Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

You are here: Home / Important News for His Many Fans Here

Important News for His Many Fans Here

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Glenn Greenwald is leaving the Guardian and moving to a new media company created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Laura Poitras, who put Snowden and Greenwald together, and national security reporter Jeremy Scahill, will also reportedly join the new company.

Bart Gellman, the other journalist who’s written regularly about the Snowden leaks, will not be joining the new publication. Greenwald is running the politics part of the new site. Other parts will include sports, entertainment and general news.

Reader Interactions

128Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    The entire entertainment portion can be “Where’s Eric Snowden? Can you find him in this picture? Answer: Of course not, the Russians are keeping him safe for his own good.”

  2. 2.

    gbear

    Little Green Footballs was having a laugh over the fact that the news of Greenwalds’s new site was leaked to Politico before he was ready to announce it.

  4. 4.

    Zifnab25

    All Snowden! All the time! :-p

    Seriously, though, it might be nice to have some new blood and new media management. With the Gray Lady and her ilk slowly dying out or getting cannibalized by wingnut welfare agencies, it’s hardly a bad thing for new sources of record to start popping up. Better still if they’re actually interested in investigative journalism.

    I’ve got no problem with this.

  6. 6.

    negative 1

    @dmsilev: “The team says he’s out with an unspecified lower body injury. Of course they do, they’re keeping his real injury from the fans. What are you hiding, huh?! What are you hiding!!!!???”

  9. 9.

    LAC

    Fucks given? Zero…

    Entertainment? Some dour humorless interview with Sandra Bullock about “Gravity”? “Sandra, is the movie an indictment about the american space program and the arrogant and exploitative nature of space exploration?”

    At least he will be shitting his own bed down for a change.

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    I’ve found Jeremy Scahill an interesting reporter as well. If only the NSA hadn’t taken out Michael Hastings he might could’ve also joined up.

  13. 13.

    peach flavored shampoo

    OT, but can we have a OT thread where we can each predict who the next Speaker of the House will be, assuming Boehner commits professional harikari by passing the Senate’s bill?

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @peach flavored shampoo: To be honest, I think Boehner survives, at least through the 2014 elections. It takes an absolute majority of the House to oust a Speaker (and to pick a new one), so assuming that the Democrats just sit back and watch the chaos, you’d need a challenger who can muster 90+ percent of the House GOP caucus on his side. Can’t really see that happening.

  19. 19.

    ice weasel

    This is the same guy who hired meg whitman to wreck…errr…run ebay right? The same guy who let ebay devolve into the world’s more tedious flea market?

    I hope he’s a better publisher than auction site runner. While ebay’s rise was amazing, it had little do with Omidyar and really, dude mostly ran into it in the ground.

  20. 20.

    gogol's wife

    I started getting an unasked-for news feed this morning, and one of the headlines was “Typhoon hits Tokyo, Greenwald Leaves Guardian.”

  23. 23.

    RP

    I watched a few clips on youtube of Greenwald being interviewed recently, and he comes across as the biggest a**hole on the planet. Right up there in Ted Cruz territory. I know I’m not covering any new ground, and maybe he’s a lot more pleasant in person, but it was really striking.

  24. 24.

    Anya

    We definitely need a new media focused on real investigative journalism, the kind of journalism Jeremy Scahill is good at. Unfortunately, GG’s ego will get in the way.

  25. 25.

    Ripley

    The horror film May is about an awkward, possibly psychotic person with no friends who eventually sews one together from rags, straw, and dead enemies. So yeah, I get the reference.

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @catclub:

    The next post will be the reaction of his June fans.

    Ha!

    According to some here, he only has one kind of fan. Those who worship Him like a God and believe in Him with all their strength, til death do them part.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    Whatever you think of him on substance, Greenwald sucks as a writer — he’s incredibly long-winded, obtuse and thin-skinned. These are not crippling defects for a writer if there’s competent editorial oversight, which is something The Guardian and other outlets that published him provided. It’ll be interesting to see if Greenwald subjects his own work to editing at the new gig since he’ll be the boss man. My guess is no.

  28. 28.

