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Co-Founder Of ‘The Intercept’ Resigns From His Own Publication Citing Censorship Of Op-Ed Critical Of The Bidens

Greenwald says that leftist media is “in bed with the CIA” because they’re set on destroying Trump.

This resignation is a massive shake-up in the world of journalism, and it’s one that’s really important to take note of.

Glenn Greenwald is an investigative journalist who was one of several reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for reports based on the leaks by Edward Snowden of highly classified information detailing the surveillance of Americans by the National Security Agency. Greenwald was a lawyer who began his journalistic career as a blogger in 2005. He built up such a massive following that he was asked to join the ranks of Salon in 2007 and then The Guardian in 2012.

Later, Greenwald co-founded The Intercept, a left-leaning news organization with the explicit commitment to “express political and ideological views that deviated from mainstream orthodoxy” and to ensure that journalists were not censored if their position was backed by facts. Greenwald’s contract with The Intercept allowed him a high degree of editorial freedom to publishing articles that he wanted to write with no restrictions other than those that would cause legal liability for the news outlet.

In an article explaining his resignation, Greenwald writes a scathing critique of his former publication and the culture currently present at center-left journalistic outlets that stifle any criticism of the Deep State and Joe Biden.

…the pathologies, illiberalism, and repressive mentality that led to the bizarre spectacle of my being censored by my own media outlet are ones that are by no means unique to The Intercept. These are the viruses that have contaminated virtually every mainstream center-left political organization, academic institution, and newsroom. I began writing about politics fifteen years ago with the goal of combatting media propaganda and repression, and — regardless of the risks involved — simply cannot accept any situation, no matter how secure or lucrative, that forces me to submit my journalism and right of free expression to its suffocating constraints and dogmatic dictates…

…the brute censorship this week of my article — about the Hunter Biden materials and Joe Biden’s conduct regarding Ukraine and China, as well my critique of the media’s rank-closing attempt, in a deeply unholy union with Silicon Valley and the “intelligence community,” to suppress its revelations — eroded the last justification I could cling to for staying. It meant that not only does this media outlet not provide the editorial freedom to other journalists, as I had so hopefully envisioned seven years ago, but now no longer even provides it to me. In the days heading into a presidential election, I am somehow silenced from expressing any views that random editors in New York find disagreeable, and now somehow have to conform my writing and reporting to cater to their partisan desires and eagerness to elect specific candidates.

Source: Glenn Greenwald

Watch Greenwald discuss the situation with Tucker Carlson:

Greenwald’s article that was censored by the editors of The Intercept can be found here.

His email exchanges with The Intercept editors relating to the article have been posted here.

Betsy Reed, an editor at The Intercept released her own scathing statement as the official position of The Intercept. It says that Greenwald is twisting the situation “designed to make him appear a victim, rather than a grown person throwing a tantrum.”

Here is Reed’s statement in full:

Glenn Greenwald’s decision to resign from The Intercept stems from a fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism and the nature of censorship. Glenn demands the absolute right to determine what he will publish. He believes that anyone who disagrees with him is corrupt, and anyone who presumes to edit his words is a censor. Thus the preposterous charge that The Intercept’s editors and reporters, with the lone noble exception of Glenn Greenwald, have betrayed our mission to engage in fearless investigative journalism because we have been seduced by the lure of a Joe Biden presidency. A brief glance at the stories The Intercept has published on Joe Biden will suffice to refute those claims.

The narrative he presents about his departure is teeming with distortions and inaccuracies – all of them designed to make him appear 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 bias, it was he who was attempting to recycle a political campaign’s – the Trump campaign’s – dubious claims 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.

‘The defining feature of The Intercept’s work in recent years has been the investigative journalism that came out of painstaking work by our staffers in Washington DC, New York, and across the rest of the country. It is the staff of The Intercept that has been carrying out our investigative mission – a mission that has involved a collaborative editing process.

We have no doubts 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 as partisan hacks. We get it. But facts are facts and The Intercept record of fearless, rigorous, independent journalism speaks for itself.

If you read through the documents thoroughly, it really isn’t Greenwald that appears to be the one having the tantrum.

As an added bonus, Matt Taibbi, also a leftist journalist — and just like Greenwald, a damned smart guy — wrote a piece about Greenwald’s resignation and explains it to non-journos. He also says that Greenwald’s situation isn’t unique and makes it clear how dangerous this is for journalism going forward.

In the last few weeks I’ve heard from multiple well-known journalists going through struggles in their newsrooms, with pressure to avoid certain themes in campaign coverage often central to their worries. There are many reporters out there — most of them quite personally hostile to Donald Trump — who are grating under what they perceive as relentless pressure to publish material favorable to the Democratic Party cause. Greenwald’s story mirrors some of these stories, but his is more striking than some others on a few levels…

…Throughout the last four years, Greenwald has been one of the only people in the media world to speak out about some of the more preposterous claims made by Democratic Party partisans, from the pee tape to charges that Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset to walked-back bombshell stories like the Afghan bounty story. One of his consistent themes is that only a person like him, with fame and financial security, is able to safely challenge orthodoxies in this business.

The significance of what’s happened with the Intercept is that even journalists working in companies they foundedcan’t get away from these pressures. For every public story like Greenwald’s, there are dozens more you don’t hear about, involving media members who can’t speak out. Not all of them are dealing with the same issues, but dynamics are often similar.

Source: Matt Taibbi

Taibbi and Greenwald have been farcically labeled “rightwing” simply for disagreeing with the current orthodoxy of silencing any criticism of Joe Biden and amplifying dubious claims by known liars and overt critics of Trump such as James Clapper, John Brennan, and Mike Hayden.

The media is broken and it’s being accelerated by social media which is also broken.

As Taibbi says, the new aim of journalists is to side with and cover for governmental agencies while ratting out dissenters with “the aim of creating an absolute political monoculture.”

If that happens, then all that will exist is propaganda dished out by a pro-Democrat media, any dissent will be silenced by social media, and the division in the country will only get worse because we won’t know what is real news and what are just pro-government talking points.

That doesn’t sound like America to me.

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K. Walker

ClashDaily's Associate Editor since August 2016. Self-described political junkie, anti-Third Wave Feminist, and a nightmare to the 'intersectional' crowd. Mrs. Walker has taken a stand against 'white privilege' education in public schools. She's also an amateur Playwright, former Drama teacher, and staunch defender of the Oxford comma. Follow her humble musings on Twitter: @TheMrsKnowItAll and on Gettr @KarenWalker

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