Glenn Greenwald - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Glenn Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American political journalist, lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. He has been a columnist for the US edition of The Guardian since August 2012.[1][2] Prior to that he was a columnist for Salon.com and an occasional contributor to The Guardian.[3][4][5]

Greenwald worked as a constitutional and civil rights litigator before becoming a contributor (columnist and blogger) to Salon.com, where he focused on political and legal topics.[6] He has also contributed to other newspapers and political news magazines, including The New York Times,[7][8][9] the Los Angeles Times,[10]The American Conservative,[11]The National Interest,[12] and In These Times.[13][14]

Greenwald has written four books, three of which have been New York Times bestsellers: How Would a Patriot Act? (2006); A Tragic Legacy (2007), and With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, released in October 2011. He also wrote Great American Hypocrites (2008).

Greenwald has received awards including the first Izzy Award for independent journalism, in 2009,[15] and the 2010 Online Journalism Award for Best Commentary.[16] Greenwald is a frequent speaker on college campuses, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, UCLA School of Law, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Maryland and others. He also appears on various radio and television programs as a guest political pundit.

Early life[edit]

Greenwald was born on March 6, 1967, in Queens, New York City, the son of Arlene and Daniel Greenwald.[17] Shortly after his birth Greenwald moved with his family to South Florida.[6][18] He earned a B.A. from George Washington University in 1990 and a J.D. from New York University Law School in 1994.[6]

Litigation attorney[edit]

Greenwald practiced law in the Litigation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (1994–1995); in 1996 he co-founded his own litigation firm, called Greenwald Christoph & Holland (later renamed Greenwald Christoph PC), where he litigated cases concerning issues of U.S. constitutional law and civil rights.[6][18] According to Greenwald, "I decided voluntarily to wind down my practice in 2005 because I could, and because, after ten years, I was bored with litigating full-time and wanted to do other things which I thought were more engaging and could make more of an impact, including political writing."[18]

Unclaimed Territory[edit]

Greenwald started his blogUnclaimed Territory in October 2005, focusing on the investigation pertaining to the Valerie Plame affair, the CIA leak grand jury investigation, the federal indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. In April 2006, Unclaimed Territory received the 2005 Koufax Award for "Best New Blog".[6]

Salon[edit]

In February 2007, Greenwald became a contributing writer at Salon.com, and the new column and blog superseded Unclaimed Territory, though Salon.com prominently features hyperlinks to it in Greenwald's dedicated biographical section.[19][20]

Among the frequent topics of his Salon articles were the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, and the candidacy of former CIA official John O. Brennan for the jobs of either Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) or the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI) after the election of Barack Obama. Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for the post after opposition centered in liberal blogs and led by Greenwald.[21][22][23][23][24][25]

Greenwald's criticism of the conditions in which U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks leaker, was being held ultimately led to a formal investigation by the U.N. high official on torture,[26][27] denunciations by Amnesty International,[28] and the resignation of State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley after he publicly criticized Manning's detention conditions.[29] Since then, Greenwald has been a strong supporter of Manning. He calls Manning "a whistle-blower acting with the noblest of motives", and "a national hero similar to Daniel Ellsberg."[30]

The Guardian[edit]

Greenwald left Salon.com on August 20, 2012 for The Guardian, citing "the opportunity to reach a new audience, to further internationalize my readership, and to be re-invigorated by a different environment" as reasons for the move.[31]

Guest appearances[edit]

Greenwald has appeared as a 'round table' guest on ABC's Sunday morning news show "This Week", HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher", Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report", NPR's "All Things Considered", as well as numerous times on C-SPAN's Washington Journal; Pacifica Radio's syndicated series Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman;[32] on Public Radio International's To the Point; MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, "Morning Joe", The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Up with Chris Hayes, and Dylan Ratigan's "Morning Meeting"; Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume;[33]. Greenwald has been a regular guest on the Hugh Hewitt Show (and was a friend and favorite guest of Hewitt's frequent guest host, Dean Barnett) and on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal.[34][35][36]

Accolades[edit]

Greenwald has been placed on numerous 'top 50' and 'top 25' lists of columnists in the United States.[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] In June, 2012, Newsweek magazine named him one of America's Top 10 Opinionists, saying that "a righteous, controlled, and razor-sharp fury runs through a great deal" of his writing, and: "His independent persuasion can make him a danger or an asset to both sides of the aisle."[46]

Personal life[edit]

Greenwald is gay, and lives most of the time in Rio de Janeiro, the hometown of his Brazilian partner, David Michael Miranda.[18][47][48][49][50] In a profile in Out magazine, Greenwald explained that his residence in Brazil is due to the fact that American law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), bars the federal recognition of same-sex marriages and thus prevents his partner from obtaining immigration rights in the US.[51]

