One year ago next week, supporters of the ACLU of Washington gathered at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront to celebrate one of the most historic double victories in the history of social justice. Just a few days prior to the organization's annual fundraising dinner, Washington voters approved initiatives legalizing both gay marriage and the adult use of marijuana. Some folks in the ACLU spent most of their lives fighting for those issues. Finally: Victory. Drinks all around!
The speaker that night, unfortunately, was Glenn Greenwald.
Now known worldwide as the greatest muckracker of his generation, Greenwald then was just making a name for himself. With the Guardian as his microphone, Greenwald was fearlessly taking on the Obama administration and its out-of-control spying machine. In a ballroom crowded with happy civil libertarians--a rare sight, believe me--Greenwald took the podium and laid a turd in the punchbowl.
Obama’s big data grab, Greenwald said, was more awful than anyone in the room could imagine. The domestic spying and retaliation were bad and getting worse. Bummer, bummer, bummer.
By the end of the speech, ACLU of Washington executive director Kathleen Taylor had to clean-and-jerk the mood of the room back to positive.
One year later, I can’t get Greenwald’s speech out of my mind. In the past twelve months Greenwald’s stories, using ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s data, have shaken the world. He was right. The spying was worse than anyone imagined. And the retaliation has fallen on Greenwald.
Roger Cohen’s column in today’s New York Times revealed that Greenwald now lives a strange existence. He’s courted as the centerpiece of eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s new media startup, while living in the hills of Rio de Janeiro with a pack of rescue dogs, unable to visit the United States (rest easy, Kathleen Taylor!) for fear of being arrested. “I feel like if I went back to the United States there is a more than trivial chance I would be arrested,” he told Cohen. “Not one of 20 lawyers I have spoken to has said, ‘Oh, you are being paranoid; of course they would never think of arresting you.’ ”
Meanwhile his latest story, revealing that the NSA has tapped the phone of every Euro leader but Adrian Hasler, has Angela Merkel giving Obama a wood shampoo with a rolling pin. Month after month, Greenwald’s stories for the Guardian continue the embarrassing situation in which a British newspaper breaks the most important stories about the United States government, while the New York Times frets about the damage to national security and ignores the stories that Greenwald continues to break.
By the way: How much does the New York Times hate Glenn Greenwald? This much. Last month when news of Greenwald’s partnership with Omidyar broke, the NYT headlined the business story “Snowden Journalist’s New Venture to Be Bankrolled by eBay Founder.”
‘Snowden Journalist?’
Two things here. The NYT’s own columnist today acknowledged Greenwald as the most famous journalist of his generation. Calling him ‘Snowden Journalist’ is like calling Bob Woodward “Political Burglary Reporter.” At any newspaper, copy editors always look for the shortest, pithiest headline--which means they passed over “Greenwald’s New Venture” for the longer “Snowden Journalist’s New Venture,” and...why exactly? Envy? Spite? Hard to say. I’m waiting for the next headline about Jeff Bezos: “Online Store Founder’s New Venture...”
The ACLU of Washington’s annual Bill of Rights dinner takes place next week, on November 9, at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront. I wish Kathleen Taylor could invite Glenn Greenwald back so we in the audience could give him the standing ovation--and the legal protection--he deserves.
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