Glenn Greenwald once again cozied up to Tucker Carlson, this time alleging a conspiracy theory involving Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, the intelligence community and the media over the Hunter Biden laptop story. Russia must be so pleased.
As I posted earlier, Fox News’ own reporters as well as The New York Post’s know the Hunter Biden laptop story (that Hunter supposedly brokered a meeting with his father and representatives of the Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter sat) is not credible. More importantly, the Republicans’ own investigation by the Senate Homeland Security Committee found no wrongdoing by Joe Biden regarding Ukraine.
But even if he thinks there is some there there, why the heck is Greenwald so willing to keep partnering with Carlson’s White Power Hour? Besides Carlson’s obvious white nationalism, he has been a cheerleader for vigilante killer Kyle Rittenhouse. And if that’s not enough to give Greenwald pause, perhaps Carlson’s deliberate endangering of reporters – with a lie – should.
Instead, Greenwald sent the vicious, divisive, racist Carlson a virtual bouquet of flowers.
Greenwald’s first comment was that he “couldn’t agree more” with Carlson’s claim that “the response by the media and particularly by the so-called Intel Community [claiming the whole story is Russian disinformation] strikes me as much more threatening to America than anything on this laptop.”
Then Greenwald launched into his Fox-friendly attack on Democrats.
GREENWALD: First of all, Adam Schiff is seriously the most pathological liar in all of American politics that I have seen in all of my time covering politics and journalism. He just fabricates accusations at the drop of a hat the way that other people change underwear.
He is simply lying, when he just asserts over and over that the Russians or the Kremlin are behind this story. He has no idea whether or not that's true. There's no evidence to support it.
How does Greenwald know that? Does he have access to the same intelligence as Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, or to a source who does? Predictably, Carlson didn’t ask.
GREENWALD: And what makes it so much worse is that the reason the Bidens aren't answering basic questions about this story, basic questions like did Hunter Biden drop that laptop off at that repair shop? Are the e-mails authentic? Do you deny that they are? Do you claim any have been altered? Or any of them for fabricated? Did you in fact meet with Burisma executives as these e-mails suggest?
The reason that they don't answer any questions is because the media has signaled that they don't have to. That journalists will be attacked and vilified simply for asking.
Actually, those questions are red herrings. The emails do not show what Murdoch’s Team Trump pretend they do. From Media Matters:
So far, nothing the Post has published is particularly damning. Despite calling one of the first reports a “smoking gun” proving that the Democratic presidential nominee abused his power while vice president, the outlet doesn’t actually provide the necessary supporting evidence to make such a conclusion. The story’s opening is framed to suggest that Biden’s involvement in coercing the Ukrainian government into firing a corrupt prosecutor was done as a way to protect Burisma. In fact, as reporting has borne out, Biden’s role in carrying out that internationally supported action actually made it more likely that Burisma would face increased legal scrutiny, not less.
Greenwald himself somewhat agreed last week when he wrote, “The Post’s hyping of the story as some cataclysmic bombshell was overblown” and “there is no proof that Biden followed through on any of Hunter’s promises to Burisma.” Not mentioned in his article is that the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security Committee investigated the point and found no wrongdoing, as I noted above.
But Greenwald kept any doubts about The Post’s reporting to himself as he continued with his Fox-friendly, Trumpy rhetoric:
GREENWALD: [W]hat we've seen since 2016, going back to the 2016 campaign, is [the intelligence community’s] incessant involvement in U.S. domestic politics, working with journalists to disseminate information purely for partisan ends, and if you want to talk about things like violating norms, and dangerous to democracy, what is more dangerous than allowing the C.I.A. constantly to be manipulating our politics by making cover for the Biden campaign by claiming anonymously that the Russians are behind this story, and therefore you ought to disregard it.
Even if the Russians were behind the story, why does that alleviate the responsibility of journalists to evaluate these e-mails and to examine whether or not Joe Biden actually engaged in misconduct?
In the first place, on what basis did Greenwald conclude the CIA is falsely blaming Russia for the sake of the Biden campaign? He never said and, natch, Carlson didn’t ask. In the second place, we already know Biden did not engage in misconduct.
But Greenwald wasn’t finished. He ramped up the incendiary rhetoric in what sounded more like a Fox News audition tape than a sound journalist imparting information:
GREENWALD: But the much bigger point is the way that this information is being disseminated. It is a union of journalists who have decided that their only goal is to defend Joe Biden and elect him President of the United States, working with the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. and the N.S.A., not to manipulate our adversaries or foreign governments, but to manipulate the American people for their own ends.
It's been going on for four straight years now, and there's no sign of it stopping anytime soon.
If it was up to Carlson, Greenwald would probably have been hired on the spot.
CARLSON: It's terrifying and I can't believe we're putting up with this. I can't believe the administration is putting up with this. They're supposed to be in charge of these agencies. We're going to have to live with the consequences of this for generations, and it's very upsetting and I appreciate the clarity you have on this.
Greenwald has had a fine reputation as a journalist so it is inexplicable to me that he would debase himself by paling around with a guy like Carlson. Unless, that is, Greenwald has some ulterior motive.
You can watch it below, from the October 19, 2020 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
What I can neither respect nor condone is Greenwald cozying up to a guy like Tucker Carlson in order to spew his venom on Fox News. It’s not like Greenwald doesn’t have his own platform to express his views. Greenwald may think he is being pure in his views but I see him as a Tucker Carlson patsy who has betrayed any ethical or moral values of his own for the sake of his own aggrandizement.
Further, Greenwald hates mainstream Dems and particularly hates anyone involved with the Obama White House, including Biden. As far as he’s concerned, the Dems have once again ignored Bernie Sanders and he’d be perfectly happy to see the Pence White House squeak through again.