Must-read: Greenwald on Goldberg

by on February 21, 2009 9
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Glenn Greenwald's enthusiastic demolition of Jeffrey Goldberg for hurling antisemitism charges at anyone he disagrees with is surely one of the best blogposts I've ever read, and a reason that the blogosphere is replacing the MSM. Writing/discourse doesn't get better than this. The piece might actually shift Goldberg's reputation to that of  the glib pamphleteer, and thereby help marginalize him. Note particularly the reference to Goldberg's "extreme dishonesty" in putting out blatant falsehoods in the New Yorker in 2002-2003 to push the U.S. into war, a journalistic event the New Yorker surely regrets. Never forget: the MSM failed us on Iraq.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Beyondoweiss, Iraq, Israel Lobby, US Policy in the Middle East

{ 9 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. reader says:
    February 21, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    Might be a lesson here for SOG, chris berel, Suzanne et al.

  2. Shirin says:
    February 21, 2009 at 2:08 pm

    "Never forget: the MSM failed us on Iraq."

    How typically self-absorbed American! How very "Waltz With Bashir" of you! YOU are not the victims here.

  3. MRW. says:
    February 21, 2009 at 3:16 pm

    Glenn Greenwald's article is excellent. A keeper. And it should be emailed far and wide.

  4. LeaNder says:
    February 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    Not with you, Shirin. The MSM and the Iraq War was indeed an essential part of the larger story. Below is the central point, I think. And the equivalent use of Anti-Americanism in scapegoating non-conformity he mentions in passing:

    People like Jeffrey Goldberg — and his comrades at places such as Commentary and the ADL — have so abused, over-used, manipulated and exploited the "anti-semitism" and "anti-Israel" accusations for improper and nakedly political ends that those terms have become drained of their meaning, have almost entirely lost their sting, and have become trivialized virtually to the point of caricature. That behavior has produced serious harm. Their trivialization and misuse of those terms have severely diminished the ability to stigmatize and attack real anti-Semitism, because legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism are now conflated with and discredited by the neocons' cynical attempts to wield it as a cheap debating weapon. That's a particularly dangerous — and ironic — outcome given that it has been spawned by many who have long claimed proprietary ownership over the "anti-Semitism" term in order, ostensibly, to protect it from trivialization.

  5. delia ruhe says:
    February 22, 2009 at 5:24 am

    Greenberg writes: "But what is worth noting — and celebrating — is that a significant and palpable change has occurred. Whereas these smear tactics once inspired fear in many people, now they just inspire pity."

    He might have added that some of us philosemites are beginning to wear the "antisemite" label as a badge of honour–indeed, not to invoke the label means you're still under the spell of the propaganda that Israel's tiny elite and AIPAC are dishing out for our supine MSM.

  6. chris berel says:
    February 22, 2009 at 8:09 am

    You can wear shit around your eyes and proudly walk down the street as if it were mascara, but in the end, it remains shit.

    You may be proud of your faults, but they remain faults.

  7. Citizen says:
    February 22, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    chris berel is lecturing to his own face in the mirror again. He never learns its redundant to share his
    all encompassing hatred.

  8. chris berel says:
    February 22, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    I see citizen of shitland is wearing mascara.

  9. George Washington says:
    February 23, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    I see chris berel is sniffing his own rectum.