Welcome Back In Independence – Why It Was High Time For Glenn Greenwald To Resign From The Intercept
DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
Yesterday Glenn Greenwald resigned from the Intercept.
The editors of the online journal, which Greenwald had co-founded, tried to censor a recent piece he wrote on the corruption of Joe Biden and on the concerted media effort to suppress that story. Greenwald's contract with the Intercept guaranteed him editorial independence. With its censorship efforts the Intercept breached that contract.
- Greenwald gives his reasons for his decision here.
- He also appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to explain his resignation.
- His exchanges with the Intercept editors is here.
- His now independently published Biden piece:
THE REAL SCANDAL: U.S. MEDIA USES FALSEHOODS TO DEFEND JOE BIDEN FROM HUNTER’S EMAILS.
The Intercept editors replied to Greenwald with a smear piece that does not refute any of the claims he has made:
We have the greatest respect for the journalist Glenn Greenwald used to be, and we remain proud of much of the work we did with him over the past six years. It is Glenn who has strayed from his original journalistic roots, not The Intercept.
Aheem. No. I have read Glenn Greenwald since, fifteen years ago, he first published at his former blog Unclaimed Territory. He went on to write for Salon and the Guardian. Every Greenwald piece I have read was worth the time. Greenwald's writing has not changed at all. It was the Intercept which soon after it launched already moved away from what it had promised to be and which ended up as a useless 'me too' in the librul media landscape.
Others have commented on the resignation:
- Matt Taibbi has written about Greenwald's decision at his substack blog.
- Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism also has a thoughtful take.
- Michael Tracey adds his thoughts in this video.
My first reaction to Greenwald's resignation was a question:
Moon of Alabama @MoonofA - 18:19 UTC · Oct 29, 2020
Why did it take him so long?
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept
The answer is, as Greenwald himself mentions, the financial security the contract with the Intercept gave to Glenn and his family. But that came with a serious reputational price that is no longer worth paying.
That the Intercept was not the adversarial outlet that it had promised to be at its founding has long been clear. I have written several Moon of Alabama pieces about that.
- Do Not Trust The Intercept or How To Burn A Source, June 6 2017
- The Intercept Mistranslates Assad Speech - Smears Syria As Neo-Nazi, Sept 9 2017
- Intercept Augments Its Anti-Syrian Stable, Oct 4 2017
- Whom Not To Trust - U.S. Government Indicts Another Intercept Source, May 9 2019
Our most seminal piece on the Intercept described it as part of a U.S. government operation which used Silicon Valley billionaires to buy the Washington Post and to create the Intercept with the intent to remove the Snowden papers from the public. The same outlets then went on to create Russiagate:
From Snowden To Russiagate - The CIA And The Media was published on December 26, 2017.
Snowden had copies of some 20,000 to 58,000 NSA files. Only 1,182 have been published. Bezos and Omidyar obviously helped the NSA to keep more than 95% of the Snowden archive away from the public. The Snowden papers were practically privatized into trusted hands of Silicon Valley billionaires with ties to the various secret services and the Obama administration.
The motivation for the Bezos and Omidyar to do this is not clear. Bezos is estimated to own a shameful $90 billion. The Washington Post buy is chump-change for him. Omidyar has a net worth of some $9.3 billion. But the use of billionaires to mask what are in fact intelligence operations is not new. The Ford Foundation has for decades been a CIA front, George Soros' Open Society foundation is one of the premier "regime change" operations, well versed in instigating "color revolutions".
It would have been reasonable if the cooperation between those billionaires and the intelligence agencies had stopped after the NSA leaks were secured. But it seems that strong cooperation of the Bezos and Omidyar outlets with the CIA and others continues.
After the Snowden rush was over Glenn Greenwald mostly wrote for Intercept Brazil about the corruption under Jair Bolosonaro. He unraveled the fascist efforts to put the former President Lula into jail. As he lives in Brazil [and he's also gay] Greenwald's reporting came at a high personal risk.
As he will now be freelancing again we can expect him to again concentrate on U.S. politics. He will add to the faithful reporting of Taibbi, Yves Smith, Tracey and other independent writers. It is high time to do so as U.S. media on the leftish side have become incapable of publishing faithful news about their favorite candidate.
In his censored Intercept piece Greenwald points out that the U.S. media and social media suppress any mention of the corrupt behavior of the Biden family in the Ukraine and in China. It his highly welcome that he adds his voice to our debunking of the media falsehoods in those affairs:
The claim that Shokin was not investigating Burisma and its owner is evidently false. As we have pointed out several times Shokin, the prosecutor, confiscated four large houses and a luxury car of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky just ten days before Joe Biden started to press for his firing.