    Ash Can

    @peach flavored shampoo: I’m still betting that Cantor is ambitious enough that he still wants the gig, and foolish enough to believe he’d be able to keep the Teahadis under control so that they wouldn’t wreck his speakership too.

  29. 29.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    @RP: He’s visited this very blog before. It didn’t go too well. I can’t wait for every single story published to fit into the Grand Morality Play of Life. I hope he hires Gregg Easterbrook.

  30. 30.

    muricafukyea

    Yea this will be of great interest to people like Libertarian curious Cole who have a TigerBeatesque picture of Greenwald hanging on his bedroom wall.

    Wondering if Greenwald left voluntarily, was shoved out the door, or was fired. Not that I expect the Guardian to put it that way. You could see what a liabilty he must have become when he’s going on BBC news shows and hurling insults at other guests.

    GFYS Greenwald going where you belong to some website that nobody cares about.

  33. 33.

    Corner Stone

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’ll be interesting to see if Greenwald subjects his own work to editing at the new gig since he’ll be the boss man. My guess is no.

    I’m also having a hard time understanding how he will succeed at running a division, or section. If he is indeed in charge of the “politics” wing, that’s a herculean task, even if you start with only a handful of investigative reporters. When will he be able to do the journalism he claims to be interested in?
    And I doubt GG is the type of manager to let the others work and bring back the results.
    I guess we’ll see.

  36. 36.

    Corner Stone

    @Napoleon:

    more often the an itinerant preacher.

    I read this a couple times and swore it said, “itinerant pitcher”. Maybe because it’s playoff season.

  37. 37.

    kindness

    I used to read Greenwald every day back a couple years ago. Glenn has changed. Oh, he’s still a butthead. That never bothered me. I liked that he gave a legal overview of current events. Now though, he’s put himself on a pedestal and is dull. What he says is probably important but when I see someone promoting them self as feverently as they are promoting their message, I disengage. I’ve disengaged from Glenn. Now I go to Lawyers, Guns & Money or some other sites to get my legal interpretive fix.

  39. 39.

    LittlePig

    @kindness: Now though, he’s put himself on a pedestal and is dull

    That’s the whole thing right there. It used to be more informative and ‘fact-based’. Now a thing is true just because HE said so. Dammit.

  43. 43.

    Anya

    So, how should I interpret Newsmax headlines?

    Senate Struggles Toward Deal Under Downgrade Threat
    Dershowitz: Ted Cruz Among ‘My Brightest Students’
    Rep. Huelskamp: Boehner Safe as Speaker
    Rove: GOP Should Quit While It’s Behind
    Buffett: Default Is ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’
    Do You Back Ted Cruz on Shutdown?

    No defung Obamacare? No egging on the crazies? Is this a sign of wingnuts giving up?

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ash Can: If you prefer to read a 500-word article instead of a 5,000-word piece that covers the exact same points with the same level of detail, yes.

  49. 49.

    Jamey

    Scahill’s presence in this venture gives me reason to believe, but fucking Glenn Greenwald’s attention-whoring–he LEAKED the news about his departure from The Guardian–is dragging the causes of journalistic oversight and governmental transparency into the ditch. Hopefully, Greenwald’s ego will be satiated by having a business built for him, and he can get back to being an effective fourth-estater. Like I said: “hopeful,” but not optimistic….

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    Fine by me.

    The Guardian can only be improved by Greenwald’s departure.

    Incidentally, the Guardian’s had a story up for a few days on massive cattle deaths in South Dakota. A massive winter storm arrived way early in the season, before cattle had their winter coats on. Tens of thousands died.

    News just today made the New York Times. Their hook is that the federal workers who would be helping South Dakota’s ranchers are furloughed.

    I prefer The Guardian to most American papers.

  55. 55.

    pharniel

    If you’ve been following the LGF coverage one of the last updates before the politico leak was that GG was going to ‘punish’ the US for..something or another by releasing all the snowden info to evryone.

    This was just after Wikileaks started to attack him for ‘selling out’ and being irresponsible.

