defend the indefensible: glenn fucking greenwald

Cool, cool: Richard Esposito, co-author of the Intercept story that landed Reality Winner in federal prison, is now the head of the NYPD's press office.

A co-author of a controversial report at The Intercept that landed its source in prison now works as the head of the New York Police Department’s press office.

The former journalist, Richard Esposito, had embedded for a long period inside the NYPD, developing close ties to US police agencies that were clear before The Intercept chose to work with him. However, the news website apparently did not see Esposito’s cop-friendly behavior as disqualifying or even suspicious.

Esposito and his longtime friend and colleague, Matthew Cole, a full-time reporter at The Intercept, were co-authors of a 2017 report on National Security Agency allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The reporters disclosed sensitive information to US government agencies, which led to the outing of their confidential source, former NSA contractor Reality Winner, and her eventual imprisonment for five years.

Although this scandalous story was the only piece Esposito published at The Intercept, he was somehow assigned an official company email address as well as an author page that has since been removed from the website without explanation.

The same duo, Esposito and Cole, played an integral role in the arrest and imprisonment of another source, CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, several years before they worked with The Intercept.

Inevitable.

Should the populist left work with the populist right where they have common ground, or shun them? https://t.co/8QcagioB7Z by @ggreenwald

— The Intercept (@theintercept) June 25, 2020

this is so February

look at that art lol

who are those people

Greenwald in Brazil: the right is evil, they send me and my family death threats, they murdered a black trans woman politician friend of ours.
Greenwald in the US: maybe Steve Bannon is cool?

a few comments make the duh point that greenwald spends so much time deriding dems for compromising with untrustworthy republicans, instead of his preferred strategy which is apparently compromising with untrustworthy republicans

You know what you never hear discussed on the right? Calls to form an alliance with socialists. They’re busy trying to crush us while we debate whether or not we should be friendlier to them.

— Sam Sacks (@SamSacks) June 25, 2020

Does Greenwald think he’s a member of the “Populist Left”?

yes

congrats to GG for getting a trump retweet

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/13/business/media/the-intercept-source-reality-winner.html#click=https://t.co/ThcvVKSDwX

more about first look and intercept rly.

I'm not defending anyone when I say that I'm not sure what the "news value" is in revisiting when and how they fucked up, which I thought was pretty immediately clear?

In the world of the New York Times, a story doesn't exist until the New York Times covers it. There's your value.

that the intercept hugely fucked up was instantly clear, not sure that the details of how emerged immediately tho: when did cole become a police spokesman? beyond smith saying "i obtained" the piece doesn't tell us when the internal discussion came into NYT hands -- maybe it's belated but has this internal discussion been out in the world previously? if not then it's a story

(unperson's point abt the nyt's self-absorbed attitude to newsworthiness is also on point of course, but it's also just a practical feature in the landscape until that particular hegemony is dismantled)

less abstractly: if yr basic political pitch is radical transparency -- which was a v potent pitch and totally remains a worthwhile aim imo -- then rival outlets with contrasting politics will always be eager to publish stories abt how the process of running yr magazine dedicated to radical transparency will (best version) distort and (worst version) radically betray this aim. as with assange (generous reading), the actors delivering radical transparency have often been endlessly deeply fvcking naive politically, abt who can manipulate who and how (and i don't really mean putin here) (or indeed trump and the GOP). it's a big bad gameable world: if you take on the big dark expert forces in making idealism gameable, scornful individualist libetrarian swagger is really only going to take you so far before they really really get up in yr shit and this is what happened here

also: as an exampe of "let's not but we'll say we did", the snowden file getting shuttered -- the radical privatisation of public information -- is indeed "old news" but it's also news barely covered then or now -- and it only gets the tiniest sideswipe here (bcz both sides have too big an interest in its non-coverage)

(sorry: esposito is now the police spokesman, not cole)

Another of its highest-profile hires, the former Topic.com editor Anna Holmes, who left in 2019, told me: “I’ve always admired First Look Media’s stated commitment to free speech, transparency and speaking truth to power. So in that spirit I’ll say this: My tenure there was creatively rewarding — it was also personally and professionally demoralizing.”

daaaamn

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EisIu4ZX0AQpiig?format=jpg&name=small

*hits poppers*

*galaxy brain throbs*

*mounts a Nazi*

What the fuck is it with this guy at this point

Glenn Greenwald's savage takedown of @ggreenwald. pic.twitter.com/SvXOR4OUY5

— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 12, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10224279063303168&set=gm.3462351267177280

whatever that link is ain't working on my end

greenwald claiming in the replies of that tweet that it was actually "satire"... okay, buddy.

I was more talking about Greenwald's anti-anti-anti-Bidenist tweet insisting that no actually we SHOULD be grilling Joe B. on his sinister court-packing scheme, why is the press going so easy on him

But that one was bad too

is that one a joke too

glenn greenwald: comedian

but doctor -- i am glenn greenwald

the tweets of a clown

I was more talking about Greenwald's anti-anti-anti-Bidenist tweet insisting that no actually we SHOULD be grilling Joe B. on his sinister court-packing scheme, why is the press going so easy on him

him and fellow comedy genius scott adams should drop a collab, maybe he could co-write some new dilford comics or something

Blind pig, acorn...

If it’s really true that the US Marshals purposely avoided arresting this US citizen on US soil, and chose to shoot and kill him instead without provocation, then everyone involved and responsible should be prosecuted. https://t.co/VYMrBDFN1K

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 15, 2020

I'm proud he resigned with his characteristic accountability, lack of self-pity, and insistence on the high road.

My Resignation From The Intercept

The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.https://t.co/dZrlYGfEBf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 29, 2020

I am EXTREMELY annoyed that isn't "My Resignation from the Internet."

"My Resignation from not having a lucrative Substack Newsletter"

let my man cook

The censored article, based on recently revealed emails and witness testimony, raised critical questions about Biden’s conduct.

Oh boy, cant wait

Imagine the Hunter Biden story is the hill you choose to die on.

They should have let him publish his crybaby article and responded with a rebuttal article consisting of: "Even if this were true, no one cares, Glenn."

lol this guy

zing

Intercept EIC Betsy Reed sent me this statement regarding the departure of @ggreenwald, saying there's a "fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism and the nature of censorship." pic.twitter.com/Od2TTKLsyq

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) October 29, 2020

cot damn

Savage and well deserved.

I could see him just going full Fox News, as in with his own show there, by the end of the year.

hear me out, a podcast where glenn greenwald & mollie hemingway scream a list of enemies at each other for 90 straight minutes

— kilgore trout, tucker carlson’s mailman (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 29, 2020

Lee Fang is 100% team-Greenwald which seems weird, but Lee has had a pretty rough year so I'm not sure where his head his at.

Saw something like this coming as soon as the Intercept started publishing pieces that occasionally criticized Republicans rather than exclusively Democrats. Glenn must have hated that