power, which has been visited upon an infinitesimal number of individuals, is the ultimate issue because it has the potential to be visited upon all of us...

Yet other issues, which affect a greater number of individuals on a daily basis, don't matter because this ultimate and little exercised super power remains as a Sword of Damocles...

Ok. I totally get it. You realize that the CinC has had the power to launch nuclear weapons and destroy all life in this planet for nigh on 60 years?

Just a question. Kthnxbai

Anonymous said...

Poor driftglass. Swallowed whole by the green-eyed monster.

Anonymous said...

To quote a familiar phrase: "When they start to complain about your 'tone'....."

From Mr. Arthur Silber:
Now we're told that all those very special workers for the State, plus the 40 or 50 people (and probably more) at the Guardian and the Washington Post [plus Mr. Greenwald], well, they're so responsible, and conscientious, and impossibly pure that they can be trusted with information that apparently will cause the simultaneous implosion of numerous galaxies if it were to fall into the hands of irresponsible, criminally careless, and stupid people -- like you. Like me.

If it's all for the public, doesn't the public have not only the right to know all about it, but the first right to know about it? But, no: you're too stupid to know what's best for you. Your betters will have to make these determinations. They'll decide what you can know, how much, and when.

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2013/06/fed-up-with-all-bullshit.html


Anonymous said...

Sloppy reader you, Driftglass. First: "two, count 'em, two" refers to a passage prefaced with "such as." I will not condescend to explain to you what "such as" means. Second, since when can't two examples by virtue of being examples not stand for an "unspecified" population? I will not condescend to explain to you that examples are precisely deployed to represent unspecified instances.

Until right now, I've assumed and understood that Democrats are good and progressive, working hard to make the best of what's available, to push policy in the right direction, even if the we can't be happy about the meager extent. With bullshit like this post, it's hard for me to hold to that understanding. Maybe Democrats--every fucking last one of them--really are slavishly partisan.

Compound F said...

Also, another dude who do [http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2013/06/bigfoot-no-like-edward-snowden/ mither friggin' meta] not only without walking all over the central concern, but amplifying it with a breezy elegance.

Compound F said...

Further, what in the world is Arthur babbling on about? I have [http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2013/06/fed-up-with-all-bullshit.html no idea], so it must be stupid.

Like Arthur, you attack Greenwald, but unlike him, you attack him in a defensive, childish manner, a seven-year old defending his turf.

I'm beginning to think you're not qualified for the job.

Compound F said...

here's one more (I'm trying to give you ideas about what to talk about, other than Greenwald!):

http://agonist.org/dude-and-nelson-nail-it-on-prism-revelations/#more-106799

Compound F said...

Oh, screw me! Here's one last blog having cited content:

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/top-national-security-experts-spying-program-doesnt-make-us-safer-and-spying-leaks-dont-harm-america.html

DonP said...

Third, go now to The Internet.


...and bring some goddam Bugles when you come back.


You got my Cheese Whiz, boy?