Datagate: Greenwald and the Journalism Revolution

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist of “Datagate,” warned about the future of journalism in a recent interview with Newsweek, saying that a revolution will soon break out that will radically change how the media covers news about governments and other big institutions. This change seems to have already been underway for some years now, with the rise of whistle-blowers. It is inevitable, given the pervasiveness of digital content and the immediate access to a large amount of information over the Internet. According to Greenwald, journalism is being destroyed by surveillance because it permits governments to monitor the reporting being carried out. Greenwald asserts that this is the opposite of what America’s founding fathers had in mind and of what is expected from a healthy democracy.

Many consider Greenwald to be just as much of a traitor or a spy as Manning or Snowden. The Americans are the first in line in this way of thinking. With his head held high, Greenwald will continue to carry out his new project: creating a global news start-up to be funded by Omidyar, eBay’s multimillionaire founder. Greenwald will found the new start-up with Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, some of the most influential investigative journalists in the world. Omidyar, a supporter of journalism as a means of developing a healthier democracy, is the founder of the Civil Beat Law Center, an organization that helps people access government information and that is open to everyone, even journalists working in other media outlets. The aim is to make governments more transparent. EBay’s founder has identified one problem: Agencies often refuse requests for reports, documents or other information that should be readily available. Omidyar has solved the problem by creating something especially geared to the journalists: the Civil Beat Law, which reflects what Omidyar wishes to accomplish today together with Greenwald, Poitas and Scahill. Everyone is crying out for change. Everyone is looking for a new and innovative way of changing how a journalist works. To be able to carry out the required checks typical of the trade without being sponsored by the state. Not to be obligated to obey the government’s orders. That is free.

With the setting up of his start-up underway, Greenwald continues to refer back to Snowden’s documents. He made the following statements a few days ago to the Italian magazine l’Espresso: “The National Security Agency even spies on European governments, including the Italian government.”* According to the journalist, even Italy’s own 007 agents and the British Secret Intelligence Service played a role in gathering data. In this way, the data from the mole of “Datagate,” Edward Snowden, gave rise to an unprecedented diplomatic incident. A big rift arose between the U.S. and Germany when Merkel discovered that even her cell phone had been under surveillance since 2002. This piece of news followed the discovery that 70 million telephone calls in France had been monitored by the NSA over the course of one month alone. The latest news: Der Spiegel, a weekly German news magazine, wrote online that the United States possessed 80 spy centers in Europe that are jointly managed by the CIA and the NSA, including one in Rome.

Spying has gone global. Nobody is excluded. The NSA has proven itself to be weak with very little credibility and capable of being “discovered.” Perhaps Snowden is not the only mole. He could have accomplices. Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, is trying to cover up with the usual “war against terrorism” excuse, but he is just creating enemies for himself. There is a growing feeling of retaliation worldwide. This was shown last Saturday — the anniversary of the Patriot Act — when hundreds of people marched on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to protest against the NSA’s secret surveillance program. StopWatching.us is a coalition that was formed by more than 100 organizations to shed light on the programs used by the NSA. When will our country form a coalition? Will our country allow surveillance programs to destroy our privacy?

*Editor’s Note: This quote was translated from the article in l’Espresso, and could not be verified in English. It also appears that Greenwald made this statement to l’Espresso in June, rather than a few days ago.