Glenn Greenwald: Politico's understanding of journalistic anonymity

[babylonsister]

Any day Greenwald goes after politico is a good day...


Glenn Greenwald
Saturday April 18, 2009 08:19 EDT
Politico's understanding of journalistic anonymity

(updated below)


In a Politico article discussing Obama's decision to release the OLC torture memos, Mike Allen granted anonymity to "a former top official in the administration of President George W. Bush" to enable that official to do nothing other than attack Obama's decision and accuse him of handing our critical secrets to Al Qaeda. Those anonymous quotes predictably attracted the only thing of value for Politico: a prominent, screaming Drudge link announcing that Bush officials accused Obama of helping the Terrorists.

Andrew Sullivan was the first to note what an absurd and journalistically baseless grant of anonymity this was. Citing Sullivan's post, I also criticized Allen's use of anonymity both here and on Twitter. At his Washington Post blog, Greg Sargent then printed an email from Allen answering Sargent's request for a response to the criticisms. That response revealed what has long been clear: most establishment journalists do not even pretend any more to have any standards for when anonymity is granted; they'll give it to whoever wants it without needing any real reason for doing so, especially if the person wanting it is politically influential.

After reading Allen's painfully vapid justification for what he did (and after remembering that Allen described the conduct authorized by the OLC memos as "aggressive interrogation practices critics decried as torture"), I was unable to restrain myself (admittedly, I did not try very hard) from launching further Twitter assaults aimed at Allen and Politico. Allen then announced on Twitter that he was, at that very moment, working on an article explaining what he did and why, which only prompted further Twitter outbursts from me, by then almost certainly approaching TOS-violating levels of Twitter-stalking.

Shortly thereafter, Politico published Allen's self-justifying article, headlined: "Story behind the story: The left erupts." It begins this way: "The liberal blogosphere is on the attack about three paragraphs in a story POLITICO posted Thursday on the release of the CIA interrogation memos." Apparently, "the left" and "the liberal blogosphere" means me and Andrew Sullivan, since we're the only ones who objected (or at least were the only ones mentioned by the story). But it's always helpful to be able to dismissively characterize media criticisms as "attacks" from "the left" -- that must mean the criticisms are both shrill and ideologically-motivated -- so Politico went with it.

Allen's article offers a helpful glimpse into the mind of the standard establishment journalist (Allen previously covered the White House for Time and The Washington Post). According to him, all Bush officials other than Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are too cowardly to criticize Barack Obama on the record -- "They have new careers, and they know it’s a fight they’ll never win. He’s popular; they’re not; they get it" -- so what is a poor reporter like him to do other than agree to anonymity? If all senior Bush officials are really such cowards -- too afraid even to criticize Obama because of his approval ratings -- that would be a worthwhile story in its own right.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald//

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

1. Thanks babylonsister for the link to Glenn Greenwald's

excellent piece on that asshat Mike Allen. I agree entirely with Mr. Greenwald. I was disgusted and discouraged with Obama's statement regarding these torture memos. I can't understand why Obama is dead set against prosecuting the people that did these egregious actions.

All I know is that if this is allowed, it makes every American citizen complicit in the war crimes of the Bush Administration and I for one, do not condone or agree with torture in any circumstance.

On another note, my father and brother fought for the Constitution in WWII and in Vietnam. They're both dead now but I can just imagine them shaking their heads in disbelief that torture was even considered and executed by officials of a country they both loved and revered.

:cry: :cry:

[babylonsister]

2. Maybe he's not dead set against prosecution. Did you see this?

From Jane Hamsher, no less...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x441483

[Spazito]

3. I disagree with only one thing Greenwald said in this...

ANYONE who works for Politico is not an "establishment journalist". Politico is the polished-up twin of Talon News which was never, in my memory anyway, described as mainstream or establishment.

This little tidbit made me curious, "(Allen previously covered the White House for Time and The Washington Post)" and I can't help but wonder why someone who worked for actual mainstream and still respected, to some degree, would choose to work for Politico instead? Was he ousted from Time and The WP and needed a job or could it be because Politico reflects his political biases and he is free to slant his reports any way he likes?

[babylonsister]

5. Maybe he couldn't hold a job prior to politico. His wiki entry

doesn't indicate he was fired from anything, but maybe he just wrote the occasional article. And I do recall when politico first started up that he and Jim Vander hei introduced it; I think they're pretty tight, which could be why Allen bailed, too.

[Spazito]

6. Thanks, babylonsister, for the info...

That makes sense as I could not see a true journalist leaving either Time or the WP for Politico if they were already established as reputable and had, in fact, worked in any continuity for the two established outlets.

[davidwparker]

4. thanks for the link. I noticed there was a Glenn Greenwald podcast that

I just subscribed to. I heard him on CSPAN recently and really liked him.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

7. Thanks for the link to FDL babylonsister.

That article from Jane Hamsher made me feel quite a bit better. My congresscritter from the 3rd CD in Illinois is a real DINO, Dan Lipinski, so I'm not going to bother writing to him. He probably agrees with the torturers, he's such an asshat....