@ggreenwald's Threads
CNN is leading the way in bashing BuzzFeed but it's worth remembering CNN had a humiliation at least as big & bad: when they yelled that Trump Jr. had advanced access to the WL archive (!): all based on a wrong date. They removed all the segments from YouTube, but this remains:
After CNN "broke" & hyped the story of Trump Jr.'s advanced access to the WL archive, MSNBC's @KenDilanianNBC purported to "independently confirm it" in the most flamboyant way. MSNBC has deleted all those videos. But neither ever explained what happened theintercept.com/2017/12/09/the…
It's totally expected on complicated stories that mistakes will be made. But the same mistake gets made over and over: repeating what anonymous sources say *without seeing evidence. And the most damaging part is the refusal to address key questions, like these: 
The FBI's investigation of Trump as a "national security threat" is itself a serious danger. But J. Edgar Hoover pioneered the tactic interc.pt/2M9UpVz
Hoover had the FBI conduct a counter-intelligence investigation on the progressive, elected) Vice President Henry Wallace for years - because they believed his pro-peace views on Russia suggested he was a Kremlin stooge. A Vox article compared expressly compared Wallace & Trump:
This was the 2003 book by the right-wing Mona Charen - "Useful Idiots" - about liberals who wanted better relations with Russia and who denounced CIA/Pentagon propaganda about the threat posed by Moscow: amazon.com/Useful-Idiots-…
This long-time Brookings spokesman for the US Security State, and newly incarnated #Resistance icon, instructs his liberal flock to be more loving toward NSA & CIA and more supportive of surveillance-increasing laws once Trump is gone. Don't worry, @benjaminwittes, they will be:
Last week, @warkin quit NBC & published a letter condemning the network (& media generally) for using ex-Generals & CIA agents as "analysts" & thus being conduits for war propaganda. On @democracynow, he warned of liberals' reverence & love for FBI & CIA democracynow.org/2019/1/9/willi…
In the same @democracynow interview, @warkin described how dangerous it is to have MSNBC, CNN and the like populate the airwaves with ex-Generals & NSA/CIA officials as "analysts" & pundits and how anti-war voices, and real dissent, are systematically excluded. Indeed they are:
This tweet is correct about Chomsky's long-held, absolutist free speech views. But it's not just Chomsky. From Berkeley to ACLU, free speech absolutism has long been a central, defining belief of the left, which never used to trust institutions of authority with censorship power:
This is an exceptionally good @jacobinmag article by @ChipGibbons89 about how - and, more importantly, why - an absolutist defense of free political speech was long a linchpin belief of the American left, going back to Eugene Debs jacobinmag.com/2019/01/eugene…
Among @ChipGibbons89's many crucial points: 1) censorship most targeted anti-war dissidents & workers, 2) "weakening free speech rights will come back to haunt the Left — providing our opponents tools to silence us" & 3) anti-censorship precedents are vital weapons for the Left
1/ Anti-corruption rhetoric was central to @JairBolsonaro's victory. His Vice President, General Hamilton Mourão, just received a stroke of huge luck: his son was given a mega-promotion by the state bank along with a *tripling* of his salary. Congrats! www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/01/…
2/ Meanwhile, Bolsonaro's son Flavio, now a Senator, had his aide & driver caught transferring huge amounts of money - far more than his salary - including some deposited into the account of Jair Bolsonaro's wife. The aide & his family keep failing to appear for questioning.
