Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Report From High Above My Pay Grade


A couple of years ago when Mr. Glenn Greenwald was conflating "Twitter" and "Facebook" with "The State" in an attempt to reverse-engineer the definition of "censorship" to fit a dumb argument he was trying to make, he said, in passing, this true thing:
It’s certainly true, as defenders of Twitter have already pointed out, that as a legal matter, private actors – as opposed to governments – always possess and frequently exercise the right to decide which opinions can be aired using their property. Generally speaking, the public/private dichotomy is central to any discussions of the legality or constitutionality of “censorship.”
Two years later, his opinion about the privacy right of individuals has, whatchacall, "evolved":


Chris Hayes:  Wait, but then let me ask you this question, 'cause I think this is an important one: Does John Podesta have a right to privacy?

Glenn Greenwald:  I think he has a lesser right to privacy...

Chris Hayes:  Really?  You really think that?

Glenn Greenwald:  He's one of the most powerful people on the planet, Chris!   If Hillary Clinton wins it is very likely that he's gonna be in the seat of power in the White House in less than three months. and so what he does and how he, y'know, shapes public opinion and what he's plotting in terms of policy and what they're telling the public and [ominous bug-eye] what they're not telling the public.  These are critically important things.  Of course.  Everybody would say the more powerful you are, the less privacy you have.  It doesn't me he has no privacy...
Heck no.

It just means that everyone on Earth should have exactly the amount of privacy that Glenn Greenwald personally decides he or she should have, based on the sliding scale of how much power Glenn Greenwald believes they may one day exercise.

Of course, now that Peter Omidyar has bought Mr. Greenwald his own media empire, Mr. Greenwald is a fairly powerful person in his own right.  And what he does and how he, y'know, shapes public opinion and whether or not he unleashes his media machine based entirely on the smirking malice that oozes off of him when he talks about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (and all the rest of us mindless O-Bots!), or the fact that his meal ticket lives under the protection of a journalist-murdering tyrant who is currently very busy trying to sabotage the American election on behalf of Donald J. Trump...well these are critically important things.

And how can we possibly know for sure whether Mr. Greenwald is orchestrating his media empire based on spite...or extortion...or personal profit without a deep and comprehensive hack of the voicemail and email and banking records of everyone who works at The Intercept, everyone who works for Peter Omidyar, everyone Mr. Greenwald speaks to, everyone he corresponds with, everyone he sleeps with and every one of his relatives and friends?

I don't mean Mr. Greenwald has no privacy, but I really think it should be up to me to decide exactly how much transparency "you deserve" (according to the video, Mr. Greenwald clearly believes that "transparency" is something to be bestowed or withheld based on Mr, Greenwald's sliding scale.)

And until we know for sure, I think it would be irresponsible not to speculate about why Mr. Greenwald is being so secretive.

I had also planned to embed Mr. Greenwald Tweet here about the best part of going on MSNBC is how much he delights in pissing off the "Dem hacks" who watch, but he blocked me about 30 minutes ago.  Because transparency!

Perhaps, as an alternative after-dinner aperitif, you might enjoy this by noted journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who has only recently discovered the joys of a visit from the Spleenwald Horde.


In the end I'm just a nobody in a cornfield in the middle of middle America, and all this is miles above my pay-grade, but I thought you might find it interesting.  

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Saw the interview and felt exactly the same way! He is one smarmy twit!

thwap said...

I really hope that all your shilling for the Democratic Party lands you the career that you so desperately crave. You are a talented writer and you deserve better.

Chan Kobun said...

As always in Glennie Pie's world, some animals are more equal than others.

I think he's just a little bit scared. People are figuring out his scam, and when they stop listening to him, it's the last roundhouse for his gravy train - and a polonium breakfast for his meal ticket, Moscow Eddie.

Andrew Johnston said...

Everybody would say the more powerful you are, the less privacy you have.

Everybody would say that, Mr. Last Consistent Man in Politics?

