September 4, 2014

"For about a year, the global enterprise you might call Glenn Greenwald, Inc. has been taking off like a red-hot app."

"The question now is whether the sudden rise of Greenwald—a 47-year-old lawyer-cum-activist from Queens by way of George Washington University—will soon follow the course of most Information Age startups: Boom. Bust. Bye."

The first paragraph of a piece at Politico titled "Has Greenwald, Inc. Peaked?/Thanks to Ed Snowden, Glenn Greenwald went from blogging to the big time. But his stock may be dropping fast."

49 comments:

Gahrie said...

Am I the only one who remembers the whole Greenwald sock puppet scandal?

I haven't taken this guy seriously since then.

Known Unknown said...

He's a one-click pony.

rhhardin said...

Have a 50% off sale.

That's what the NYT does. Just today, in my default Yahoo spam folder, I see the NYT has extended its 50% off sale.

Sigivald said...

I'm with Gahrie.

I've never taken Greenwald seriously, still don't.

At best he got lucky when Snowden picked him to be his buddy. That's it.

Nonapod said...

Asked whether it bothered him that he had helped to damage America’s brand — considering that the successor to claimant of sole superpower someday could be China or some even less freedom-loving country than the United States—Greenwald suggested that he has a higher calling than mere patriotism. “I look at the work I do and the effect it has on world, not as an American citizen,” he said.

Make no mistake, it's all about him.


chuck said...

Just one data point: It took me a minute to remember who Glen Greenwald was.

traditionalguy said...

Greenwald backhands the sweet NSA and drags them around by their hair. And also his momma raises rutabagas.

Disinformation is information too.

The Crack Emcee said...

I betcha, if you did a poll, not a single black person would know his name.

But he's "red hot" alright,...

AustinRoth said...

You may be right, Crack, but that is a condemnation of the Black community. There are a lot if things the average Black should be more aware of, but they are not.

B said...

He tweets pretty rabidly against Israel. I don't think he writes anything misleading or false. But he clearly has an agenda and it isn't always palatable. You can learn a lot if you can stomach his editorializing.

lgv said...

Also, GM reported that people are getting tired of Ford vehicles.

lgv said...


Blogger EMD said...
He's a one-click pony.

Ding! A winner. Very nice.

FullMoon said...

AustinRoth said...

You may be right, Crack, but that is a condemnation of the Black community. There are a lot if things the average Black should be more aware of, but they are not.


I AM NOT DEFENDING CRACK SO DO NOT CALL ME NAMES.

The average person has no idea who Greenwald is. Most people who bother to look for news or current events still get it from TV.


Robert Cook said...

For all his faults, Greenwald is a more valuable and trenchant journalist/critic of current affairs than any single one--or all--of the hirelings paid to read propaganda on all the major cable and broadcast networks.

Richard Dolan said...

An odd, almost pointless piece in Politico.

Greenwald grabbed a huge story and ran with it (still is running with it). When you try to think of major news stories broken by bloggers, the NSA snooping story may be the most consequential of them all. The first one I can remember was Charles Johnson's take-down of CBS over the 'fake but accurate' docs dealing with Bush's military service. It's beside the point if Greenwald (or Johnson) is a complete jerk in other ways.

Whether anyone will be reading what Greenwald has to write tomorrow will depend on what he writes. The same is true, by the way, of the article's author, Michael Hirsch, a name (unlike Greenwald) that I don't associate with any large news story.

traditionalguy said...

Cookie has a point.

The new Fox babe is pretty good interrogator. She was a lawyer. But even she has to clear the message with Roger Ailes.

Birkel said...

The Crack Emcee and Full Moon are certainly correct. That anybody knows who Gleen Grennwald is proves they have a problem.

I'm on Step 4 of the recovery program.

If you don't get help here, get help somewhere.

Birkel said...

I doubt Gleen Grennwald is unpaid.

Greenpeace gets money from the Saudis, after all.

Freeman Hunt said...

Global enterprise? Political hobbyists are always thinking that all people are political hobbyists when more like one or two percent are. One or two percent... reminds me of some other often inflated identity.

FullMoon said...


Blogger Birkel said...

The Crack Emcee and Full Moon are certainly correct. That anybody knows who Gleen Grennwald is proves they have a problem.

