Friday, February 14, 2014

Today In "Glenn Greenwald Is Not The Story" News, Ctd.



File under: "Contradictions, Heightening the".

From TPM:
Glenn Greenwald Calls Guardian Book On Snowden 'Bullshit'

ERIC LACH – FEBRUARY 14, 2014, 12:40 PM EST
In a recent interview with The Financial Times, journalist Glenn Greenwald criticized a book on former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden published this month by his former employer, The Guardian.

“It is a bullshit book,” Greenwald said, referring to "The Snowden Files" by Luke Harding. “They are purporting to tell the inside story of Edward Snowden but it is written by someone who has never met or even spoken to Edward Snowden."

The book, whose full title is "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man," bills itself as "the story of the individuals behind the biggest intelligence leak in history and the forces that tried to stop them." It was published earlier this month by The Guardian's publishing imprint. Greenwald was working for The Guardian when he first received documents on NSA surveillance programs from Snowden.
...
First, it is going to come as a huge shock to the authors of  such biographies as --
  • Uncollected Works of Abraham Lincoln
  • Lincoln: A Photobiography
  • Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America by 
  • Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by 
  • The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln 
  • Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness b
  • Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer 
  • Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln 
  • Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer 
  • Lincoln 
  • The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America 
  • Willie Speaks Out: The Psychic World of Abraham Lincoln
  • Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln 
  • We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends
  • Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President 
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln
  • Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War 
  • Lincoln and his Generals 
  • Lincoln and His Admirals 
  • The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage 
  • Stealing Lincoln's Body
-- as well as the authors of the other 15,000-some-odd books which have so far been written about our 16th President that it is somehow illegitimate (or "bullshit") to write a book about someone with whom you have never chatted personally.

But be that as it may, that is not the story! Which is why days I am trying to lend a helping hand to those who I respect (and with whom I sometimes disagree) who are increasingly hacked off at those purveyors of opinions who continue to try and distract attention away from the important and consequential story of NSA abuses by dragging the personal dramas of Glenn Greenwald into it.

If you are one of those people --
For the benefit of anyone for whom reading is perhaps not fundamental, Glenn Greenwald's personality, and the peripatetic globe-trotting of Edward Snowden, are not the story here. If you decide to make them the story, then you are taking yourself off the real story, and that's your fault, not Greenwald's or Snowden's...
--  I strongly urge you to direct your comments to:
Eric Lachc/o TPM Media LLC37 W 20th Street # 702New York, NY 10011
And, should you wish to register your dismay regarding the article on which TPM was reporting -- "Lunch with the FT: Glenn Greenwald: The journalist who collaborated with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden talks about his abrasive approach and his new online venture" -- please direct your indignation to:
Geoff Dyer 
c/o The Financial Times Ltd.

One Southwark Bridge

London, UK
And, while you're in a mood to tell people off who insist on dragging the personal dramas of Mr. Greenwald into the NSA story, you might also want to drop a line to:
Andersen Cooper
c/o CNN/New York
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
And to:
Conor Friedersdorf 
c/o Atlantic Media Company
600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037
And to:
Brian Beutler
c/o Salon
260 West 36th St, Suite 901
New York, NY 10018 
And to:
Amy Goodman
c/o Democracy Now!

207 W. 25th St., Floor 11
New York, NY 10001
What Exciting!New!Revelations! will tomorrow bring in the ongoing saga of "Glenn Greenwald Is Not The Story"?

Watch this space!

Meanwhile, Barton "Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti" Gellman is still on the loose.

2 comments:

OBS said...

You left out the best part of the whole thing, the last paragraph:

Greenwald had only read portions of the book at the time of the interview, but from what he had read, he thought the book put too much emphasis on anonymous postings Snowden once wrote online. According to Dyer, Greenwald later sent an email after reading the whole book, saying that the book did not actually trash Snowden.

He just knew the book was bullshit, before looking at it. That is how you do real journalism, right from the gut. None of that silly "research" and "facts" and shit.

Something something droneglass, something.

Frank Stone said...

"In a recent interview with The Financial Times, journalist Glenn Greenwald..."

OK, I think I see your problem right there, Mr. Lach: You used "journalist" instead of "self-serving, money-grubbing fraud". Common mistake.