Does he even have any of that money anymore? Last I heard, Omidyar was pulling his support because Greenwald was spending all his time trying to start slap-fights on Twitter rather than investigating anything. Hard to blame him - when your notion of "journalism" entails waiting for someone to hand you stolen documents, you must end up with a lot of free time. Most people would write a novel or their memoirs, but calling people fascists and sending your flying monkeys to harass actual journalists must be very fulfilling too.

Countervail said...

You're just realizing now that Glenn Greenwald is a scrupleless independent actor with a very specific political agenda that benefits his opinions rather than a person of moral integrity?

Get me the smelling salts! My corset is too tight!

driftglass said...

Countervail,

You don't read this blog at all do you?

Rehctaw said...

GG bots to arrive soon? You'd fallen off their list. This should remedy that.

Is there an end in sight? A day when harsh truths will not sound so discordant? When liars' empty platitudes and well-paid observations will finally be exposed as the self-serving shill act at work?

I'm struck each day by people who proclaim their shock and disappointment to find so much ignorance at-large in this Holy land.
I wonder if pointing out the irony of that is as pointless as it seems.

I no longer shout into the abyss, not silent, just patient?

"I need another double shot of something ninety-proof, I got too much to think about" T. Snider

Robt said...

You realize, the more you go down this blog post road of providing the Greenwald's on and giving them distracting time from other issues.
Any weakness n the journalistic reason to present such figures with a specific need to expose an issue, provide clarity etc.. raises the chances of being like Tweety bringing on Michele Bachmann, Ann Coultergeist, or Katrina Pierson for balance and fair discussion .
Placing a lying demon in the cage match with a fact puppy. Where aggressive lying has the speed of the misinformer breaks away early on. While the Fact puppy will take the endurance race and eventually catch up as 4 more lying demons entered the race and have their leads.

Be vigilant, sir Drift............












Unknown said...

What, someone was stupid enough to put this shitass on the tube again to ask his opinion about something? I thought he had faded away into terminal irrelevance, even if he is a former constitutional lawyer, a litigator, and all that.

dinthebeast said...

And Chris Hayes had been doing better than usual lately. I guess we should have expected this sooner or later. I guess in a season of creeps, Greenwald seemed appropriate...

-Doug in Oakland

Lit3Bolt said...

Dear Glenn,

It's not Red-baiting when it's true. Also, "journalism" does not equal "Russian psy-ops."

Love,

Lit3Bolt

PS: I'm going to enjoy watching you try to crawl back to the US for sanctuary as your adopted country disintegrates around you.

Chan Kobun said...

Plus it's not red-baiting if the country you're talking about isn't communist, which Russia isn't. It's the right-wing oligarchy that the alt-left claims America is.

Mike Lumish said...

For me, the slowly growing realization among the Kossack purity brigade - that perhaps the man is not so perfect as they had fantasized - is recompense enough. Let us hope that no children will be harmed in the implosion.

jim said...

Same schmuck called Sputnik's agitprop bomb "misreported" because they later took it down.
NSA (very much not DFHs) & German intel (ditto) both say there's proof it was Russia.
To which GG replies "Nuh-uhh!"

Glennzilla knows damn well he's peddling shite & plainly could care less.

Unknown said...

I think most of you are letting Glenn’s personality cloud your judgement. His reasoning is wrong but I think he is right in a fundamental sense. People in the government who participate in assaulting our civil liberties (or do nothing to stop it), like Podesta, Blumenthal, Panetta, Clinton, Obama etc. do not have the right to privacy..just like us.

The issue is that the government knows almost everything about us but the inverse is not even close to being true. The only privacy you have is when you are not a “person of interest”. That is If you did not participate in Occupy, did not protest an oil pipeline, not a member of black lives matter, etc. then you are not a person of interest. Thus they will probably not act on what they know about you. Which at the end of the day is NOT really privacy in any effective sense. You cannot exercise your right to free speech and assembly without putting yourself economically and physically in jeopardy.

This is not differential calculus. If the government denies us our right to privacy then those who are in government who abuse civil rights, or are in a position to rectify it and then don’t even try, then…

June Butler said...

"...the smirking malice that oozes off of him when he talks about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (and all the rest of us mindless O-Bots!)"

I saw that. It's ugly. Greenwald makes my skin crawl.