I'm on Step 4 of the recovery program.

If you don't get help here, get help somewhere.


Yeah, well when you get to the eighth step, remember how you been hurting my feelings with your insults the past couple of days.

Additionally, yesterday you promised to ignore me. You not gonna get far if you don't change your lying ways.

William said...

I wonder why there are leaks from the NSA but none from the IRS. You would think that some high minded IRS bureaucrat would be troubled by his organization's overreach......The FBI's so called black jobs, i.e break-ins by government operatives in order to gain info, were done by Hoover on FDR's specific instruction. They were targeted at the Liberty Lobby and German American Bunds. Some reporters knew of these break ins and were, in fact, provided with background info that came from these break ins. There were no reporters or FBI agents who dropped any red flags on these break ins......The Democratic Party represents the interests of government employees and journalists. It is very hard for such people to break a story critical of the Democrat establishment. I think most of them consider the NSA to be more a Dick Cheney thing than a Democrat thing. Perhaps this perception will change over time.

Birkel said...

Reading mis-comprehension is fun.

William said...

There were only two published reports of Stalin's politically motivated famines during the twenties. Compare that with all that was thought and written about Sacco & Vanzetti during that same time period......Journalists are not a very introspective group. They don't wonder why they get the big picture wrong so often. They don't even admit they get the big picture wrong. In the 8/25 edition of The New Yorker, there was a lengthy article about a British undercover policeman who fathered an illegitimate child with a member of a group he infiltrated. It detailed the ill effects he had had upon that woman and her child. Do you think that that reporter or her editor would ever show the same amount of curiosity and care about the thousands of underage girls who were raped by Pakistanis. Not a chance. No Pulitzers, no book deals, no movies to be had furrowing those fields..

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Freeman Hunt said...
One or two percent... reminds me of some other often inflated identity.


Why are we always hating on the gays? Without them, no Broadway shows or women's golf.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Why are we always hating on the gays?"

We? I'm not in that we.

Drago said...

ARM: "Why are we always hating on the gays?"

Hmmm, note to self: Capturing an accurate % of population that is gay/homosexual = hate.

Thanks.

More "code" one supposes.

Thorley Winston said...

Why are we always hating on the gays? Without them, no Broadway shows or women's golf.

Nice of you to supply the answer to your own question (I kid, I kid).

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

Further note to self:
AReasonableMan is "always hating on the gays" by his own admission.

That's not cool, dude.

FullMoon said...

C'mon fellas, even ARM can make a joke once in awhile. Why so serious?

I AM NOT DEFENDING A REASONABLE MAN SO DON'T CALL ME NO NAMES!

Anonymous said...

He has Leftist and anarchic tendencies, but a legal education and the ability to organize resources:

He's also a crusader and there's a lot to be skeptical about regarding crusaders.

Sam L. said...

I remember that, Gahrie

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

FullMoon said...
C'mon fellas, even ARM can make a joke once in awhile. Why so serious?

I AM NOT DEFENDING A REASONABLE MAN SO DON'T CALL ME NO NAMES!


Commie!

The Crack Emcee said...

AustinRoth,

"You may be right, Crack, but that is a condemnation of the Black community. There are a lot if things the average Black should be more aware of, but they are not."

Naw - you racists will turn anything into "a condemnation of the Black community." All you seem to need is an opportunity to speak and - with no caveats to slavery, or history, or whites what-so-ever - your condemnation is as expected as the sun rising. It's white supremacy's silly heritage.

But, while you're right there's a lot blacks aren't aware of, you're going to have a hard time convincing me that a people who were stripped naked and sold by their fellow countrymen, or are repeatedly awakened to the sound of police battering rams at 6 in the morning, aren't aware of a lack of privacy in American life. If anything, we're so far ahead of you, on that topic, the Edward Snowden "revelations" (if that's what they even are to anyone aware) are laughable.

No need for blacks to follow the story - we are that story. Or don't you remember the FBI recording MLK in sexual congress and sending the recordings to King's wife and associates? That was in the 60s and you think privacy's a hot story - now?

You clown yourself.

And of course you will - because it's all about whites and what they care about - and caring about blacks, as citizens, has never been high on white's list of priorities.

NEVER.

Next you'll be telling me blacks should be enlightened about the "new" great white revelation our police are racist, corrupt, and get away with murder,...

