He just can't stop.
Will @JeffreyToobin & friends have the courage to call NYT journalists criminals & "drug mules", too? http://t.co/dajPg5xVZS #NoTheyWont
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 23, 2013
Perhaps someone can put Glenn Greenwald v 08.23.13 (above) in touch with Glenn Greenwald v 08.19.13 to remind him that he was publicly averring the exact opposite less than five days ago:
“This is obviously a serious, radical escalation of what they are doing. He is my partner. He is not even a journalist.”
They can scream "Fascist bootlicking authoritarian stooge!" at each other until one of them wins.
Mr. Greenwald (as I will now repeat for the umpteennth time) is the principal reporter on an important and consequential story. His currency as the principal reporter on this important and consequential story is his credibility which, for reasons I simply do not understand, he seems genuinely unable to stop himself from publicly pissing away in the most petty, vindictive and completely avoidable ways imaginable. And while I am not interested in the braying of his emotionally unbalanced horde, I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has worked with him and who has tried to persuade his that using his spotlight to traffic in some really stupid lies and and to settle petty grudges is not doing his credibility -- or this important and consequential story -- any good.
And speaking of Mr. Greenwald's sometimes extremely casual relationship to the truth, here is a short snip from this much longer post which ends with the writer shutting down his own comment section because the barrage of berserker nonsense from the Spleenwald Horde overwhelmed it:
...Get an editor, Mr. Greenwald.
What makes any tiff with Greenwald so exhausting is not just the needlessly personal nature of his attacks, but rather his outright lies. That’s correct: Glenn Greenwald is a serial liar. He is pathological about it. And he pretends like people are too dumb to notice. He did this in 2010. On the morning of November 30, 2010, he tweeted this about me:Notice the familiar slander, that I had undisclosed contracts? It wasn’t true at the time — I even wrote in the New York Times that I worked at a defense contractor! — he “discovered” my “undisclosed” ties by looking at… my LinkedIn profile. But, almost casually, he lied about it just a few hours later.For reasons that escape me, very few people like to grapple with the casual way Glenn Greenwald lies, almost constantly. He lied about me again, earlier this year, when he falsely accused me of supporting the wars in Libya and Mali....
Do it now.
12 comments:
tired of the left killing the messenger.
'undisclosed', that's it?
hating on Glenn has become a litmus test and you are
failing.
"Mr. Greenwald (as I will now repeat for the umpteennth time) is the principal reporter on an important and consequential story. His currency as the principal reporter on this important and consequential story is his credibility, which blah blah blah"
Notice Droneglass only employs the phrase "an important and consequential story" as his segue ... back to Greenwald.
(Hint: The need for an "umpteenth" repetition is the surest sign nobody believes you... probably including yourself)
Allow me to educate folks who have not attended law school and passed a state bar examination -- I'm thinking certain bloggers in our vicinity fit that bill -- about some of the difficulties inherent in language. Reading is hard, I agree, but let's walk through this, shall we? Toobin calls Miranda a mule, based on his understanding that Miranda's job was to convey thumb drives -- not cocaine or pot or mule shit -- from Germany to Brazil. Greenwald then wonders whether anybody--say, oh, a journalist!, yeah, a journalist!--who performs a similar function is also a mule according to Toobin. That Miranda was or was not a journalist matters not one whit. He could have been, oh, hmmm, the spouse of a journalist who is pummeling the shit out of ONE DUMB COUNTRY WHAT WE CALL THE U S OF A.
We are one dumb country, hallowed be thy name, indivisible, with liberty and stuff, yet about as cocksure of our stupid opinions as can be, because we have witty bloggers who will flesh out the details with suitable levels of skepticism. "Oh, gosh. Maybe Greenwald's remarks could be perceived as lying! Er, uhm, yeah. I wish he would stop lying."
"a short snip from this much longer post..."
In which Greenwald is portrayed as the "Bully" - while the U.S. empire and its assorted zimmermans are the poor, helpless victims...
Gotta love it!
If Greenwald is willing to lie about the little things, slander every possible ally and journalist, and basically take the time to show his butt on Twitter all day long, why should I care about him, his partner, his viewpoint, the NSA, Edward Snowden, or any of it?
Look, let's try to make you understand. Ron Paul. Yay Ron Paul. He's for the small government, breaking the banks, tearing up the military-industrial complex and getting the United States out of world affairs. He voted against Patriot Act. So far, this sounds like Noam Chomsky's wet dream.
However, he's also a racist authoritarian and a anti-abortion misogynist who believes the state should force women to carry all pregnancies to term. He's an Objectivist who believes all men can create gold out of sheer willpower, and no one needs any assistance from the government whatsoever. And he's lied or tried to hide most of these views. Repeatedly.
