https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/useful-i...
> Greenwald rebuts Ben Smith’s recent New York Times piece on The Intercept publishing the Reality Winner leak. “It wasn’t like The Intercept was free from mistakes, there were mistakes made, and they acknowledged those mistakes. The parent company paid for the source’s, Reality Winner’s, legal defense,” says Greenwald. “I just don’t know what this New York Times article added other than to try and just take shots at people incoherently.”
I don't think Greenwald and Poitras see eye to eye on this one.
I don’t think he could even see eye to eye with himself in the mirror at this point, he such an incoherent mess of poorly constructed anti-Democrat gripes.
I would trust Poitras’s take on this way, way more than Greenwald’s.
But that didn't happen. They wanted to supress it. They tried to stop Greenwald from publishing it everywhere. He thinks the editors of the interecept did this because they had preferences on who should win the then upcoming US presidential election. I'm inclined to agree with him when you look at the correspondance. It's all been published by Greenwald at substack. His approach and his responnse all look extremely reasonable to me.
> but it still makes him a bitter man who can't handle the hit to his ego.
Can't disagree with that take on it enough. Makes him look like he has principles that he stands up for, to me. Indeed precisely that reputation is what got him the scoops and all those Journalism awards like say, the Pulitzer Prize.
Instead of adhering to these basic Journalism 101 bare minimum requirements, Greenwald decided to throw a tantrum and call it censorship, when really it is plain as day to any fair-minded outsider that there was utterly zero censorship towards Greenwald, the Hunter Biden story was crap and major news rooms were right to ignore it, and The Intercept did nothing wrong in that particular scenario.
I'm a little surprised by that response. It's so easy to check.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/emails-with-intercept-edito...
"It would be unfortunate and detrimental to The Intercept for this story to be published elsewhere." --Betsy Reed
So that is stating very clearly: No we won't publish it. No you can't publish it elsewhere.
Now the rest is kind of separate but relevant.
For what it's worth now that the election is done, nobody actually disputes the content of those emails and that they are genuine. Do they? I've missed that if so. I don't think the Bidens ever suggested they were forged, which would have killed the story pretty quick. But that is an /entirely/ separate discussion. Hatchet job? Well that's an opinion and I don't think so at all. I think Hunter Biden's conduct was always going to be an issue for Joe and that it will be again. There's not a lot of doubt in /my/ mind that Hunter Biden has been paid large sums for something that isn't the honest, fair value work he has done. Maybe he took the money that was paid for the sake of that appearance and that's all he did? If his last name was Johnson and his father was a moderately successful professional he's not getting those jobs and that money. It STINKS. And you can hate trump and still have that stench penetrate your preference for "not Trump."
Make of the story Greenwald wrote what you will. There's been plenty of opportunity to falsify it and discredit it. Maybe that's still coming? I want to see it if so. It's certainly something we should know about if so. Something is not right there.
The idea that it should not be published is, well, not something I'd agree with any more than I'd agree that the NYT should not have published Trump's tax returns.
In my view Glenn has integrity. That means something. I don't doubt he would have written a similar story if the facts related to any powerful politician. Trump, McConnell, Pelosi, anyone. Do you?
I've read Greenwald since his pre-Snowden Salon days. Yes, I absolutely doubt that he would have written such an article against Trump.
As can be seen on his Twitter, he will occasionally post something mildly critical of Trump so that he can later point to it repeatedly as cover, with the rest of his US political energies devoted to ignoring and downplaying the administration's actions while attacking Democrats and liberals.
I do doubt he'd bother writing a story everyone else is already reporting and writing. I have approaching zero doubt in the same circumstances concerning a story that suggests corruption that nobody else was writing that he would do it about Don jr, Eric, Ivanka, Jared Kushner or anyone in that orbit. I also believe he looks at Trump's Republicans and Biden's Democrats and finds them equally revolting. You and I can disagree with him on that if we choose to. The anti-Trump stories you mention that he points to? Yeah, not many others writing about Trump write those stories as a focus that I saw. Maybe you saw it differently? I don't want to use him as a repub-dem scoreboard or as my sole source of news so I'm absolutely fine with that. In fact even if he were an ardent Trump Republican supporter or ardent Democrat, (which I think is nonsense for what that's worth), I'd still want to read his stuff.
And for me that is what makes him interesting. He does not fit the "He's a dem/repub" so... But there do seem to be a lot of people who want to shoe-horn him into that line of thinking.
Separate to that the other thing I really like about Glenn is that it is easy to knowledgably disagree with him, (and I frequently, possibly even usually do). He makes that easy by, in my view, having the best mastery of that, (in terms of newspaper traditions) extremely modern writing technique, using the hyperlink. When he draws an inference from facts he links the source. I frequently follow that and look at it and think to myself that his inference is one possibility but I'm not especially sold on it. My own views are made more robust, altered somewhat or even changed by having been exposed to his writing even when I disagree with him. I really like that.
In my view his integrity, devotion to principle, willingness to support his argument with evidence and disdain for following the zeitgeist simply because it exists make him someone I want to read.
Just take each story on it's own. If it interests you follow the links he has and look at other reporting on it so you can make up your own mind and you might find like I do Glenn's stuff is worth your time.
This is not logical implication at all.
> In my view Glenn has integrity. That means something. I don't doubt he would have written a similar story if the facts related to any powerful politician. Trump, McConnell, Pelosi, anyone. Do you?
I think that in fact he selects who he writes about a lot. He is not trying to be all sides equal objective. He also ignores evidence he dont like and uncritically believe people when it suits him.
