Glenn Greenwald, Tucker Carlson Unite to Dismiss Russian Hacking Allegations

[DonViejo]

By Jonathan Chait

December 29, 2016
5:14 p.m.

One of the great meetings of journalistic minds took place last week, when left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson. The segment was devoted to their purportedly strange agreement over the Russian hacking story (which is not actually strange at all, given their mutual antipathy for the center-left). Greenwald has long dismissed the charge that Russia manipulated WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic party emails as a “smear,” mocking suspicions of misbehavior by what he referred to in sarcastic capitalized words as “The Russians”; he called it typical of the Democrats’ alleged tendency to use false attacks against Russia to discredit its adversaries (“So WikiLeaks has become an enemy of the Democratic Party, and they seem to have one tactic with their adversaries and enemies, which is to accuse them of being Russian agents”). On Carlson’s program, Greenwald attacked the Washington Post for reporting that the CIA and the FBI believed Russia’s hacking was intended to help Trump win. It is a remarkable segment that merits close reading.

“Should we believe that assessment?” asked Carlson. “We should be extremely skeptical of it for multiple reasons,” replied Greenwald. “These are assertions that are being made unaccompanied by any evidence whatsoever.”

An enormous amount of public evidence supports the conclusion that Russia conducted the email hacks. Experts from 19 intelligence agencies, as well as those from the private sector, have endorsed this finding, and evidence of Russian involvement has been laid out publicly in excruciating detail, both by the government and the news media. It’s true that intelligence agencies have not published evidence for their findings that Russia conducted the hack in order to elect Trump, for fear of exposing their sources and methods. But Russia’s motive is the least mysterious aspect of the entire episode. The Kremlin has literally spent months broadcasting its preference for Trump, both on its outward-facing and inward-facing propaganda outlets. Given Putin’s well-documented habit of intervening in foreign elections to benefit nationalistic parties and to harm parties favoring hawkish policies against Russia, it would be extremely strange if his interference in the election were not intended to help Trump.

Yet, Greenwald and Carlson, having established to their mutual satisfaction that reports of Russian interference in the election should be viewed with extreme suspicion, moved on to the question of just why it was that the Post would publish such a scurrilous report. “It is so weird that Russia is the focus … ” mused Carlson, “and yet, all of a sudden, Russia seems to be villain number one. Why is that? It seems strange.” The obvious response — Russia is the focus because it interfered with an American presidential election — had already been dismissed, so Greenwald supplied a different explanation for why Russia was suddenly the object of tough coverage in the media. Greenwald explained that Democrats ginned up hostility to Russia entirely for political reasons:

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/glenn-greenwald-tucker-carlson-unite-to-dismiss-russian-hacking-allegations.html

[JHan]

1. I love Chait's snark lol

[still_one]

2. and Jill Stein joined that group a little over a week ago with a tweet. Greenwald is so full of

himself. I know some think he is a "great" journalist, but he isn't. He has always interjected his own personal bias in his reporting, and in my book he loses any objectivity he may have had

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. I remember when Glenn Greenwald was a hero to many on DU

But then it turned out most were Paulite sock puppets.

[still_one]

4. He has never been an objective reporter, and always interjected his personal bias into a story.

[vi5]

6. Greenwald did good work for many years, including the Bush years...

...he was speaking truth to power while many of our elected Dems were lining up to cave in to Bush/Cheney's every whim.

Many of us gave him the benefit of the doubt for a while because of that good work. And even during the early Obama years, his issues were at least consistent with what he had previously fought against and which we all fought against. But at a certain point he seemed to have gone too far down his own rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and atthis point I think it's hard to argue he is doing anything other than trolling or helping out people who years ago he would have worked vehemently against.

It's painful to watch, and anyone who doesn't admit it is lying to themselves and others.

But at the same time anyone who dismisses the fact that he did a lot to help our side and bring things to light during the last dark Republican led days of this country are also not being 100% honest.

Either way, I wish he would just go away and stop this nonsense.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Funny that I don't remember Greenwald during the Bush years

My earliest recollection of him was when he was at Salon magazine early during Obama's administration. He had nothing good to say about the president.

[vi5]

9. He was at Salon during the Bush years as well as his own blog....

His issues were freedom of the press, freedom of information and transparency. He was one of the loudest people speaking out against the Patriot act and the NSA and the tremendous government overreach of Bushco. He was one of the most important people exploring and writing about what was done to Valerie Plame as well.

As I said, he was consistent in his criticisms of Obama, while many were content to suddenly think that overreach was o.k. because it was being done by "our side". I suspect many of those same folks are going to be against it again now that Trump is in office.

Again, I agree he has gone off the deep end, and should be called out on it. But up until the last few years of the Obama administration's his criticisms were at least consistent with the ones he leveled against Bush when we needed solid investigative journalism.

[randome]

5. Fuck that smary loser, Greenwald!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[lapucelle]

8. Greenwald and Taibbi on the same side as Trump, Flynn, Assange, Stein, and Carlson.

Looks like a fairly well coordinated sellout of Obama for Trump's benefit. I wonder what Putin has on Glenn and Matt.

[OKNancy]

11. exactly

smarmy creeps, all of them.

[SidDithers]

10. Greenwald. LOL...nt

Sid