Greenwald in 2007: Journalists “know the work they do ought to be pleasing to the people who sign their paychecks.”
Paul Carr ■ Last night brought an amusing (on the face of it) and horrifying (when you think about it) twist in Pando’s ongoing coverage of Pierre Omidyar’s $250m First Look journalism project. For those coming to the party late: last week, Mark Ames wrote about how eBay founder Omidyar had co-invested with the US government in several of the opposition groups involved in the Ukraine revolution, a geopolitical closeness with Uncle Sam about which none of his reporters seemed aware. The piece prompted a fierce, and lengthy, response from First Look staffer Glenn Greenwald. The thrust being that, despite him being an active presence in the company’s virtual newsroom, Omidyar’s wealth and political opinions couldn’t possibly impact First Look’s reporting. In fact, Greenwald argued, the accusation barely even warrants a response.