3/ Then there's Bolsonaro's other son, Eduardo, just re-elected to Congress with the highest vote total in history. He's scheduled to respond to a criminal process for allegedly sending threats to his ex-girlfriend, a journalist once aligned with his party buzzfeed.com/julianakataoka…
This is revolting: @RashidaTlaib isn't even in Congress a week & @marcorubio is already smearing her as an "anti-Semite" - all because she's defending the First Amendment free speech rights of *all Americans* not to be punished by the state for their political opinions & activism
Also: @marcorubio's tweet is stunningly ignorant. He thinks the 1st Amendment protects the right of *the Government* to punish private citizens for their speech. It does the opposite: it protects the rights of private citizens not to be punished for their views by @MarcoRubio
I know @MarcoRubio - who just proved he has no understanding of the 1st Amendment's free speech rights - has no idea that 2 federal courts have already ruled that the censorship laws he favors against Americans - to protect Israel - are unconstitutional aclu.org/blog/free-spee…
NBC and MSNBC Blamed Russia for Using “Sophisticated Microwaves” to Cause “Brain Injuries” in U.S. “Diplomats” in Cuba. The Culprits Were Likely Crickets. theintercept.com/2019/01/07/nbc…
NBC and MSNBC repeatedly put @KenDilanianNBC all over the air to do what he does - mindlessly repeat what @CIA tells him to say - to state that Russia attacked US diplomats in Cuba with microwaves. The likely culprit was this pretty Caribbean male cricket theintercept.com/2019/01/07/nbc…
It's important to note these new scientific findings, as well as the prior statements from numerous neurological experts, don't dispositively prove that NBC story was false. They just raise very serious doubts. It's *possible* these alarming things happened in the Cuba incident:
Yes, the US press is so brave & free - when it comes to foreign leaders. Remember when, after 9/11, all TV networks obeyed the government's orders not to broadcast video of Osama bin Laden explaining the attack on the ground he'd included coded messages to activate sleeper cells?
US media obeyed the government's orders to impose a blackout on Al Qaeda explaining their motives for the 9/11 attack (US violence & interference in the Muslim world), which is what let @DavidFrum & friends create the bullshit "they-hate-us-for-our-freedom" fairy tales.
Then there was that time in 2004 when NYT discovered Bush/Cheney was *illegally* eavesdropping on Americans, but sat on the story upon the orders of the WH, only to publish it *after* Bush's win because Jim Risen was going to break the story in his book theintercept.com/2018/01/03/my-…
Now that Warren emphatically supported Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria & Afghanistan - ignoring @Maddow's desperate bait to bash Trump & instead condemned Endless War - the silence on these issues of Sanders (&, to a lesser extent, @AOC) becomes harder to maintain:
I emailed Sanders' office on Dec 26 to ask his view on Syria troop withdraw - was told they were discussing it but he didn't yet have a position. As I said, people are entitled to time to address complex matters, but these debates are central & ongoing silence is hard to justify.
To be clear, the quote I got when I emailed Sanders' office on Dec 26 about Syria troop withdrawal was this: "We’ve been discussing but he hasn’t made a statement yet." They're now suggesting this doesn't mean he has no position, just that he hasn't publicly expressed one yet.
Facebook has been aggressively deleting the pages of Palestinians and pro-Palestinian voices for at least 18 months, obeying the demands of the Israeli govt. Congrats to those who thought it was a good idea for Silicon Valley to act as paternal censor & guardian of the internet:
Here's our reporting on the highly politicized censoring which Facebook began doing once it was demanded of them, after the 2016 election, that they act as internet parent to protect us from bad content: theintercept.com/2017/12/30/fac…
In Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Sheryl Sandberg and Eric Schmidt we trust to censor and regulate the internet with the most benevolent of motives, devoted as they've been their entire lives to safeguarding the voiceless and protecting the marginalized.
Despite Israeli elections, Benjamin Netanyahu traveled across the globe to Rio de Janeiro to meet today with one of the few leaders more aligned with his far-right militarism than his close Gulf despot allies: @JairBolsonaro. He'll stay in Brazil to attend the Jan 1 inauguration.
For obvious reasons, Benjamin Netanyahu & Jair Bolsonaro are having a lovefest. Netanyahu, in Brazil for Bolsonaro's Jan. 1 inauguration, was in a Rio synagogue today & hailed him by the worshipful name his followers use for their Leader: "Legend" oglobo.globo.com/mundo/em-sinag…
For rational reasons of ideological similarity, Israel's closest allies are now (ironically) Eastern European far right governments, the right-wing extremist movements of Western Europe and the Anglosphere, and Gulf State despots theintercept.com/2016/11/30/gro…
Max Boot spent the last 20 years as a Republican cheerleading for every war, while making sure only others - but never himself - fought in those wars. He now does exactly the same thing, but as a Democrat. Max goes to whatever party is most receptive to his warmongering:
In his WashPost op-ed claiming that the GOP and "the left" (Sanders & Warren) are insufficiently militaristic & devoted to empire, Supreme Warmonger @MaxBoot points to an example of someone whose views he likes: Hillary foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/…
This (re)union between the most bloodthirsty neocons & establishment Dems couldn't be more blatant if they put it in neon lights. Sullivan is one of the Dems who worked with Bill Kristol & ex-CIA officials to create a new joint hawkish foreign policy group theintercept.com/2017/07/17/wit…
If you want to claim "CAP has no editorial control over TP," must confront a) emails of Neera killing TP's Israel criticism after CAP's pro-Israel funders complained theintercept.com/2015/11/05/lea… & b) Neera & Podesta plotting to change TP anti-Hillary headlines wikileaks.org/podesta-emails…
I agree TP has produced great young journalists (Lee Fang, Zaid Jilani, Faiz Shakar, others). And TP has now negotiated for more independence. But evidence is clear Neera interfered to make its content more pro-Hillary & less critical of Israel. Read it for yourself right here:
Ironically, the person who has most maligned & "smeared" ThinkProgress journalists is Neera herself. She derided TP writers Jilani and Fang as "freaks," Shakar (now the @ACLU's Political Director") a "fucker," and in general said TP was staffed by "crazy leftists down there".