    I think he’s managed to burn like, a bajillionty bridges in a short amount of time. I’m betting the Guardian was all like “No. No you’re not going to release unedited highly sensitive information that you swore up and down the Chinese and Russians didn’t have…”

  57. 57.

    ruemara

    Probably because he was pissed at Guardian actually providing editorial oversight to say don’t publish that, it’s too top secret. Which also flies in the face of the contention that nothing that was stolen truly affected natsec. I hope the russians get their money’s worth.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @Trakker: Probably because they think a) a deal will be made today, and b) the teaturds have stepped on their own dicks so effectively that they won’t be in a position to fuck things up on as grand a scale in the future. I’m not quite that optimistic.

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    @Trakker: Well, there’s this:

    Robert Costa ✔ @robertcostaNRO
    RT @sahilkapur Multiple Senate sources say Boehner has agreed to vote first on the Reid-McConnell deal. Game over.

    I really do think we’re just about through this. Only remaining questions are (a) how many semi-sane House Republicans are there and (b) will Cruz et al. try to throw up procedural roadblocks in the Senate to delay things a day or two more or less out of spite.

  60. 60.

    PurpleGirl

    I wonder if Omidyar was drawn to this action by that spirit which directs us all (paraphrase of his answer to a request for a donation from my non-profit to his foundation). The turn-down came on a post card.

  61. 61.

    RP

    Greenwald reminds me a little of George Lucas. Interesting early stuff, but once he achieved some fame, his ego got the best of him and he didn’t get the editorial oversight he desperately needed.

  63. 63.

    Ash Can

    I’m thinking this may have had something to do with Greenwald’s departure from the Guardian, too:

    “The plain fact is that what has happened has damaged national security,” [Prime Minister David] Cameron told parliament. “In many ways, the Guardian themselves admitted that when they agreed, when asked politely by my national security advisor and cabinet secretary, to destroy the files they had.”

    Bold mine. I’m sure Greenwald had a major sad when that happened. (H/t alert commenters at LGF)

  64. 64.

    scav

    @Elizabelle: Agree about Guard (although it too has its moments of tedium) but I’ve been reading bits and snippits about the cattle die-off since about a few days after the storm, including discussions about the govt being shut-down and repercussions due to same. It fit neatly in with the nearly hurricane. Problem is, the ‘merka Village and its editors focus on the clowns to obsessive levels and ignore the rest of the circus.

  68. 68.

    Corner Stone

    @Ash Can
    Oh, please. “When asked politely”, and when they were forced to comply that’s showing “they agreed” ?
    Just ridiculous.

  69. 69.

    Corner Stone

    @ruemara:

    Which also flies in the face of the contention that nothing that was stolen truly affected natsec.

    People here were making the case that it was a NOTHINGBURGER and at the same time, sometimes in the very same comment, also that GG should be burned at the stake for his complicit actions in the conspiracy.

  70. 70.

    Corner Stone

    @dmsilev:

    how many semi-sane House Republicans are there

    Im not sure there are any, actually. But if this comes to the floor for a vote my guess, IMO, is that it gets a majority of R votes along with a big number of D’s.

  73. 73.

    Joey Maloney

    @pharniel: I think he’s managed to burn like, a bajillionty bridges in a short amount of time.

    When you put it that way, clearly he needs to hire Keith Olbermann.

  75. 75.

    RandomMonster

    Thinking that Greenwald got fired is just wishful thinking. Look, he found a story that would bring his name international attention, so he exploited it, and now he’s cashing in. It’s the time-honored American tradition of draping your craven self-interest in high-minded ethics.

  76. 76.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Will this new venture have excruciatingly tl;dr reviews of TV shows?

    (As someone on the internets noted, Greenwald’s last time as a publisher was in the gay pr0n biz.)

  77. 77.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @pharniel:

    I think he’s managed to burn like, a bajillionty bridges in a short amount of time.

    Assange Disease, where you have an uncontrollable urge to bite the hand that feeds and supports you.

  79. 79.

    dmsilev

    @Corner Stone: I did say semi sane. There seemed to be a couple dozen Republicans who claimed to want to vote for such a thing but were too chickenshit afraid to actually do anything about it without cover from above. With that cover, and with the deadline, we probably get those, maybe some more who were afraid to even say anything, and the measure passes primarily with Democratic votes.

