The Glenn Greenwald story that brought down Jian Ghomeshi

[arikara]

Last Tuesday evening at CBC's Toronto headquarters, CBC News editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire played host to maverick reporter Glenn Greenwald. Shortly after her introductory remarks to a crowd of journalists at Glenn Gould Studio, former CBC News content director David Walmsley (now editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail) sat down with Greenwald for an admiring interview about journalistic bravery, exposing State surveillance and standing up to government pressure. A standing ovation followed.

At no point did Walmsley ask Greenwald about government surveillance in Canada by Internet spy agency CSEC. It's a topic that Walmsley, Greenwald, and McGuire all know far more about than the crowd they stood before, or the Canadian public they serve as journalists.

CANADALAND has learned that last year the CBC acquired NSA documents describing a major CSEC surveillance program, but the public broadcaster has been sitting on this news for over nine months, with no immediate plans to publish. In an interview with CANADALAND, Glenn Greenwald has revealed the "shocking reluctance" of veteran CBC reporter Terry Milewski to inform the public about CSEC spying, an indifference eventually revealed to be actual ideological opposition on the part of a reporter to exposing government surveillance programs.

http://www.canadalandshow.com/article/exclusive-cbc-stonewalled-snowden-story-says-greenwald

Jesse Brown, the freelance writer from the blog Canadaland started working on the Jian Ghomeshi story, and when he realized the story was too big for him in regards to liability he took it to the Toronto Star. Jesse Brown and the Star lead investigative reporter Kevin Donovan confronted Ghomeshi and his lawyers about it in June, he of course denied it and in turn went to CBC management and shared the accusations with them. Time went by, and nothing happened with the story because The Star had decided it was too risky to run with only anonymous accusers. But Jian didn't know this and was watching the Star and Canadaland and waiting. On Jesse Brown's Oct 20 podcast, "Why I Hate Talking About Israel", he talked about a monster story that was going to be very embarrassing for somebody and which he was going to bring out soon.

That podcast prompted Jian to go to CBC and show them material he hadn't shown them before, purportedly him at a BDSM club among other confessions, hoping that the CBC would stand by him. Instead they fired him.

But the thing was, Brown wasn't even talking about Jian Ghomeshi on that podcast. He was talking about CBC reporter Terry Milewski, and his sitting on the CSEC surveillance program story.

After he got fired, Jian figured that Brown was still going to come out with the story, so he ran that Facebook confession warning his fans about the coming smear job that he was still expecting from Canadaland. Once he went public, the Star could too. Because he published, they published. If he hadn't, they wouldn't have.

Listen to the explanation in more detail at the end of this podcast:
http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/we-all-knew-about-jian

You couldn't make this stuff up.

[riverbendviewgal]

1. yep

I agree. Bring out the sex story to hide and ignore the more important story that affects ALL Canadians.

[HEyHEY]

2. Totally poor form on Brown's part

Notice this big crazy story about CSEC still hasn't come out? He just went and smeared a reporter and we're still left to wonder what the big story is. If it's so bloody great, what the fuck hasn't brown published it? Actions of a total punk.

[arikara]

3. His story is how the story was stonewalled

He did a podcast with Greenwald, I thought it was interesting.
http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/glenn-greenwald-knows-things-about-canada

[HEyHEY]

4. Yes, but he never tells us what the story was

Milewski says the story was "bullshit" which is why he didn't do it.

If the story was so great, why didn't Brown do it then write the story about how he was stonewalled afterwards?

We're left to just take this punk on his word that it was some great story the CBC passed up. For all we know it was crap.

Meanwhile, ya let's besmirch the name of a guy with decades of experience as a reporter.

[to_be_rational]

5. The power of public hysteria

How facts become of extraneous in the face of public hysteria. When this story erupted into the public eye, Ghomeshi claimed the allegations were based on his self-professed S&M leanings in an effort to rationalize the allegations of sexual improprieties that will be leveled against him. What initially struck me was the fact that multiple instances have been reported in the media of Ghomeshi's violence toward and against women but not a single act of masochist behaviour on the part of Chomeshi. The wider fall out has eclipsed the gravity of the original allegations, it is now an attempt of launching a national dialogue surrounding sexual assault against women. The problems inherent in attempting to engage the public in such an open discussion in a climate as has been created here can only lead to feeding the hysteria rather than reaching constructive benefits to the larger public community. Whether male or female, young or old, anyone who speaks out in favour of placing distance from the index event will undoubtedly be ridiculed for doing so. The result will be a chorus of consenting voices, even if they are not. The analogy of the swinging pendulum is an apt one, we are seeing played out in the media is a push of the pendulum towards an opposite extreme. To punish, label and convict the accused first has been a reality for more than a decade when it comes to an allegation of sexual assault, but what is the cost to society at large to forgo the rule of law and judicial fairness? Do not confuse my remarks with sexual harassment allegations as an individual's societal, cultural, and psychological issues to name but a few, play integral roles. These are true for both the person who sees themself being sexually harassed as well as the person doing the harassing.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

6. Chomsky:

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”

CBC (ie govt. mouthpiece) buried a story and rightly or wrongly threw Ghomeshi under the bus in order to avoid the CSEC scandel.