This is a great essay, and the reason Andrew Sullivan understands so well the deceitful propaganda & bullying rhetoric used by Bipartisan DC to justify Endless War & to condemn any attempt to rein in empire is, as he said, he was once a leading propagator of those lowly tactics:
If you really want to understand why Establishment Washington (and imperial capitals generally) craves war, and fights vehemently against any attempt to end or even reduce it, Adam Smith provided the exactly perfect answer 242 years ago in "Wealth of Nations":
After this tweet was posted, the @washingtonpost published a great op-ed by @RoKhanna defending Trump's Syria/Afghan position (washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/…). But the 2 voices who have conspicuously yet to weigh in on this debate are @BernieSanders & @Ocasio2018: look forward to that:
Last year I reported on the heinous conditions for pigs at Smithfield factory farms. Please watch our moving & powerful short documentary about the @DxEverywhere activists who expose these evils & the abuse of law to turn them into felons & silence them
Here's my article about the horrors at @SmithfieldFoods factory farms. There is zero doubt in my mind that the systemic torture and slaughter of animals will shortly be viewed as a great moral evil, & the activists imprisoned to expose it hailed as heroes theintercept.com/2017/10/05/fac…
The short documentary was shepharded by @lwoodhouse & features @lhfang describing our investigative work into how agricultural corporations use their $$ & influence to exploit law enforcement to punish and silence the activists who expose their atrocities theintercept.com/2018/06/07/ani…
In the US, Trump also tried blocking critics on Twitter until a court ruled that it was unconstitutional for him to do so as a public official. We'll find out if Brazilian court rule the same - proud of this testament to the great journalism of @TheInterceptBr under @Demori:
Bolsonaro blocked @Demori because @TheInterceptBr has been consistently reporting on Bolsonaro and @Demori used Twitter to chronicle his lies. Here's an article on a court ruling that Trump doing this was unconstitutional nytimes.com/2018/05/23/bus…
After Bolsonaro yesterday blocked @TheInterceptBr's Editor, @Demori; he blocked 2 more of our reporters: @NayaraFelizardo & @delarabru: - Courts will decide. Use Google Translate to read our new article on his family's scandals: theintercept.com/2018/12/23/cad…
Note that in her condemnation of Trump on Syria, Hillary - to her credit - doesn't bother to pretend it has anything to do with "protecting Kurds." She just invokes all the War on Terror bromides used to justify Endless War: kick our enemies' asses, show them who's boss, etc:
In welcomed contrast to the deceitful, warmongering MSNBC/neocon axis, Hillary is candid about why she wants permanent war in Syria (remember, she was harshly critical of Obama for not doing more): standard Bush/Cheney dreck about fighting them there, not here, being Strong, etc.