In fact, it is part of his journalism philosophy. He calls journalistic objectivity myth, not something to strive for. (His arguments actually convicted me too. Altrought I dont trust him anymore, this one did stayed with me.).
> So that is stating very clearly: No we won't publish it. No you can't publish it elsewhere.
You are just embarrassing yourself here.
> “Make of the story Greenwald wrote what you will. There's been plenty of opportunity to falsify it and discredit it.“
It has already been widely discredited by every major news room, including the Republican-leaning Wall Street Journal.
At this point, there is utterly no sense in which a person can believe the unsubstantiated allegations against Hunter Biden or the completely ridiculous found laptop story, other than literally supporting a fascist presidential regime.
What you’re suggesting is a deeply radical and extreme point of view that has been overwhelmingly dismissed by every credible news source. You’re taking a stance on both the Greenwald story and the Hunter Biden story that is wildly and ridiculously decoupled from reality, in a seriously extreme manner that deserves to be called out as totally debunked and inappropriate.
The story has been discredited right up to the point of the emails. Nobody I'm aware of has said they are fake. Not even the Bidens. That makes them interesting concerning a presidential candidate and his response to shady dealing in his own immediate family based on his political profile. That makes them interesting if you are a Democrat. That makes them interesting if you think Biden is a great candidate and the possible person to be President.
If you really want Trump gone at all costs you might want to suppress it. That's a huge cost.
You don't have to trust Rudy Giuliani and i don't as far as i can drop kick him. Does anyone? The "it's the Russians" as a source also lacks evidence.
Where the hell is the laptop from? How did it happen? No clue. Why isn't that being followed with some vigor? It's strange that it isn't, no?
I sure won't be hitching my wagon to the honesty and integrity of Hunter Biden. The emails don't detract at all from the stench.
There's still a belief that we got Trump because Russians and Wikileaks and not because some run of the mill Democrat party corruption came to light and was widely reported on. There's still a belief that reporting on that Hilary Democrat corruption was doing the work of Russia. You either decide that it's your job to report on corruption every single time it comes to light regardless of who or you don't. Washington corruption is endemic. Perhaps we can agree on that.
"Inappropriate" I'd agree with. We clearly see that very differently. I want Glenn being inappropriate regarding the powerful. I'd like it if more journalists were inappropriateb when it comes to highlighting corruption.
This: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1349790954107138050
Suggests otherwise.
Calling it an "archive" is laughable at best, the provenance of the supposed Hunter Biden laptop which was left in the custody of a randomly chosen computer repair shop guy who has ties to Giuliani and the Trump apparatus is clear. The entire thing was an intelligence plant that Greenwald swallowed hook, line and sinker.
There's a reason why dozens of highly respected, experienced investigative journalists took a good look at the information supposedly retrieved from this "laptop" and decided not to proceed with publishing any of it. Because they didn't want to embarrass themselves by publishing obvious fabrications.
From USA Today:
"John Paul Mac Isaac — owner of The Mac Shop — told reporters that a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden brought three liquid-damaged laptops to his repair shop in April 2019, per the Delaware News Journal.
The man left one laptop for repair and never returned to retrieve it.
Eventually, Mac Isaac gave a copy of the laptop's hard drive to Brian Costello, an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, who is the personal lawyer for President Donald Trump. Mac Isaac said he turned the hard drive over to Costello because of fears for his safety."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/politics/hunter-biden-tax-inv...
Greenwald was right in calling the bias.
Edit: I stand corrected. The repair shop owner shared an image of the disk with Giuliani, after first sharing it with the FBI.
Edit: Source https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/10/14/meet-wi...
"Hunter Biden" is not one monolithic story. IIRC, Giuliani's story was all about that laptop (and trying to make it look like Joe Biden was involved), but that laptop may in fact have nothing to do with this tax probe. The existence of the latter doesn't necessarily validate the former.
According to the story you posted:
> Hints of the investigation emerged after President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, helped orchestrate news stories centered on a laptop purported to belong to Hunter Biden and said to include his business documents and other personal material.
> The FBI took possession of the laptop in late 2019, according to a computer repairman in Delaware who showed reporters a copy of a subpoena. The subpoena is real, according to people briefed on the matter, but the FBI and prosecutors in Delaware have refused to confirm the existence of the investigation.
> It's unclear whether the laptop's contents are relevant to the ongoing federal probe and whether investigators can even use them, given potential chain of custody requirements for evidence.
Pay attention to that last paragraph.
No mainstream press with access to Joe Biden ever dared to ask Joe a question so that he could at least defend himself from the allegations.
It really doesn't pass the smell test that it was actually Hunter's laptop. Unless he's majorly stupid (I suppose that's a possibility...), why would he just choose a random computer repair store and leave his laptop(s) there. According to snopes.com, the owner didn't even see Hunter drop off the laptop: https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/10/15/hunter-biden-laptop-g...
If I were Hunter Biden, I would certainly have connections who I can call and ask about fixing a laptop which has secret information, and I would check that they're not a Trump supporter first. OTOH, if it really was Hunter Biden and he wasn't an idiot, then him giving the laptop to some stranger would mean he was sure there were no secrets on that laptop. (Then again, people don't understand tech and he might've thought deleting a file removes all traces of it).
But Twitter and Facebook censoring the story isn't that neutral either, it's obvious who they wanted to win the election.
From Snopes: The Post reported that the saga started in April 2019, when a man identifying himself as Hunter Biden dropped the laptop off at a computer repair shop in the Biden family’s home state of Delaware. The laptop had been damaged by water.
Also, the laptop repair shop owner has gone on court to fight for his version of the story.
https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-laptop-repairma...
At this point he's just a laundering service for far-right scumbags.