Greenwald and his partner have 11 dogs, all rescued from the street,[52][53], and he frequently picks up dogs from the street and uses his platforms to find homes for them.[54][55][56]

Greenwald's first book, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values From a President Run Amok, was published by Working Assets in 2006. It was a New York Times bestseller,[57] and ranked #1 on Amazon.com both before its publication (due to pre-orders based on attention from 'UT' readers and other bloggers) and for several days after its release, ending its first week at #293.[58]

A Tragic Legacy, his second book, examines the presidency of George W. Bush "with an emphasis on his personality traits and beliefs that drove the presidency (along with an emphasis on how and why those personality traits have led to a presidency that has failed to historic proportions)."[59] Published in hardback by Crown (a division of Random House) on June 26, 2007 and reprinted in a paperback edition by Three Rivers Press on April 8, 2008, it too was a New York Times Best Seller, also ranking #1 for a day on Amazon.com's Non-Fiction Best Seller List and #2 the next day (also due to heavy "discussions and promotions by blogs—a campaign catalyzed by Jane Hamsher [at FireDogLake]", according to Greenwald).[60]

His third book, entitled Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, was published by Random House in April 2008, the same month that Three Rivers Press reissued A Tragic Legacy in paperback.[61][62]

His fourth book, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, was released by Metropolitan Books (of Henry Holt and Company) in October 2011.

Political views[edit]

Greenwald is critical of actions jointly supported by Democrats and Republicans, writing: "the worst and most tyrannical government actions in Washington are equally supported on a fully bipartisan basis."[63] In the preface to his first book, How Would a Patriot Act? (2006), Greenwald opens with some of his own personal political history, describing his 'pre-political' self as neither liberal nor conservative as a whole, voting neither for George W. Bush nor for any of his rivals (indeed, not voting at all).[64]

Bush's ascendancy to the U.S. Presidency "changed" Greenwald's previous uninvolved political attitude toward the electoral process "completely":

Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government, and it is threatening to radically alter our system of government and who we are as a nation. This extremism is neither conservative nor liberal in nature, but is instead driven by theories of unlimited presidential power that are wholly alien, and antithetical, to the core political values that have governed this country since its founding"; for, "the fact that this seizure of ever-expanding presidential power is largely justified through endless, rank fear-mongering—fear of terrorists, specifically—means that not only our system of government is radically changing, but so, too, are our national character, our national identity, and what it means to be American."[64]

Believing that "It is incumbent upon all Americans who believe in that system, bequeathed to us by the founders, to defend it when it is under assault and in jeopardy. And today it is", he stresses: "I did not arrive at these conclusions eagerly or because I was predisposed by any previous partisan viewpoint. Quite the contrary."[64]

Resistant to applying ideological labels to himself, he emphasizes repeatedly that he is a strong advocate for U.S. constitutional "balance of powers"[14] and for constitutionally-protected civil and political rights in his writings and public appearances.[6]

Throughout his work he has relentlessly criticized the policies of the George W. Bushadministration and those who support or enable it, arguing that most of the American "Corporate News Media" excuse Bush's policies and echo administration talking points rather than asking hard questions.[49][32]

Regarding civil liberties in the age of Obama, he elaborated on his conception of change when he said, "I think the only means of true political change will come from people working outside of that [two-party electoral] system to undermine it, and subvert it, and weaken it, and destroy it; not try to work within it to change it."[65] He did, however, raise money for Russ Feingold's 2010 Senate re-election bid,[66] Bill Halter's 2010 primary challenge to Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln [67] as well as several Congressional candidates in 2012 he described as "unique".[68]

Greenwald has been criticized regarding his positions which are critical of Israel's foreign policy and influence on U.S. politics.[69][70][71][72][73]

1. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2012-07-19). "Glenn Greenwald Moves From Salon to Guardian U.S.". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
2. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2012-07-19). "I'll be writing in a new venue beginning next month". Salon.com. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
3. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2011-12-14). "Bradley Manning deserves a medal". The Guardian (London). 
4. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2011-07-21). "Barack Obama is gutting the core principles of the Democratic party". The Guardian (London). 
5. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2011-10-07). "The CIA's impunity on 'torture tapes'". The Guardian (London). 
6. ^ abcdef"Glenn Greenwald". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-12-13. 
7. ^"What Kind of Democrat Will Specter Be?". The New York Times. 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2009-04-28. 
8. ^"Does Bipartisanship Matter?". The New York Times. 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2009-02-23. 
9. ^"When Bonus Contracts Can Be Broken". The New York Times. 2009-03-17. Retrieved 2009-03-17. 
10. ^"Bush's final days". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-01-14. 
11. ^"Author Search: Glenn Greenwald". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2008-12-14.  The Search facility (which times out after linking) lists 4 articles when "Glenn Greenwald" is provided as a search term selecting the "author" field: (1) "Madness of Crowds" ("Loyalty to Bush is the criterion for conservatism."); (2) "Selective Amnesia" ("Being a pro-war pundit means never having to say you're wrong."); (3) "Watching the Detectives" (a review of State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, by James Risen); and (4) "Authoritarian Temptation" ("In an age of expansive executive power, the take-no-prisoners style that made Giuliani a respected mayor might be taken literally.")
12. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2008-04-25). "The Perilous Punditocracy". The National Interest. The Nixon Center. Retrieved 2008-12-14. 
13. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2006-07-21). "Author Profile:Glenn Greenwald". In These Times. Retrieved 2008-12-14. 
14. ^ abGreenwald, Glenn (2006-07-21). "Rechecking the Balance of Powers". In These Times30 (8). Retrieved 2008-12-14. 
15. ^"Glenn Greenwald And Amy Goodman Share Inaugural Izzy Award For Independent Media". Ithaca News Release. Ithaca College. 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2009-03-12. 
16. ^"Online Journalism Awards, 2010". Online Journalism Awards. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-10-31. 
17. ^Stein, Gary (1985-03-13). "At 18, Future Holds Promise". Sun Sentinel. 
18. ^ abcdGreenwald, Glenn (2006-07-20). "Response to Right-wing Personal Attacks: My Law Practice; My Sexual Orientation; Where I Live". Unclaimed Territory. Retrieved 2007-02-02.  In the entry, he describes and sets the record straight about his legal career and related professional and personal matters.
19. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2007-02-01). "Blog News". Unclaimed Territory. Glenn Greenwald. Retrieved 2007-02-02. 
20. ^Singal, Jesse (2007-09-17). "Glenn Greenwald: On Terrorism, Civil Rights, and Building a Blog". Campus Progress (Blog). Retrieved 2008-04-05. 
21. ^Ambinder, Marc (2008-11-20). "Brennan, Harding Slated for Top Intelligence Jobs". The Atlantic Monthly. 
22. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2008-11-16). "John Brennan and Bush's interrogation/detention policies". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
23. ^ abSullivan, Andrew (2008-11-21). "No Way. No How. No Brennan". The Daily Dish of No Party or Clique (Blog). Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
24. ^"Brennan Out Of Running for Top Intelligence Post". International Herald Tribune (The New York Times Company). 2008-11-25. Retrieved 2008-12-15. 
25. ^Hamsher, Jane (2008-11-25). "'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Tuesday November 25, 2008: Transcript". The Rachel Maddow Show. MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-12-12. "I think as Atrios said, 'Behold the power of Glenn Greenwald.' ... Glenn, writing at Salon.com, had made a singular case against Brennan and said really, 'this is unacceptable.'" 
26. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2010-12-15). "The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention". Salon.com. Retrieved 2011-03-20. 
27. ^MacAskill, Ewen (2010-12-23). "UN to investigate treatment of jailed leaks suspect Bradley Manningx". guardian.co.uk (London). Retrieved 2010-12-23. 
28. ^"Amnesty International condemns ‘inhumane’ treatment of Bradley Manning". The Raw Story. Raw Story. 2011-01-24. 
29. ^"Amnesty International condemns ‘inhumane’ treatment of Bradley Manning". Politiconewspaper. Politico. 2011-03-13. 
30. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2010-06-18). "The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks". Salon.com. Retrieved 2011-03-20. 
31. ^Byers, Dylan (19 July 2012). "Glenn Greenwald to move to The Guardian". Politico. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
32. ^ abGoodman, Amy (2008-04-18). "Great American Hypocrites: Glenn Greenwald on the Corporate Media's Failures in the 2008 Race". Democracy Now!. Pacifica Radio. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
33. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2008-12-23). "Some observations after being involved in a Fox News report". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-12-23. 
34. ^"Glenn Greenwald on the High Cost of Government Secrecy". Bill Moyers & Company. 2013-04-26. Retrieved 2013-04-26. 
35. ^"Interview with Glenn Greenwald". Bill Moyers' Journal. 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
36. ^Moyers, Bill (2009-04-03). "Independent Journalism". PBS. Retrieved 2009-04-03. 