Glenn Greenwald is a well known author. He will be able to gain enough readers to support his now again independent writing. Still independence comes at a price. Besides the income there are a lot of perks that come with writing for a larger outlet. As a lonely independent blogger one is at times missing those.
But Greenwald's career path only reinforces my determination to continue Moon of Alabama as an independent entity. It is the only way to report and opine without the interference of other interests. My thanks go to you, the readers, who make this possible.
Posted by b on October 30, 2020 at 13:22 UTC | Permalink
The podcast Greenwald did with Joe Rogan is fascinating too.
Posted by: Down South | Oct 30 2020 13:32 utc | 2
Good. Maybe Glenn Greenwald now has the "editorial independence" (read: cojones) to clarify in detail why the Snowden Files have been swept under the table?!
Posted by: v | Oct 30 2020 13:40 utc | 3
I will continue to send financial support to you both.
Posted by: 4 corners Bill | Oct 30 2020 13:41 utc | 4
Kudos to you for your reporting on The Intercept's shady origins and practices. I always wondered how Greenwald managed to stay with them for so long after Matt Taibbi abandoned ship.
While I hate the personal turmoil this is likely going to involve for Greenwald, I'm impressed by the extent to which he's kept his credibility undamaged over such a long period.
Posted by: stratodude | Oct 30 2020 13:42 utc | 5
No surprise to find that Peter Maas is at the centre of this sordid story- his work, most of which is founded in the endless repetition of discredited CIA smears, exemplifies the corruption in The Intercept.
Independent bloggers like b, Craig Murray and Greenwald (and there are very many others) ought to consider the possibilities of forming a loose federation in order to maximise the exposure and availability of their work. With the monopolies like Twitter, Facebook and Google using all their strength to obscure real journalists' work it is crucial that those attempting to discover the truth should be easily accessible.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 30 2020 13:45 utc | 7
"The Real Story of the last four years" - Glenn Greenwald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pkCZBjgrk&feature=emb_logo
At the 4:00 minute mark in this video Greenwald sums up the sorry state of our, now, Security State. Democrats and the MSM have allied themselves with The Security State.
Jump to the 4:00 minutes mark.
Posted by: librul | Oct 30 2020 13:49 utc | 8
Meanwhile, Naomi Klein makes an even more unlikeable person out of herself:
Glenn was not "censored" - he was edited, and edited well. Crying censorship is a marketing ploy to gin up subscribers for his new Substack. Are people really going to fall for it?
From Shock Doctrine to Sellout Queen is only a small step in journalism.
Posted by: v | Oct 30 2020 14:00 utc | 9
if you listen to Greenwald on Joe Rogan, and you listen carefully, you might glimpse the true insight that drives our media gatekeepers, even the ones who proclaim their independence. I'll summarize it this way: as reputations are built, fear of ridicule keeps the edifice of identity that results from crumbling.
For example, why is it that I can't post links at MOA, a winner of the Serena Shim award for uncompromised integrity in journalism, to another website (TLAV) that has ALSO won the Serena Shim award?
is it that our host is just too afraid to be called a Covidiot on Twitter? is that why the conversation here has been so narrowed and links to TLAV don't show up?
My list of media sources I trust keeps getting shorter and shorter.
Dear b.: GG is a very slipy person. I reccomend you some Pepe Escobar writings about him.
Posted by: Francisco Montero | Oct 30 2020 14:05 utc | 11
Yep, agree in full. Wonder if part of the trade was, in addition to the paycheck, protection from Bolsonaro?
In any case, Greenwald helped show that both halves of the US 2-party system approve the support of violent right wingers worldwide, when it protects the empire's power, as is the most common pattern. His MSM detractors still believe the modern US, in total, can be a force for peace and democracy. It will take them many years to admit the depth of contradictions. And when they do they will be fired. So it goes...
Posted by: ptb | Oct 30 2020 14:09 utc | 12
Pretty disappointing for MoA to talk about the involvement of Bezos and the other guy Omidyar and fail to mention the other side of the transaction, Greenwald himself. Those guys purchased the Snowden archive from Greenwald no doubt for millions perhaps even tens of millions of dollars. They are all lawyer/businessmen and they did business. Well over 90% of the Snowden archive will never appear in public and we will never know what is in them this is entirely due to the actions of Glenn Greenwald Bazos and Omidyar are just business men acting for their own interests.
Greenwald, like Chomsky, are charlatans and propagandists working for imperial interests.
It gets easier and easier to pick out the fascists, they are the ones who cry DEMOCRACY no matter what. DEMOCRACY - There is no alternative. It's still working as we can see.
