This move would seem to be a mistake, as far as I can tell. The Guardian has a pretty good record for fighting against the Man (by this, I mean breaking big stories, challenging legal gags and libel suits and succeeding), and they have a pretty big stake in it all, that and their involvement leads Greenwald a lot of respect and notability. The commitment of Omidyar seems altogether more iffy.
From everything Iāve gathered, which admittedly isnāt much, Greenwald had to cobble together his own methods for protecting his data sources. He has always said it was sophisticated, but my bet is that he had about two months, and some directions from Snowden on what to do, and had 1 or 2 IT people from The Guardian to help him with it.
Switching his allegiance to a fabulously rich guy would, without a doubt, give Greenwald access to a much bigger smorgasbord of data security options, if not direct access to a much larger number of security experts. As well as increased bodyguarding and whatever else a rich guy can buy for him.
This isnāt just a ānew newsā opportunity. This is called castling the king. Right now, Greenwald is the king of the data, and he needs a much stronger setup to withstand the coming years and stay on top. This is the way.
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Ack! Iām a hack! Thanks for the link, forgive my ignorance. Iām a big fan of Greenwald, and I was actually fine with the notion of him as some sort of ālibertarian,ā however one may define that. Of course, I donāt live in a country with Rand Paul as a leading political figure (we have our own idiots to be sure, but not quite so spectacular), so perhaps the term doesnāt have quite the same bite north of the border here.
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Libertarian doesnāt imply seriously right wing Ayn Rand crazy anywhere outside the US. It just means libertarian. Itās a bit like how āliberalā means right wing, but not authoritarian outside the US. You may have liberal attitudes to social issues and be right wing. Like the US democrats for example. Except theyāre now extremely authoritarian too.
Iāve seen plenty of criticism of Greenwald from left wing sources, but itās mostly been pretty subdued.
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Liberal means right wing outside the US?
Well, donāt forget that the Guardian is also a hotbed of antisemitism and argle-blargle. The point of all of this is exactly that of the research that caused Pop-sci to dump their comments: if you canāt win on the issue then poison all discussions of the issue with hatred and vitriol and lies until most people donāt want to talk about it anymore.
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Interesting. Iām not a regular at TPM, but I get a lot of their stories second-hand. For that reason, Iāve never really seen their comment threads.
Having read this one, I saw nothing I would consider āultra-left,ā unless you think that means left of Obama. Iām one of many, many liberals who are happy to criticize him from the left - maybe heās doing the best he can, but in another era Obama would have been called a moderate Republican.
Are people who think the ACA didnāt go nearly far enough āultra-left?ā How about people who think Snowden is a patriot? Or people who think blowing up American citizens without due process is wrong? Hey, Iām old enough to remember when āultra-leftā started with, āEat the rich! Property is theft!ā
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Well, look at the Lib Demsā¦
In that case, liberal should mean right wing inside of the US.
A hotbed of what, now? Or are you equating antisemitism with ādoesnāt agree with Israelās foreign policyā? Cos, in that case, thereās a canny few previously undiscovered antisemites around the worldā¦
I thought Ratel was being sarcastic?
Does, as far as I can see.
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Canāt disagree with you there. Everything moves to the right, with money.
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Yeah. Channeling Tom Tomorrow with the argle-bargle.
I didnāt know it came from somewhere, much less here!
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A better (or worse) example.
Interesting comment, but Iām not so sure I agree. To my mind, the purpose of journalists like Greenwald is to expose the corruption/fraud/waste/etc. in order for the people, the people in charge, or both together to fix the newly exposed wrong. I donāt know that itās necessary for journalists to offer fixes for the dirt they reveal to the public.
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Aye, ours are sacking off all their āgreenā taxes as well. And my lovely north-east England is about to be fracked into oblivion. I suppose, If Sunderland, et al turn into mini-Aberdeens, I could make a killing in the heroin trade & retire to the Bahamasā¦
That sounds pretty much like the (non-US) liberal ideal.
Whatever; the ugly reality of eBay Inc.:
eBayās crooked auctions marketplace ā¦ http://bit.ly/11F2eas
The clunky, unscrupulous āPreyPalā ā¦ http://bit.ly/UVXx53
Yeah, liberals believe in āfreeā trade and minimal government intervention on issues of personal conscience.
