Glenn Greenwald Once Called Brian Williams ‘NBC’s Top Hagiographer’

[ProSense]

Glenn Greenwald Once Called Brian Williams ‘NBC’s Top Hagiographer’

by Matt Wilstein

Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, NBC News will air an hour-long, exclusive interview with Edward Snowden, making Brian Williams the first American journalist to score an in-person sit down with the former NSA contractor. The interview was a big get for Williams and presumably Snowden and his media liaison Glenn Greenwald had their pick of just about any news anchor when they decided to grant it...nothing too surprising about the choice of Williams on the surface. After all, he does consistently draw the largest number of total viewers for any network evening newscast. But a Salon column from just over two years ago shows that Greenwald did not always think so highly of the NBC anchor.

In a post titled “NBC News’ top hagiographer,” Greenwald tore into Brian Williams for a special he hosted to mark the one-year anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. After laying out the various complexities and lingering questions surrounding the killing of America’s number one enemy, Greenwald wrote:

None of those questions was even acknowledged, let alone meaningfully addressed, by last night’s one-hour melodramatic extravaganza hosted by NBC News anchor Brian Williams. This bin Laden show — “Inside the Situation Room” — was hagiography in its purest, most propagandistic, and most subservient form. This is typically the role Williams plays — he cleanses and glorifies American government actions, especially military actions, with his reverent, soothing, self-important baritone — but he really outdid himself here.

He went on to marvel as Williams’ “child-like excitement” over the special access he got to the Situation Room. “Do people like Williams, or Peter Bergen and David Ignatius, ever wonder why they are chosen to receive such official honors and how that reflects on whether they engage in actual adversarial journalism,” Greenwald asked, “or do they just avoid looking these royal court gift horses in the mouth?”

“There was no dissent, no critical scrutiny of claims, no raising of difficult questions, no facts revealed,” Greenwald lamented. “It was all reverent praise and uncritical amplification of official government claims. In sum, it was consummate American establishment journalism.”

- more -

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/glenn-greenwald-once-called-brian-williams-nbcs-top-hagiographer/

He didn't like Tim Russert (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024943174), but apparently gives an exclusive to Brian Williams, "NBC’s Top Hagiographer." LOL

From the piece posted here (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024986606)

NBC News has a collaborative agreement with First Look Media, the online outlet founded by billionaire Pierre Omidyar and where Greenwald currently works.

An unnamed source at NBC told Wemple that Greenwald didn't negotiate the terms of the interview, but the source acknowledged that the Pulitzer Prize winner is one of only a few people who can facilitate communication with Snowden.

He doesn't like Bond, but Sony's Bond producers are cool for quick buck.

Glenn Greenwald's Website Loses A National Security Blogger
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024963414

[Purveyor]

1. "presumably Snowden and his media liaison Glenn Greenwald had their pick of just about any news..."

"presumably" indeed!

[msanthrope]

2. Checkbook journalism....it's all about the money, like Sibel Edmonds said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4505297

[Octafish]

3. Sounds better than ''media whore.''

Millionaires doing favors for billionaires.

[baldguy]

5. Williams? Or Greenwald?

[ProSense]

6. LOL!

[msanthrope]

10. Ouch---that was a dead hit in the middle of the crop circle. nt

[Octafish]

13. What price integrity, msanthrope?

Media Millionaires

Journalism by and for the 0.01 Percent

Fairness & Accuracy In Media

EXCERPT...

The media business outstrips other industries in generously compensating its top executives (New York Times, 5/5/13), and those resources could of course be put to better use by hiring reporters. But that’s not the way the system works. And it’s not just the bosses getting rich. Indeed, many high-profile members of the media elite live a rather charmed life. The journalism business looks to be in a disastrous state—but the view from the top is just fine.

SNIP...

David Gregory

As host of NBC’s Meet the Press, David Gregory is paid to quiz politicians on the tough issues of the day. But he offers his own opinions on the show, too; he’s encouraged the Obama White House to propose “big spending cuts” in order to confuse Republicans (1/27/13; FAIR Blog, 1/29/13). He thinks the White House should have done more to have a “moment in the Rose Garden” with a few corporate CEOs (11/11/12; FAIR Blog, 11/13/12), and demanded to hear more from the White House about the “hard choices” Americans must make to get by with less (1/29/12). He worried about the problem of Occupy activists “demonizing Wall Street” (10/10/11). He expressed concern that the more people criticize big banks, “the closer you get to wiping out the shareholder completely”—a person “who is not just a fat cat” (2/22/09).

In that sense, Gregory is reflecting what passes for conventional wisdom in corporate media—but also among people in Gregory’s economic class. His salary is not disclosed, but his predecessor, Tim Russert, reportedly made more than $5 million a year (Washington Post, 5/23/04). As Politico reported (3/15/12), Gregory was seeking membership in the exclusive Chevy Chase Club, which requires an $80,000 “initiation fee.” Gregory was sponsored by a couple of Washington-area real estate moguls.

SNIP...

