How to deal with an establishment journalist


People often have the illusion that the BBC is an impartial news source. But in reality its journalists are as much establishment supporters of their government as the major news sources in the US. In this interview with Glenn Greenwald on the BBC program Newsnight, Kristy Ward demonstrates all the characteristics of an establishment journalist, such as taking government statements at face value and truthful (which is quite extraordinary given the high level of mendacity that they have displayed) and treating with high skepticism the statements of those who challenge the government’s version of events instead of treating both with the same high degree of skepticism.

Greenwald gives her a good lesson in what journalism should be and in the process rips into the appalling lack of press freedom in the UK and the thuggish way that the British government has been behaving.

Meanwhile, in related news, via via Jonathan Turley I learn that a German writer who is a critic of the NSA was curtly denied entry into the US.

The 48-year-old Trojanow had been invited to a German language convention in the US city of Denver. However, he was left stranded at Salvador da Bahia airport, in Brazil.

“The woman told me curtly and without emotion that entry to the United States was being denied to me – without giving any reason,” Trojanow told the German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.

Trojanow and co-author Juli Zeh had been behind an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel that demanded the German government “tell the nation the full truth about the spying offensive.” The document was written in light of former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden’s revelations about far-reaching and unsupervised electronic spying operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Comments

  1. trucreep says

    Looks like your post got cut off some how Dr. Singham. I just want to say Glenn Greenwald was, once again, brilliant. This is the result of being absolutely sure of one’s position and knowing the correctness of it. Time and time again, he shows true integrity in the face of such disgusting behaviors.

    Before your post got cut off it looks like you were about to talk about the German NSA critic trying to fly to Denver. Just another instance of the illusion of a free society falling apart.

  2. colnago80 says

    As I comment on Turley’s blog there is nothing new here. Anybody recall how Canadian author Farley Mowat was similarly denied entry to the US a couple of decades ago?

  3. mnb0 says

    The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is far from threatening left-wing -- it’s a moderate conservative paper, albeit neutral concerning German political parties. This shows how right-wing authoritarian the Obama administration is.

  4. invivoMark says

    I’m extremely impressed with Greenwald’s ability to maintain composure in the face of such absurd and offensive questions from ins interviewer. Even better, he wasn’t afraid to get in some nasty jabs at her journalistic integrity, although I’m sure they were probably lost on her.

  5. colnago80 says

    I am really surprised at Prof. Singham’s disdain for the BBC. There is no more anti-Israel outlet in Great Britain, at least among mainstream sources of information then the BBC. Not even the Guardian is as anti-Israel as the
    BBC and that’s really saying something;.

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