Posted by: Babyl-on | Oct 30 2020 14:15 utc | 13
b., care to explain why you list Yves Smith here?
She posted one Greenwald resignation article today too,
and reposted exactly one "maybe, maybe not" article over Hunter Biden's emails 10 days ago,
but otherwise big black nothing.
Posted by: michael | Oct 30 2020 14:24 utc | 14
Posted by: lizard | Oct 30 2020 14:02 utc | 10
You trust The Last American Vagabond? This hyperventilating blabbermouth?
He has opened so many doorways to all kinds of rabbit holes but has never found a way out.
Same goes for people like James Corbett.
A good yardstick for how trustworthy a media source is, is to read the comment section and the chat conversations during the live-shows.
Posted by: v | Oct 30 2020 14:25 utc | 15
B: Pepe Escobar AND Sibel Edmonds on slippy GG
Posted by: Francisco Montero | Oct 30 2020 14:31 utc | 16
I am always shocked that GG is still perceived as having any credibility. He founded the intercept, he didn't just work for it. He buried the snowden files as pointed out above.
As far as him "needing a paycheck" to "support his family", fucking hilarious. How many books has he written? How many paid appearances? GG and the next couple of generations of his descendants don't have any financial concerns.
I believe GG is what is known as a gate keeper.
Posted by: visak | Oct 30 2020 14:32 utc | 17
I have only pity for the so called journalists who still write for the Guardian.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 30 2020 14:43 utc | 18
I welcome GG's assault on The Intercept, obvious "controlled opposition".
So he sold out and now he wants to "regain trust".
But as others said, the question that comes to mind is: "Why did it take so long?" and also "Why now?" Which leads to the observation that we should scrutinize closely what GG makes an issue of next. They're up to something.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 30 2020 14:57 utc | 19
GG has been consistent through the years in both his excellent writing and world view. As for Snowden - GG, LP and others have the entire Snowden cache - it has not been buried by billionaires. Why it all hasn't been released or reported on is the question to ask, which I'm sure they have sound 'journalistic' reasons, or not. It's easy to question the honor and veracity of strangers from afar. From this POV GG has been a consistent voice for good in the ol' blogosphere.
Posted by: gottlieb | Oct 30 2020 15:02 utc | 20
'The motivation for the Bezos and Omidyar to do this is not clear.'
Let's remember that the CIA essentially funded Amazon's development through its cloud computing contract.
I wonder how many other Tech 'Unicorns' have received funding or seed financing (and perhaps their technology too) from the CIA.
Perhaps the CIA is America's version of Iran's Revolutionary Guards?
Posted by: dh-mtl | Oct 30 2020 15:09 utc | 21
"finally" was my first thought as well. i had his intercept author page bookmarked but just giving a single view to that PoS site made me feel like i needed a shower after.
granted, he should have left after the syria nonsense. then after the russiagate stupidity (risen and mackey are by far two of the most screeching and idiotic gaters outside of louise mench and her alternate dimension). then he should have left when they took down the snowden archive - which, as you and others have mentioned many times, was only a paltry sliver of the entire release. i've never 100% bought into the "snowden was a limited hangout" theory but WOW did they shit the bed on what could have been a profound set of leaks.
i've also been a bit confused over his recent "poor victimized joe rogan getting 9 figures to say dumb shit for 4 hours a day" campaign but i hope he keeps publishing books and maybe find a way to monetize his work. as a fellow reader of his going back to the blogspot days i agree he's not only great at the actual technical art of writing but mostly consistent (he was oddly anti-chavez back in the day which is funny given his current residence and whom he interviews).
Posted by: the pair | Oct 30 2020 15:30 utc | 22
@v
Trust is earned, and trust can be lost. TLAV helped Whitney Webb keep a critical eye on the true implications of the Ghislaine op and the connections to the dark winter vaccine op.
but hey, at least b won't be labeled a Covidiot on twitter.
dh-mtl @ 21
To understand this significance, you have to consider what the intelligence community was trying to achieve as it seeded grants to the best computer-science minds in academia: The CIA and NSA funded an unclassified, compartmentalized program designed from its inception to spur the development of something that looks almost exactly like Google. Brin’s breakthrough research on page ranking by tracking user queries and linking them to the many searches conducted—essentially identifying “birds of a feather”—was largely the aim of the intelligence community’s MDDS program. And Google succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
Posted by: Down South | Oct 30 2020 15:39 utc | 24
Hunter Biden’s activities have been known for years yet swept under the rug. Any preemptive opposition research Democrats conducted into Biden would have raised huge red flags. But they chose to foist the sclerotic, empty suit on the American people anyway.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. Should Biden win, he will be immediately knee-capped, like Trump was with the RussiaGate incriminations.
