Monday, February 10, 2014

Intercept: Don't shoot

Glenn Greenwald has unveiled his new project, The Intercept. I'm sure that it will come under attack throughout the right and left sides of Blogistan. Some of the "lefties" who will attack the project will be lupine interlopers in sheep couture. Others will be simple reflexive paranoids and pooh-poohers.

But before you pooh any poohs, look at this line-up:
Being able to work with highly accomplished writers like Liliana Segura, Dan Froomkin, Peter Maass and Marcy Wheeler, along with a team of young and aggressive reporters such as Murtaza Hussain, Ryan Gallagher and Ryan Devereaux, is truly emboldening. For our reporting, we have both technical expertise in the form of Micah Lee, and legal expertise from Daniel Novack. As our team grows, the ethos they embody of fearless, independent journalism is what will guide us.
A good list. For me, one name stands out: Marcy Wheeler. If she's on board that ship, I am happy to salute.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"He who has the gold makes the rules."

Does it help Wheeler's brand to be associated with that group? I liked knowing she was working independently of any organization.

You like to say "just another fucking libertarian." I think that phrase could ALMOST be applied to Pierre Omidyar, who now pays Wheeler. But I would say he's "just another fucking pseudo-libertarian." (A libertarian with real convictions in Omidyar's position would have forcefully spoken out against the WikiLeaks blockade and Ebay's complicity in the government's hunt of online activists long before Omidyar did. That's for sure).

What does this organization offer Wheeler-- or her readers --that shouldn't be possible if she remained an independent?

Greenwald should already be sharing his NSA docs with her already. What's he been waiting for? She shouldn't need to be part of some fucking libertarian-wannabe's fucking entity to participate in that.

Joseph Cannon doesn't need a fucking organization. Neither does Wheeler.

Given the hideous way the Internet is developing, it might well be the right choice for Wheeler--the least worst option for her even. Nevertheless, we have contrary examples like Andrew Sullivan, who claims to be making serious money as a blogger. Why can't more decent bloggers be financially viable as independents? That's why I think there's actually something very pitiful about Wheeler signing up to this thing and everyone acting as if it's a "promotion".

First Look may not make a lot of difference, or it may be a small improvement over the present state of the media, or it could be some kind of major clusterfuck. Too early to say. Nevertheless, I too hope the best for Wheeler.

- Skeptic

Joseph Cannon said...

Skeptic, I believe the phrase I used was "lupine interlopers in sheep couture." Omidyar is the new Soros -- that is to say, the new Satan. I guess he must be a real threat, eh?

Anonymous said...

Omidyar is no George Soros.

I would feel better about Omidyar if you could point me to where he has shown half the courage of George Soros. Soros funded marijuana delegalization in a number of states.

Painting Omidyar as the "New Satan" is useful to the far right whatever his actual politics, but especially if he's close to being one of their own, because the process of demonizing a moderate conservative helps to move discourse further to the right. We've seen how that works with Obama.

My comment wasn't really about Omidyar's politics, but situation whereby an anti-establishment blogger cannot find adequate support from the 99%, but perceives herself in need of an organization backed the full faith and credit of a .001% man to sustain her investigative blogging. You know, from experience, the overhead of a blogger is quite low. There's no reason it SHOULD be necessary to get in bed with a guy like Omidyar to fund the production of good investigative journalism.

- Skeptic