"Glenn Greenwald Is Not The Story" -- Bulldog Edition

Honestly, I thought I would have to wait at least a day before having to write another post about another notable publication who is screwing everything up by Making Glenn Greenwald The Story.

But I was wrong:  this time it is Young Conor Friedersdorf who shows us yet again that there is no bandwagon so crowded or fast-moving that he cannot hook a ride on it.

From The Atlantic:

Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment

And he nails the opening!

Young Conor proceeds:

...

Among the dozens of reporters, editors, and commentators who have worked on articles sourced to Edward Snowden, just one, Glenn Greenwald, has been subject to a sustained campaign that seeks to define him as something other than a journalist. NBC's David Gregory asked him why he shouldn't be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a felon. Representative Peter King declared that "legal action should be taken against him." Representative Mike Rogers charges that he is a thief who sells stolen material. The New Republic published a piece alleging that he has a nefarious, secret agenda. Why this unique effort to discredit him in particular?

Countless American journalists have published classified documents in the modern era. All were paid for their work, and in a world with Bob Woodward, it's unlikely that Greenwald has been paid the most for revelations of classified material. Greenwald isn't even unique in writing about secrets stolen by Snowden, or in being paid as a freelancer for his work upon the publication of those articles. Nor has Greenwald authored the Snowden articles denounced most bitterly by the national-security establishment. That distinction goes to the talented Barton Gellman.

So what is different about Greenwald?
...

Once upon a time, I might have taken Young Conor's article apart detail by ludicrous detail (my favorite is the assertion that one big reason Mr. Greenwald is allegedly being singled out for special attention is because he's gay!  No kidding. Young Conor advances this argument with zero supporting evidence because, I suppose, who the fuck need supporting evidence in a pie fight?) but I am taking a respite from all of that.

I have reformed!  I have seen the light!

Which is why these days I am lending a helping hand and an eagle-eye to those who I respect (and with whom I sometimes disagree) who are sick and tired of opinion writers 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:

Conor Friedersdorf 

c/o Atlantic Media Company
600 New Hampshire Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20037 

What Exciting!New!Revelations! will tomorrow (or later this evening) bring in the ongoing saga of "Glenn Greenwald Is Not The Story"?

Watch this space!

Meanwhile, Barton "Baby Face" Gellman continues to remain ominously at-large.

* Once again, let us save our more comically unhinged Purity Angels some steam and stipulate that I sold all Liberal principles down the river in obeisance to yadda yadda mindless Obot yadda yadda droneglass (you forgot "drooling"!). Message received! So just toddle on back to the bunkhouse and dream nice dreams.