

Greenwald exits Guardian for new Omidyar media venture - NonEUCitizen
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/15/us-usa-security-greenwald-idUSBRE99E18D20131015

======
balabaster
Hopefully this will see integrity return to real, good quality investigative
journalism in the media in general instead of "news" being used as fodder for
political and commercial interests.  It becomes tiring having to scroll through
Fox, CNN, CBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Times and other news
agencies trying to piece some form of the truth based on reading between the
lines of half truths and unchecked "facts" put in place to suit the story
rather than the other way around. 

Perhaps I've romanticized journalism in my mind and see the past through rose
coloured glasses as we all tend to from time to time, but I feel like
journalists used to have integrity and that we could once trust that when they
put pen to paper, we could believe in what they wrote... or perhaps we never
could and its only as age removes our naivety that we see the world's media
for what it is, a sham designed to further political and commercial interests. 

I for one should like to see a news agency that spends their time chasing down
the facts like CSIs to present the cold hard truth rather than some dumbed
down version of events designed to have some political sway.  Lets hope the
vision for whatever venture this may be is that.  Perhaps I can dream. 

~~~
lemming
The Guardian is actually one of the few organisations with its ownership
structure set up for editorial independence:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#Ownership](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#Ownership). 
I guess Greenwald knows what he's doing but I'd struggle to give more
credibility to a news organisation backed by some billionaire than one with an
editorial board deliberately structured to provide independence. 

~~~
mrt0mat0
I agree the Guardian is probably one of the few news sources i trusted more
than most.  I'm thinking he was offered freedoms that the guardian COULDN'T
offer him or the chance to run a full team of journalists like himself.  I
doubt he will be tamed by any organization.  We will see. 

------
redthrowaway
I'm interested to see what the financing model will be.  One of the biggest
structural problems with the MSM is their reliance on advertising and the
editorial constraints that inevitably imposes.  While I respect and admire
Greenwald, a key takeaway from the NSA leaks is that a system that relies on
the beneficence of its key actors is a system that will be abused.  If the only
defence against editorial degradation is the personal ethics of Greenwald and
Omidyar, then it's only a matter of time before the venture's editorial
oversight is captured by its financial interests. 

As much as I dislike paying for news, I'd far rather see them model themselves
after the Economist than CNN. 

------
matthewbadeau
Civil Beat is a really incredible news source that has done some really deep
reporting on Honolulu's local politics.  If Glenn Greenwald will be joining CB
then it's likely the website will grow out of its regional roots into a more
national news site.  I'd love to see the same investigative reporting done at a
national level. 

~~~
rhizome
It's a new venture. 

~~~
matthewbadeau
Ah!  My mistake.. I was a little too excited when I saw Civil Beat in the
article. 

~~~
ohashi
Hopefully this new venture is a bigger version of CB though. 

------
nicholassmith
I read a few weeks back that Greenwald has wanted to publish more information
at a higher pace, and The Guardian didn't as they thought it'd be too much. 
It's probably a golden opportunity for him to publish as much as he wants,
whenever he wants. 

Either way it'll be interesting, I certainly can't see The Guardian stopping
with it's interest in the security apparatus even without Greenwald. 

------
rnernento
This is disappointing to me.  I see it as Greenwald using his new found
publicity for a better deal.  After reading the recent Guardian profile in the
New Yorker it's hard not to root for them. 

It's also upsetting that this will dilute and interrupt the NSA reporting,
something Snowden has worked so hard to avoid. 

~~~
Thomas_Ellers
Greenwald only had a New York Times Best Selling Book on the Bush
Administration and its abuses of power.  And he had one of the most-read blogs
on the Interent, after 9 months of blogging. 

If Russ Feingold can read from his blog during Censure hearings, he can handle
a little bit of well-deserved fame for his hard work. 

------
brymaster
> Beat aimed to create a new online journalism model with paid subscriptions
> and respectful comment threads

Well good luck with that.  To lose faith in humanity, one has to look no
further than comment threads on news sites.  The current comments on the
Reuters article are already facepalm-inducing. 

~~~
Cthulhu_
I don't think one should judge humanity based on comments on the internet.  The
people behind those comments would respond (and debate) much differently in
real life, when they get direct feedback (verbal and/or nonverbal) for the
opinions they unfilteredly and impulsively spout onto the interwebz. 

~~~
jnbiche
That's exactly the point: these are people's unfiltered thoughts, and it makes
me lose faith in my fellow man (or at least fellow American) whenever I read
such comments. 

------
adventured
Worth noting that Pierre Omidyar has been a non-stop critic of the NSA's
spying activities since the Snowden leaks first broke:

[https://twitter.com/pierre](https://twitter.com/pierre)

Given the extraordinary power of the villains on the other side of this,
Omidyar seems to be taking a lot of risk here.  It's trivially easy for the US
Government to burn a billionaire on any number of trumped up SEC charges. 
Whoops, small trading rule infraction, better be careful not to declare your
innocence in a way that materially affects a stock price or it's off to prison
for you. 

------
vijucat
I wonder what happens if Snowden decides to stick with The Guardian? :-) 

~~~
tel
I'm sure this decision wasn't made without Snowden's consent.  Further,
originally Snowden sought out Greenwald himself not the Guardian at large. 

------
judk
Does this mean that he is done with the "first wave" the of Snowden
revelations, and or that he doesn't trust me The Guardian, and or that he
wants to to capitalize at his peak popularity moment?  Was this planned before
the Snowden story? 

~~~
ploocas
Good point, does he take the snowden documents with him, or is that "owned" by
the guardian? 

~~~
werid
he hasn't given all the documents to guardian.  only greenwald and poitras have
them.