danegeld: Kirsty Wark wasn’t forced to be a shill for the government by the absence of a representative of the security state; the editing of the video only makes it appear that way. If you watch the video carefully, you’ll see someone’s elbow occasionally poking into the shot; that’s Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of the joint intelligence committee, fidgeting impatiently to go on the attack. You can see a lengthier selection (22 mins — higher def, too!) from the broadcast here:
— in it, Glenn Greenwald listens while the Baroness and Anthony Barnett, founder of Open Democracy weigh in. At the end, Greenwald is allowed to respond to the flak from Neville-Jones. If it is true, as some have speculated, that Wark was actually throwing reverse softballs to Greenwald (stupid, frequently-seen talking points chosen precisely so that he could knock them down), he didn’t seem to be in on the game, and her behavior and mannerisms (angry tone, dramatic use of the eyeglasses, etc.) certainly gave no clue that she knew was delivering clueless talking points. But it may well be true the end effect was the same (as reverse softballs).