Trump's senior Syria official, the ex-Bush national security official James Jeffrey, spoke at the Atlantic Council just last week, vowing to remain in Syria for a long time. He didn't pretend it was about protecting Kurds; it was about Iran, Russia & ISIS:
1/ This highlights how some Dems wield identity politics so manipulatively, selectively & offensively. LGBTs & Jews are either "marginalized minorities who face bigotry & racism" or "just white guys who have no right to speak" - it shifts based on the petty needs of the moment:
2/ Recall in 2010, CNN fired Rick Sanchez for mocking that Jon Stewart's claim that Jews are "minorities" who understand bigotry. Few supported Sanchez. Yet this claim - that Jews (like LGBTs) are just "white guys" who don't understand bigotry - is a staple of Dem discourse
3/ Here's the NYT on how Rick Sanchez got fired for mocking Jon Stewart for claiming that, as a Jew, he understood what it was like to be a minority facing bigotry. Why was Sanchez fired for what is now widely acceptable for Dems to say about Jews & LGBTs? nytimes.com/2010/10/02/bus…
Fascinating case of UK hate speech laws: @Glinner celebrates when alt-right figures are fined by courts for their speech. But @Glinner is fanatical about arguing trans women aren't women; an LGBT activist, @DrAdrianHarrop, reported @Glinner to the police & they interrogated him:
The full article is here, and it really shows how hate speech laws in Europe are used not just to suppress speech but even to criminalize it to the point where police investigate people for opinions they tweet. thestranger.com/slog/2018/12/2…
This was probably the worst case of UK hate speech laws: a Muslim teenager was charged with multiple felonies, including *treason*, for posting on Facebook that he didn't have sympathy for British troops who died in Afghanistan because the war was immoral theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Fascinating & very contentious exchange about intellectual freedom and academic discourse between (a) trans Berekley professor @graceelavery & (b) two Penn State Queer Theory professors, one of whom she accused of being fascist & transphobic. The former's: blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/convers…
In reply, the 2 Queer Theory professors (long-time LGBT activists) accused of being right-wing transphobic fascists argued that campus culture is being shaped, & academic freedom crushed, by prolonged adolescence, which Lancet found now extends to age 24 blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/convers…
It's a really worthwhile exchange - both articles are very well-written & blunt - because it highlights the key tensions and conflicts about how we conduct intellectual and political discourse not only on academic campuses but in political media, newsrooms, and in culture.
This exchange with @NateSilver538 - after he denounced pressuring Carlson's advertisers - highlights a fascinating dynamic: if you oppose censorship, people (falsely) accuse you of not understanding marginalization, even though that's often *the reason* for opposing censorship
Like all powers, censorship will typically be used *against* marginalized groups, not to protect them. That's what it means to be "marginalized": that powerful factions act against you. The experience of being in a marginalized group should make one fear, not support, censorship.
I'm not expressing a view here on pressuring advertisers. It's blurrier than state censorship we reported this week with Israel Oaths (since it's using market forces). But in general, being a member of a marginalized group made me more wary, not supportive, of majoritarian power.
1/ Great, and important, @NateSilver538 series of tweets putting the latest RUSSIANS!! stories into context and perspective. That's rarely if ever done by the outlets pushing these stories because a news cycle driven by tweets & 4-minute cable hits rewards hype & punishes nuance:
2/ The reporter who originally wrote about the Internet Research Agency - to well-deserved applause - is @AdrianChen. He's since spent 2 years urging people to stop exaggerating their reach & sophistication, warning that they're crude, primitive and tiny - not masterminds:
3/ Another key point @AdrianChen has been making is that exaggerating the Internet Research Agency's reach, size, influence & "meddling" is akin to how the terrorist threat was exaggerated: to justify more spying power, bigger security state agencies, and more militarism
Starting now: coverage of the greatest and most orchestrated governmental threat to free speech in the US: legally imposed Israel Oaths (a story self-professed free speech crusaders at Fox News have thus far refused to cover, because doing so might offend their viewers):
In contrast to Fox, here's how genuine conservative free speech defenders - despite disagreement w/the censored views - cover the story of legally imposed Israel Oaths in the US: by denouncing them as a grave threat to 1st Am: from @roddreher in @amconmag theamericanconservative.com/dreher/bahia-a…
Coming now on @democracynow after our discussion of Israel Oath censorship in the US: I'll be on with @marclamonthill, recently fired by CNN for giving a pro-Palestine speech, and threatened with termination by Temple University for that speech. Watch: democracynow.org
In the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton, speaking to AIPAC, denounced the boycott of Israel as anti-Semitic: an effort "to malign, isolate, and undermine the Jewish people." 2 great new Dem members of Congress, @RashidaTlaib & @IlhanMN, support that boycott. theintercept.com/2016/03/22/cli…
Related: tomorrow we're publishing an article on one of the most egregious & repressive attacks on free speech in US I've seen in 25 years working as a pro-free-speech lawyer & then journalist. Will be interesting to see which self-professed free speech defenders denounce this.
A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — So She Lost Her Job theintercept.com/2018/12/17/isr…