Cui Bono? Certainly Republicans, who will flog this incessantly, making Benghazi look like a jaywalking crime. Others note that the intelligence services love to use information like this as leverage to nudge a President to conform to their desires. One would think that this would not be necessary since Biden, as head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, had to have been a trusted asset already, just like Pelosi who was a compliant, long serving member of the House Intelligence Community.
Since the NYPost article came too late to affect the election, and was suppressed by the liberal media, I expect its release was just a friendly reminder to Biden as to who is in charge. Should Biden show signs of independence, I expect the liberal media to magically discover the story, adding credibility to whatever Republicans will have been flogging. Otherwise Republicans will be just mocked or just ignored.
The Democratic establishment’s zeal in selecting a deeply compromised, underachieving candidate like Biden, who has a long history of eagerly rollIng over to have his belly rubbed by powerful interests, is a clear indication of the extent to which they have been corrupted and compromised.
Posted by: JohnH | Oct 30 2020 15:43 utc | 25
I believe Glen Greenwald was an important part of the demise of John Key as neoliberal Five Eyes leader in New Zealand, even though at first his appearance there was drummed down by the NZ media, and it well appeared to have defeated its purpose. Sometimes uncomfortable truths take a while to percolate, especially when they come from outside the country. (I know that from conversing with my own family there.) While the entire cache of the surveillance files has not been released, enough came out to let us know what was going on in our acceptance of internet communication and many aspects of the deep deep surveillance that was and is still going on.
The Intercept was a mixed bag from the getgo. The enticements must have been hard to resist, even though I like many others could never find a comfortable home there. And there are many news conveyers we will have to forgive for past transgressions they may not feel bold enough to admit. Actions do speak louder than words,but words verify actions. And no one, least of all those who only comment, should fault those who belatedly turn away from what we all abhor. We were all like that once. It has taken me till now to forgive Matt Taibbi for his advocacy of Obama in 2012. I haven't read his pieces since. Now, with Greenwald making a similar move, and in light of Glenn's past heroism as I consider that period, I am hopeful it is a sign that we are not alone.
[PS. Although b's prior post of the russiagate Wall Street shows yet another obfuscation of responsibility, I thought it also a sign of significant backtracking with respect to relations with Russia. That has to be a weakening of the iron curtain stance, even if only a very slight quiver at the edge. We should remember that russiagate helped Putin solidify support in his own country, and I suspect elsewhere as well.]
Posted by: juliania | Oct 30 2020 16:11 utc | 26
...
Well over 90% of the Snowden archive will never appear in public and we will never know what is in them this is entirely due to the actions of Glenn Greenwald Bazos and Omidyar are just business men acting for their own interests.
...
Posted by: Babyl-on | Oct 30 2020 14:15 utc | 13
Don't fret.
Snowden and his NSA files are all in the safest of safe places - aka Russia. Putin has been critical of Snowden's decision to collect NSA files instead of simply resigning from the NSA (Part 2 of Oliver Stone's Putin Interviews). However, the Yankee person who made the decision to strand Snowden in Russia, by cancelling his travel documents, should be awarded the Nobel Prize for Irony...
I'm 100% certain that Russia's security services have read all 40 or 50,000 files and have ranked and categorised them. I'm also certain that possession of the Snowden/NSA files is the reason Putin laughs off US 'sanctions'.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 30 2020 16:21 utc | 27
Dont matter.. Trump will lose and big. The american people are fed up with annoying and tired buffoon. Like I said 2 months ago in this same board. This election is a plebiscite about Trump. He is like a CBS show about to cancel after the 4th season
Posted by: Nick | Oct 30 2020 16:28 utc | 28
Posted by: Down South | Oct 30 2020 15:39 utc | 24
Have you ever read the definitive article on the CIA creating Google? That was published in 2015, two years before the article you linked to. Thanks for that link, by the way, I hadn't seen it before.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 30 2020 16:28 utc | 29
thanks for your work b.... i have always admired glenn g's writing from way back to the early days.. i wasn't all that impressed with the intercept move, but people change.. i welcome this change and wish him much success... he is one of the writers, along with a short list - that i do admire for speaking truth to power... they are few and far between...
Posted by: james | Oct 30 2020 16:37 utc | 30
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
As Matt Taibbi pointed out the suppression of the Biden story is an even bigger story than the scandal itself.
Now that Greenwald has resigned in such a public manner and for the reasons he has, there is no way that the US MSM can continue to suppress the story without severe reputational damage.
The damage control they have run for Biden just blew up in their face.
Posted by: Down South | Oct 30 2020 13:29 utc | 1