In 2013, Gregory made gossipy news in Washington after apparently becoming incensed about a parking situation near his home (Washington Post, 4/10/13). Visitors to the D.C. Design House, an architectural showcase to benefit the Children’s National Medical Center, were evidently clogging up the streets near Gregory’s home. According to one of the designers, Gregory came to the house to very loudly complain on the front lawn. Witnesses claimed that Gregory yelled something about knowing “all the politicians in town,” which the anchor denied.

CONTINUED with Links and professional profiles on the likes of Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakariah, Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly...

http://fair.org/slider/cover-story-media-millionaires/

PS: Want to make clear that one definition of a free press costs big money.

[Octafish]

12. Williams makes $13 million per year.

http://gawker.com/5988597/brian-williams-please-tell-us-about-your-grindlingly-middle-class-upbringing-again

Greenwald, not so much.

[baldguy]

14. Greenwald has a new book coming out.

How many millions is he making off of that?

[Octafish]

15. Nowhere near $13 million.

Besides, we're comparing two totally different types of journalists:

One, a guy paid $13 million per year to read stuff off the Teleprompter for Comcast, one of six corporations that provide 95-percent of the "content" Americans "consume" and swore up and down that Iraq had WMDs and George W Bush won Florida in 2000.

Two, a guy paid a small fraction of that who researches, writes and edits his own book, something one in two Americans never touch after leaving high school, and was forced to leave the country because his reportage pointed out the falsehoods of the secret state.

Which would you rather tune in to?

[baldguy]

16. No, we're comparing Williams, a journalist with a 20+ year career

With the uninformed, opinionated hack Greenwald, who doesn't know the first thing about real journalism, who started writing only because he couldn't make it as a lawyer, and who has never met a Democrat he didn't hate.

[Octafish]

17. That's not accurate.

Why do you insist on misrepresenting Greenwald? He blew the whistle on Bush and Cheney. While their policies now seem mainstream to the uninformed, at the time they were widely hailed by Williams and the rest of the corporate media as good leaders.

It was GREENWALD who called out Bush and Cheney on ILLEGAL N.S.A. Spying back in 2007. If the millionaire working for billionaires Brian Williams and the rest of the press corpse had carried half as much water as Greenwald, these two would have long ago been in front of a Grand Jury.



Here's what Greenwald wrote on the subject of NSA abuse by them, when the story broke in 2007. In his story, Greenwald raised questions about the Comey visit to Ashcroft that have still to be answered -- six long warmongering profiteering years later:

Comey’s testimony raises new and vital questions about the NSA scandal

The testimony yesterday, while dramatic, underscores how severe a threat to the rule of law this administration poses.

BY GLENN GREENWALD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2007 06:16 AM EDT

The testimony yesterday from James Comey re-focuses attention on one of the long unresolved mysteries of the NSA scandal. And the new information Comey revealed, though not answering that question decisively, suggests some deeply troubling answers. Most of all, yesterday’s hearing underscores how unresolved the entire NSA matter is — how little we know (but ought to know) about what actually happened and how little accountability there has been for some of the most severe and blatant acts of presidential lawbreaking in the country’s history.

SNIP...

The key questions still demanding investigation and answers

But the more important issue here, by far, is that we should not have to speculate in this way about how the illegal eavesdropping powers were used. We enacted a law 30 years ago making it a felony for the government to eavesdrop on us without warrants, precisely because that power had been so severely and continuously abused. The President deliberately violated that law by eavesdropping in secret. Why don’t we know — a-year-a-half after this lawbreaking was revealed — whether these eavesdropping powers were abused for improper purposes? Is anyone in Congress investigating that question? Why don’t we know the answers to that?

Back in September, the then-ranking member (and current Chairman) of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, made clear how little even he knew about the answers to any of these questions in a letter he released:

For the past six months, I have been requesting without success specific details about the program, including: how many terrorists have been identified; how many arrested; how many convicted; and how many terrorists have been deported or killed as a direct result of information obtained through the warrantless wiretapping program.

[font size="6"][font color="red"]I can assure you, not one person in Congress has the answers to these and many other fundamental questions.[/font size][/font color]

CONTINUED...

http://www.salon.com/2007/05/16/nsa_comey/

Instead, six years and who-knows-how-many lives later, Bush and Cheney and the rest of their election thieving warmongering bankster oilmen posse continue merrily on their way, unpunished for lying America into war and making huge profits in the process.

So, yeah, it was Greenwald who stood up to Cheney and Bush. He covered the story and asked "Why?" Brian Williams? Not so much.

[ucrdem]

4. He's ready for his close up, Mr. Williams . . .

p.s. I have pic that goes with this but it's not very nice so we'll have to use our imaginations.

[Whisp]

7. Wasn't Greenwald asking millions for Snowden's first interview with a network?

I'm sure I read that a few months(?) ago but can't find it.

I wonder if Moscow Eddie will get something out of it - even if it's enough for a hotplate for his borscht.

[ucrdem]

9. I want to know how he keeps his hair styled in Russia.

Something tells me he's getting care packages that include a valet and car.

[whatchamacallit]

8. No OCD here

[Electric Monk]

11. Thanks for the reminder to set my PVR, ProSense.