While we all know there are wars inside both the Republican and Democratic parties, there is also an ongoing and growing war inside Journalism. Like the wars in both political parties, the war in Journalism seems to be boiling down to the “establishment” trying to maintain its power. Glenn Greenwald writes about this specifically in his latest at Substack.
That is precisely why they are so furious. They cannot stand the fact that journalists can break major stories and find an audience while maintaining an independent voice, critically questioning rather than obediently reciting the orthodoxies that bind them and, most of all, without playing their infantile in-group games and submitting to their hive-mind decrees. In fact, the more big stories you break while maintaining your independence from them, the more intense is the contempt they harbor for you: that explains, among other things, their willingness to watch Julian Assange (who has broken more major stories than all of them combined) be imprisoned for publishing documents.
That they are angry and upset is irrelevant. It only matters because these resentments and fears that they are losing their monopolistic power over public thought are translating into increasingly concerted and effective censorship campaigns.
Glenn Greenwald, “Journalists Start Demanding Substack Censor its Writers: to Bar Critiques of Journalists”, March 11, 2021
It’s a longish but eye-opening read. I’m probably nowhere near agreeing with Mr. Greenwald on day-to-day politics, but I do agree with him that the field of Journalism has devolved into its own tribe wanting to limit both the voice and the influence of those outside its own members. Fight on, Mr. Greenwald. Fight on.
Pot Full of Frogs 