Pulitzer-winning writer and reporter Glenn Greenwald castigated the state of modern journalism in a tweet thread yesterday, arguing that the progressive ideological echo-chamber that currently governs the industry is responsible for the repeated spread of untrue stories like Russiagate and Cassidy Hutchinson’s now-infamous claim that Donald Trump grabbed the steering wheel of a presidential limo.
“As any lawyer will tell you (if being honest), few things are less reliable than a proceeding with no adversarial component. These hearings have zero,” Greenwald said of the increasingly farcical of the January 6th committee. “One can assign whatever blame one wants for that, but perhaps it means journalists should be…skeptical…of assertions there.”
Greenwald slammed fellow journalists for conducting their work in an echo-chamber, insulated from potentially useful feedback from conservative reporters.
“If, yesterday, you followed conservative journalists or analysts — and really, why would anyone do such a thing: just block and ignore them — you’d have heard instant skepticism even over the physics of Hutchinson’s claim that Trump was able to grab the wheel of the Beast,” said Greenwald.
“Maybe parts of Hutchinson’s story is true (although the part that got the instant attention and calls for prosecution — Trump assaulted his agents and grabbed the wheel of the Beast! — was highly dubious on its face), but *journalistic* skepticism, not cheerleading, is needed.”
“If, as a journalist, you don’t *instantly* join the liberal mob — if you wait to see how facts emerge — you stand accused of sin. But if you jump on board, applause, virality and cable bookings are yours.”
“It’s literally impossible to count how many times during the Trump years some *blockbuster!* Russiagate event materialized – the thing that was going to be the fatal blow – and journalists spent all day on Twitter reflexively peddling it, only to watch it fall apart over and over.”
“For many (I’d say: most) corporate journalists, “Twitter” = “liberal Twitter” = “the only constituency that matters.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @LibertarianBlue.