37. ^Tunku Varadarajan; Elisabeth Eaves; Hana R. Alberts (2009-01-22). "25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-08-18. 
38. ^"Who's left? The top 20 US progressives". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
39. ^Amira, Dan (2008-08-24). "Intelligencer:Conventional Wisdom". New York (News & Features). Retrieved 2008-12-12. "Who's the most popular? We developed a highly [sic] scientific formula to measure their star power, counting blog, newspaper, magazine, and TV-news mentions so far this year, Google hits, and how many presidential debates (in the primaries or planned for the general election) they moderated. Then, each pundit's popularity in each category was calculated as a percentage of the highest score, and those five percentages were averaged. (So, theoretically, a dominating pundit who topped each tally would end up with a popularity score of 100.) Here's the top 40. ..." 
40. ^"Power Grid: Print/Online Columnists". Mediaite. Retrieved 2009-07-06. 
41. ^"Food for Thought". Paul Krugman, NYT. 2009-07-09. Retrieved 2009-07-09. 
42. ^"Top 100 Blogs". Technorati. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
43. ^"What Is Authority?". Support at Technorati. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-12-15. 
44. ^"The Atlantic 50". Retrieved 2009-12-16. 
45. ^"The Politix 50: Here Are The Only Pundits You Need To Pay Attention To Between Now And The Election". Business Insider. 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
46. ^"Digital Power Index: Opinionists – Newsweek and The Daily Beast". Thedailybeast.com. 2012-06-24. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
47. ^"Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders | Out Magazine". Out.com. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
48. ^"Glenn Greenwald interview – Books". The Listener. 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
49. ^ abSilverstein, Ken (2008-02-21). "Six Questions for Glenn Greenwald on Campaign Coverage". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-15. 
50. ^Art of The Possible (2006-01-16). "Interview with Glenn Greenwald". Art of the Possible Blog. Retrieved 2008-12-13. 
51. ^"Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders | Out Magazine". Out.com. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
52. ^"Glenn Greenwald interview". New Zealand Listener. 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-04-12. 
53. ^"Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders | Out Magazine". Out.com. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2012-12-09. 
54. ^"Insight into one of DU's most loved/hated personalities, Glenn Greenwald". Democratic Underground. 2011-08-27. Retrieved 2011-08-27. 
55. ^"We are the proud parents of a Glenn Greenwald puppy...she was born early this morning". Democratic Underground. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2011-09-01. 
56. ^"Glenn Greenwald: War crimes and puppies". Citizens Radio. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2011-09-01. 
57. ^"The New York Times Book Review Best Sellers". The New York Times Book Review. The New York Times Company. 2006-06-11. Archived from the original on 2007-12-01. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
58. ^Garofoli, Joe (2006-05-12). "Book Tops Charts Before It's Published". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-12-12. "There's been no advertising for "How Would a Patriot Act." Didn't need any. It was more important to get love from a handful of key bloggers, who plugged the 144-page book on their sites, leading to a virtually overnight advance sales bump this week—and a second printing of 20,000 copies. "Patriot" remained at the peak of the Amazon charts for days. ... While "Patriot" parachuted to 293rd place by week's end after hitting No. 1, the book's publisher, the San Francisco phone company and liberal benefactor Working Assets, has been encouraged to continue its fledgling program of plucking sharp bloggers to write politically pointed books." 
59. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2006-11-09). "Untitled Comments: #54519". Comments Forum (HaloScan). Retrieved 2007-12-12. 
60. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2007-06-27). "Blogs and the establishment media". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
61. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2008-03-09). "Various items". Salon.com. Retrieved 2000-12-12. 
62. ^Hamm, Theodore (May 2008). "A Party of Frauds? Glenn Greenwald in conversation with Theodore Hamm". The Brooklyn Rail. 
63. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2010-12-14). "Attempts to prosecute WikiLeaks endanger press freedoms". Salon.com. Retrieved 2011-03-20. 
64. ^ abcGreenwald, Glenn. "Preface". How Would a Patriot Act?. San Francisco: Working Assets, 2006. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-12-14. 
65. ^Greenwald, Glenn (2011-07-03). "Civil liberties under Obama". International Socialist Organization. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 
66. ^http://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/feingold_7/
67. ^Hamsher, Jane (2010-05-01). "Accountability Recruits First Candidate for 2010: Bill Halter". Huffington Post. 
68. ^http://www.salon.com/2012/03/29/3_congressional_challengers_very_worth_supporting/
69. ^"AKUS ‘dares’ to criticize Glenn Greenwald". CIFWatch. Retrieved 2012-09-27. 
70. ^Jeffrey Goldberg (2012-01-26). "More on Glenn Greenwald, 'Israel-Firsters,' and Idiot Editors (Updated)". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
71. ^Adam Levick (2012-07-25). "The Guardian and Glenn Greenwald: The anti-imperialism of fools". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
72. ^David Bernstein (2010-11-06). "Greenwald: Israel has a "Higher Standard of Living" than the U.S.". The Volokhh Conspiracy. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
73. ^David Bernstein (2012-01-28). "Glenn Greenwald and the Neocons". The Volokhh Conspiracy. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 

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