    And Nancy Pelosi caps off the vote by pulling John Boehner’s still-beating heart out of his chest and eating it live on CSPAN.

  80. 80.

    Ben Franklin

    @Corner Stone:

    So two fans equals many here at BJ?

    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/15-8

    “At our dinner with Ed Snowden, Coleen Rowley reminded him that his willingness to expose injustice fit in with a patriotic tradition modeled by Founders like Benjamin Franklin even before the American Revolution

    .

    Coleen recounted how Benjamin Franklin got himself in deep trouble in 1773, when he acquired and released confidential letters from the British governor of Massachusetts to the Crown showing that the colonial authorities did not think the American colonists should enjoy the same rights as British citizens in England. Franklin was fired from his post as Postmaster General and called a traitor and every other name in the book – many of them the same epithets hurled at Snowden.”

  81. 81.

    handsmile

    @Elizabelle:

    What American newspapers do you prefer to the Guardian?

    @Corner Stone:

    Precisely. Curious then that such a nothingburger has impelled David Cameron to seek a Commons Select Committee to investigate the Guardian’s reporting on the subject.

    Has there been any mention on this blog about Barton Gellman’s report (published Monday by Amazon Prime Daily) on the “NSA harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans”?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-collects-millions-of-e-mail-address-books-globally/2013/10/14/8e58b5be-34f9-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html

    Or maybe this too was a yawn already known about by all.

  84. 84.

    Botsplainer

    Its gonna be awesome. You’ve got Glenn, who is a pundit because he couldn’t make a living as a shitty lawyer to white supremacists (plus, he has no other discernable employment skills), and then you’ve got Scahill, who is a total nutbucket.

    It’ll have all the credibility of Weekly World News, but with better fonts.

  93. 93.

    ruemara

    @Corner Stone: No, they said the “revelations” that the NSA possessed the ability to spy domestically was a nothingburger, because we had already discovered it was being used that way under GWB. The issue was – what else is on those files? Which the Guardian reportedly elected not to publish without edits due to security. You’re conflating the two issues. Which is not surprising.

  94. 94.

    Soonergrunt

    @ruemara: this is the best investment the KGB/FSB ever made. They bought a plane ticket from Hong Kong to Moscow and got the crown jewels of US SIGINT.

  96. 96.

    Soonergrunt

    @different-church-lady: As someone whose been in government service most of my adult life, and a significant part of that dealing with various types of classified information, I can tell you that crappy powerpoint slides are pretty much how most things get managed. Having said that, it’s the stuff that’s not in the crappy powerpoint slides (technical specifications, operating locations, etc) that are the crown jewels.

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    @ruemara: What is not surprising is your inability to simply admit that people here screamed loudly that the shit he had was bunk, bogus, boring and known to all the BJ sophisticates here. And at the same time, material you and SG can only speculate about since no one actually seems to know, was enough to prosecute GG, et al.

  105. 105.

    Soonergrunt

    @Corner Stone: I have never suggested that GG should be prosecuted for anything.
    And revelations out of Russia Today or whatever the hell Putin’s mouthpiece newspaper that covered the things I mentioned here like technical specifications and operating locations of NSA/GCHQ operations give us a pretty good idea of some of what Snowden gave to the Russians (or the Russians took from him, not that there’s a functional difference)–which they couldn’t have gotten (as easily) if Greenwald hadn’t helped him go to Russia.
    But please, keep talking out your ass. It’s your only discernable contribution, so you should run with your…strengths.

  106. 106.

    burnspbesq

    OK, which part of “a good grifter always stays one step ahead of the sheriff” tripped the moderation filter?

  108. 108.

