Glenn Greenwald is best known for his part in Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing campaign. His ‘take no hostage’ approach to reporting news has placed him in the spotlight for his ‘fearless’ journalism based in facts.
He recalls when he first started in journalism, how his mentor reminded him to “never believe anything you read.” The irony wasn’t lost on him. As a newbie in the world of freelancing, more often than not he was to churn out articles of no familiarity to him. Research, at best, Greenwald says, was minimal.
“As I continued in the profession, I began to realize that most — if not nearly all — of what passes as “journalism” these days is basically the same thing. Most journalists rely on secondhand sources. What ends up being published is often highly suspect at best and written by someone with little or no firsthand knowledge of the subject at hand.”
Greenwald has recently written for The Intercept, a news site he created in 2014. His devoted form of commentary for the op-ed was titled “A Crucial Realization About Journalism is Learned by Being its Subject” explores these very concerns plaguing journalism.
“It’s so frequent, so common, that it’s impossible even to note all or even most of the falsehoods because one would never do anything else. And even if one devoted oneself to that task, many of the falsehoods would continue to thrive because of our reflexive assumption that what we read from respectable media outlets is true even if unaccompanied by evidence, and because most people lack the time and inclination to independently verify what they’re told about matters in which they have no personal stake.”
Greenwald couldn’t emphasize enough how important it is, not only for journalists across the globe, but for the everyday citizen, to understand the importance of reading and researching the media with a critical mind.
“…Journalistic objectivity is a sham, a horribly misleading and self-flattering conceit. Don’t simply trust claims made in authoritative media tones…And when consuming journalism products, always consciously realize that, even when malice or other forms of bad faith are nonexistent, so much of what is said and claimed by journalists is simply untrue.”
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