Glenn Greenwald has resigned from
The Intercept, apparently because the editors ... well, as
he explains↱:
The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept's editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.
The censored article, based on recently revealed emails and witness testimony, raised critical questions about Biden's conduct. Not content to simply prevent publication of this article at the media outlet I co-founded, these Intercept editors also demanded that I refrain from exercising a separate contractual right to publish this article with any other publication.
I had no objection to their disagreement with my views of what this Biden evidence shows: as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being censored, I encouraged them to air their disagreements with me by writing their own articles that critique my perspectives and letting readers decide who is right, the way any confident and healthy media outlet would. But modern media outlets do not air dissent; they quash it. So censorship of my article, rather than engagement with it, was the path these Biden-supporting editors chose.
Given Greenwald's recent behavior on Twitter, there is a strong prospect that he may have just canceled himself in promotion of a fake scandal.
The article in question will apparently be published, but for the moment, this is apparently the hill where Greenwald wants to plant his flag and make a stand. It's been a strange few years for the congressional spouse and now former media CEO.
†
Update:
The Intercept↱ responded this afternoon:
The narrative Glenn presents about his departure is teeming with distortions and inaccuracies—all of them designed to make him appear as a victim, rather than a grown person throwing a tantrum. It would take too long to point them all out here, but we intend to correct the record in time. For now, it is important to make clear that our goal in editing his work was to ensure that it would be accurate and fair. While he accuses us of political bias, it was he who was attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign—the Trump campaign—and launder them as journalism.
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 ....
.... We have no doubt that Glenn will go on to launch a new media venture where he will face no collaboration with editors—such is the era of Substack and Patreon. In that context, it makes good business sense for Glenn to position himself as the last true guardian of investigative journalism and to smear his longtime colleagues and friends as partisan hacks. We get it. But facts are facts, and The Intercept's record of fearless, rigorous, independent journalism speaks for itself.
Ouch.
Greenwald did, as promised, post the
disputed article↱, and part of what the reader needs to know is that if the
New York Post bombshell fell flat, and by the end of the day it was published had attracted a federal investigation for the possibility of a foreign influence operation, none of that matters insofar as
his argument↱, requires the evidence against Biden cannot possibly be false:
The biggest scandal in this whole tawdry, shameful episode isn't (yet) the misconduct or corruption exposed by the emails, but rather the way the intelligence community & journalists united to censor & just lie about these documents ....
Which, in turn, brings us to
NBC News↱:
One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China.
The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.
The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches.
One of the original posters of the document, a blogger and professor named Christopher Balding, took credit for writing parts of it when asked about it and said Aspen does not exist.
†
It is easy enough to remind that function is important, but the tension between what Greenwald considers principled reportage, to the one, and what the publication's legal department might have to say about potential exposure for factual errors in a consequential news story, to the other, is one of the more dramatic examples we have seen, of late, suggesting a problem about the cancel culture complaint.
There will always remain some possibility that it's all true, and if
anyone on the side of goodness and rightness had simply failed to go about it in a less delegitimizing manner, we might have been able to prevent some great evil.
This is the same would-be scandal that has
Tucker Carlson retreating↱, tonight. Glenn Greenwald is not silenced insofar as his article is up, but the cost is a fair enough question: He has resigned from the media company he founded. But the whole would-be scandal is a complete mess, and in this point we find the turn: The failure to meet certain standards does not mean one is being unfairly canceled or silenced.
And in a time when some dissenters apparently seek to boost their profile through self-cancellation, we come back to the point of the hill where Greenwald wants to plant his flag, and we might consider the possibility that he just canceled himself in promotion of a fake scandal.
____________________
Notes:
@ggreenwald. "The biggest scandal in this whole tawdry, shameful episode isn't (yet) the misconduct or corruption exposed by the emails, but rather the way the intelligence community & journalists united to censor & just lie about these documents. And why is the @nypost account still locked?" Twitter. 21 October 2020. Twitter.com. 29 October 2020. https://bit.ly/3oF6ULB
Baragona, Justin. "Tucker Carlson Suddenly Says It's Time to Leave Hunter Biden Alone". The Daily Beast. 29 October 2020. TheDailyBeast.com. 29 October 2020. https://bit.ly/34CKN0l
Collins, Ben and Brandy Zadrozny. "How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge". NBC News. 29 October 2020. NBCNews.com. 29 October 2020. https://nbcnews.to/2TIx2Xz
Greenwald, Glenn. "Article on Joe and Hunter Biden Censored By The Intercept". Substack. 29 October 2020. Greenwald.Substack.com. 29 October 2020. https://bit.ly/3kGExKG
—————. "My Resignation From The Intercept". Substack. 29 October 2020. Greenwald.Substack.com. 29 October 2020. https://bit.ly/3kGwCgt
The Intercept. "Glenn Greenwald Resigns From The Intercept". 29 October 2020. TheIntercept.com. 29 October 2020. https://bit.ly/37YLa7L
(Updated 29 Oct 2020, 20.56 PDT)