Birkel said...

The meds didn't take?

Drago said...

FullMoon: "C'mon fellas, even ARM can make a joke once in awhile. Why so serious?

I AM NOT DEFENDING A REASONABLE MAN SO DON'T CALL ME NO NAMES!"

I'm afraid that will have to be added to your permanent record.

Your. Permanent. Record.

EOT

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I don't mind Greenwald at all. He's doing his job. I wish more journalists would do theirs.

Snowden's still a Russian spy, though.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some professional jealousy is involved here.

I wasn't overly familiar with him, but I added him on twitter during his coverage of Aaron Swartz's death - about six months before Snowden broke - along with several others of the same mind (Lawrence Lessig, Quinn Norton, etc.)

Because of this and some others more focused on the black community, I was positioned quite well for the breaking of both Snowden and Ferguson, so I don't agree with Crack that there is no crossover.

There is ... specifically around the issue of Net Neutrality which allows the marginalized access to communication to get their story out and compete with the corporate version.

tim maguire said...

There are very very few liberals whose opinions and priorities don't change when the party in power changes.

There's Glenn Greenwald and there's...there's...well, I'm sure he's not totally alone but nobody else comes to mind (I don't consider Nat Henthoff a liberal; the old school, actually believes in liberal values, liberals are too out of step with post-60's progressivism to still call them liberal).

chillblaine said...

"I'm really glad to be a part of anything that CAIR does," said Glenn Greenwald.

CAIR was created by the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization committed to Islamic Supremacy. CAIR also has ties to Hamas.

Anonymous said...

Greenwald/Swartz/Ferguson had more crossover on Net Neutrality than Greenwald/Snowden/Ferguson now that I think about it, but the latter had crossover in the form of the rights of the people being protected against incredibly powerful entrenched interests.

I've done some analytics, certainly not on an NSA level, but enough to understand why they think they need a wide metadata sweep like that. But what was revealed was far more invasive and pernicious and absolutely will and already does have far reaching consequences that can be foreseen now.

Just because it hasn't affected anyone you know YET so you can pretend it's not scary is whistling past the graveyard. It is far easier to combat things before they get to that the ground level. It's really the only chance. And that's why Snowden/Greenwald is so valuable.

It is the same theme as those who tried to draw attention to the dangers of the militarization of the police and the racial bias which eventually came to a head in Ferguson.

I see a lot of information from invigorated activists post-Ferguson saying as long as you (the people) are educated about your rights it will be okay... like it's high school school government class.

Well, actually... no. Because the rights of the people have been severely eroded over the last few decades - see Swartz, see Snowden, see Ferguson. And it is in all our best interests to engage on all levels to regain ground. That's the point and that's the crossover.

Kirk Parker said...

ARM,

"Without [the gays], no Broadway shows or women's golf. "

Enough of the benefits... surely there is a downside or two, isn't there?

rcommal said...

Greenwald might just have dropped back down to only blogger status. Is that it?

Robert Cook said...

"I don't consider Nat Henthoff (sic) a liberal;"

Your "consideration" notwithstanding, Nat Hentoff is certainly a liberal. He may be that rare public liberal who displays independence of mind, but then, few people--public or private, liberal or conservative, male or female, of any nationality or ethnic background--actually have independent minds.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Crack I notice you often phrase things as "you stripped naked and sold..."

Let's turn that around then. When exactly, and by whom, were YOU stripped naked and sold into slavery? Knowing the answer to that may provide some insight into your personality.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

For the record, I have never stripped and/or sold into slavery ANY man woman or child. Not even once.

Just so you know.

rcommal said...

OMG, Tim Maguire.

What a silly thing you wrote re: Nat Hentoff.

It has never before occurred to me to ask about your age, much less both your (especially) reading habits and your critical-thinking abilities going back a decade, two decades, three decades & etc. ago.

Now it has.

rcommal said...

Let me guess:

Nat Hentoff is not considered liberal, much less progressive, primarily on account of his [pro-life] [anti-abortion] [anti-death penalty] views. Have I got that right?

rcommal said...

Among other things, of course.

---

What I am taking issue with, and great exception to, is, of course, "the practice of simplifying a complex idea, issue, condition, or the like, especially to the point of minimizing, obscuring, or distorting it."