    FlipYrWhig

    I look forward to Glenn Greenwald’s incisive sports commentary. “Is Michael Wacha in the midst of a brilliant run, or have the Cardinals’ limply neoliberal opponents simply refused even to attempt to hit him? The Cardinals’ ownership group contributed to the Bush and Romney campaigns, while the Dodgers and their franchise’s reputation as a haven for tolerance (Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, et al) alike have been exposed in this series. The only viable explanation for the Dodgers’ failure, then, is the grand failure of the current Democratic coalition and its alignment with corrupt institutions — a failure one can only conclude has been deliberately undertaken. Game 5 will only partly decide that crucial question.”

  109. 109.

    Corner Stone

    @Soonergrunt: First, I didn’t say that you did. I said you were speculating about how serious the material was that others were making both arguments out of the sides of their mouths. So kindly, GFY.
    Otherwise, it’s good to know the state organ of Putin/Russia is a credible source. And you are aware, of course, that the USG itself has said they have no basis to conclude the Chinese or the Russians got any information from Snowden? Of course you are!

  110. 110.

    Corner Stone

    @Ben Franklin: I’m not sure exactly who it is you’re saying I am sucking off?
    Am I blowing GG, or the anti-GG faction here, both, neither, some other ill-defined group, all, some ersatz mix, or none of the above?

  113. 113.

    Paul in KY

    I like Glenn. Does excellent work on civil liberties issues. Certainly not a perfect soul, but I think his heart is in the right place & I agree with him more times than I don’t.

  114. 114.

    Keith G

    @Soonergrunt: Actually according to Bart Gilman that is not correct. Snowden has gone to great pains to see that the Russians do not get their hands on raw data. Like everyone else they get to see the published data.

  117. 117.

    El Tiburon

    @Napoleon:

    Jesus, Greenwald moves around more often the an itinerant preacher.

    Yeah Greenwald and TBogg just can’t sit the fuck still for too long, can they?

    Let’s see: Greenwald starts out as a lowly blogger circa 2004 or so. He slowly rises the depth charts and becomes one of the first to cross-over onto a national platform. He then steps into an international platform. He then helps break one of the most significant national security stories in US history. He is now leaving to be a part of a new media start up.

    BJer’s reactions: Hack loser who give a flying fuck.

    Sounds about right. Greenwald uses too many words for most of you to get through in one crap session in the john – look Andrew Sullivan and McArdle bashing! Let’s run over there!

  119. 119.

    Elizabelle

    @handsmile:

    Good point. First choice is the NYTimes, then the LA Times, although in both cases you have to read selectively. My hometown paper is the WaPost, which has become a joke (although it did a good series on elderly homeowners cheated — legally — out of their homes).

    @Soonergrunt: Hadn’t seen the dead cattle story elsewhere. I don’t watch TV news much, even MSNBC.

    The Guardian is a treasure. Really, really like it.

  122. 122.

    Corner Stone

    @Soonergrunt: Talking out of *my* ass?
    You don’t have a good god damned source for any of the bullshit you’ve said in this thread. It’s complete shit.

  123. 123.

    Death Panel Truck

    @LittlePig: Not until next June in Washington. And individual counties in eastern Washington are trying to pass ordinances banning the sale of pot within their jurisdictions (Benton and Franklin counties, at least. I live in Franklin County.)

  126. 126.

    Socoolsofresh

    Came back to see if there would be a thread about this. Did not disappoint. The amount of froth here from commenters could fill a pond. Love how its great to make fun of people in the Tea Party, yet you guys live in your own closed loop of info.

  128. 128.

    Ramalama

    I’m a GG fan big time. But I’m also a big Balloon Juice fan. And yes, I have been accused on occasion of wanting to put oval blocks into square holes.

    The personality stuff does not bother me, probably because what we get fed for news in the US is gloss and good lighting, hob nobbery and back slapping and very little trusting but verifying. The editors and publishers of our fine establishments have failed Americans. Until you can get the refined newsmen and women to slice through crooked politicians and avoid the tiresome loathsome ‘both sides do it’ crap, then someone’s got to fill the void. Call GG opportunist. Fine. But his little brown blog way back was a godsend. And I don’t see his work with Snowden to be anything other than what a trained reporter would love to have. But guess what. Trained reporters have not earned the Snowden material. Too busy drinking martinis at political events, swinging in tire swings and eating donuts with political candidates.

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