Why should I trust Ron Paul about anything, even if I agree with him on SOME issues? He's still an asshole, a gold-bug idiot, and would be the worst possible head of any government ever.
Glenn Greenwald is an avid Ron Paul supporter. Why should I trust a "journalist" who lies, slanders, and basically acts like a raging, misogynist, racist asshole who bullies, threatens, and insults my nationality at every opportunity?
Should I say, "Thank you for the insults, Mr. Greenwald, you've certainly convinced me that I'm a boot-licking thug of Obama and I have no mind of my own?" Should I jump for joy when legions of Glenn-bots call us names, threaten us, and condescend to take the time out of their day to belittle us? And of course, even if there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, even if the US is the Evil Empire, even if the NSA controls the Internet and has thousands of interns printing off copies of the US Constitution just to burn them in a bonfire, there has not been one solution for these problems uttered other than "give Ron Paul and Glenn Greenwald money, and maybe change will happen. Also, admit that Glenn Greenwald is right about everything, forever."
Tell me, honestly, with a straight face (figuratively), that this is not happening right now in realtime.
Let's pretend you really like something...Star Wars, for example. You get the chance to meet George Lucas. You want his autograph and appreciate all he's done. You've bought his merchandise. And he turns to you and says, "You're a fucking brainless moron who's wasted their life, and I hope you and your children are raped by a troop of silverback gorillas who have taken too much PCP and Viagra."
And then, George Lucas acts shocked....SHOCKED.!!..that the fan decides he's had enough and no longer follows him on Twitter. In fact, he wants as little to do with George Lucas as possible.
That's what is happening to Glenn Greenwald right now. Driftglass is being...nice. Glenn DOES need an editor. He DOES need to stop lying and destroying his credibility. I'll agree that other journalists who get their leaks from the gov't are dogpiling on Glenn, but his only response is to fling poo harder and faster. That's counterproductive, right? Just like the US Military in Vietnam, it's counterproductive to destroy the village to save it.
In fact, no one needs to go "after" Glenn Greenwald. All it takes is a mild rebuke, a searching question, a criticism, and he, and you, his followers, fly into a blind, incoherent rage. It's the easiest thing in the world right now to discredit Glenn Greenwald, because he'll gladly assist you in that task by being himself.
I wish journalists out there had half of your courage, Drifty.
Vic78
I wish journalists out there had half of your courage, Drifty.
Yaaaay... Droneglass!!!
IMAGINE the courage it takes to STAND UP and be counted for the poor wittle militawy industwial complex when it's aaaall alone, afwaid in tender trembling purity ... surrounded and accosted by that gang of big, sexist, testosterone-mad BULLIES Greenwald, Manning and Snowden!
I know it looks grim, Droneglass, but don't you BACK DOWN.
Heh, Droneglass. It's funny because you disagree with him! ZING!
Thank you.
The most amusing thing about any Greenwald post is watching the Glennbots immediately prove the author's point about them.
"...while I am not interested in the braying of his emotionally unbalanced horde..."
Cue emotionally unbalanced horde.
I guess Scott Tucker at Truthdig is a Glennbot too:
Now, even as Chelsea Manning begins a sentence of 35 years in prison, and even as Edward Snowden finds a tenuous refuge in Russia, I have a small selfish motive in defending Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald. If I let this moment pass without adding my protest to the public record, I’ll pay a debt in private shame. There are differences between our worldviews, our temperaments, our paths in life. Are those differences decisive now?
Not now! What counts now is praising their courage and, if possible, offering them some practical help. There is no doubt in my mind that Poitras and Greenwald are saving the honor of journalism at a time when so many journalists are just chasing their own careers. From such careerists I do not need reminders that people such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Manning, Snowden, Greenwald and Poitras are only human. Yes, but at least they are fighting to remain human!
"...at least they are fighting to remain human!"
Excellent points!
Greenwald is fighting for what were once values claimed (perhaps falsely but at least in words) by mainstream U.S. liberalism. (e.g. Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers).
Manning, Snowden et al are no radicals - they represent a rational self-corrective mechanism to the system's most excessive abuses... believing informed 'public opinion' will intervene to change course.... Naive maybe, but a decent, human impulse.
As amply demonstrated here, 'liberal' opinion, like so many misprogramed auto-immune cells, is swarming these these brave individuals, as if seeking to destroy the remaining healthy tissue while leaving the cancer (rampant state criminality) to spread unchecked.
Reveals how far rightwards the spectrum has shifted - instead of engaging a discussion along more interesting lines - one needs first to defend people like Manning, Snowden and Assange now against... erstwhile liberals.
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