Glenn Greenwald's Resignation From The Intercept

About

Glenn Greenwald's Resignation From The Intercept refers to an announcement made by journalist Glenn Greenwald stating that he had resigned from the online news publication The Intercept, which he co-founded in 2013, claiming they had attempted to censor one of his articles regarding the Hunter Biden hard drive leak and that it constituted a breach of his contract. The Intercept editor in chief Betsy Reed disputed Greenwald's claims, saying there was a "fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism."

Background

On October 29th, 2020, Glenn Greenwald published the piece “My Resignation From The Intercept” on his Substack^[1] after leaving the news site, citing trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity at The Intercept, which culminated in censorship of his articles. In roughly 23 hours, the article received 866 likes and 686 comments. Shortly after, Greenwald shared the article on his Twitter^[2] account pulling quotes from the piece, receiving over 78,400 likes and 32,000 retweets in 23 hours (seen below).

Developments

Online Reactions

On October 29th, 2020, following the release of the article, the controversy surrounding Greenwald’s resignation ignited a debate between supporters and detractors either defending his decision or besmirching his statements across social media, particularly on Twitter where the hashtag #GlennGreenwald trended that evening. One such example was tweeted by Twitter^[3] user bennyjohnson who said Greenwald is “one of the last few, rare, real journalists left,” receiving over 1,200 likes and 300 retweets in 24 hours. That same day, Twitter^[4] user emptywheel criticized Greenwald’s resignation while praising the journalists at The Intercept, receiving over 8,000 likes and 1,500 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

On October 30th, Twitter^[6] user and journalist Tim Pool addressed the reactions to Greenwald’s resignation, adding “2020 is a fucking clown show,” accumulating over 3,600 likes and 540 retweets in four hours (seen below). Soon after, Twitter^[7] user Aaron West tweeted about the event and criticized Greenwald for “throwing a hissy fit and QUITTING because your editor insisted you like, back up what you say with facts and shit,” accumulating over 200 likes in four hours.

Response from The Intercept

After posting his resignation piece, The Intercept^[5] published a note from its editors addressing Greenwald’s departure from the site noting that:

Greenwald’s decision to resign from The Intercept stems from a fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism and the nature of censorship. Glenn demands the absolute right to determine what he will publish. He believes that anyone who disagrees with him is corrupt, and anyone who presumes to edit his words is a censor. Thus, the preposterous charge that The Intercept’s editors and reporters, with the lone, noble exception of Glenn Greenwald, have betrayed our mission to engage in fearless investigative journalism because we have been seduced by the lure of a Joe Biden presidency.

Media Coverage

Greenwald appeared on two different news programs between October 29th and 30th to address the controversy and reasoning for his exit from The Intercept. On the night of October 29th, Greenwald was a guest on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, which was later uploaded to their YouTube^[8] channel. The interview received over 1 million views, 63,000 likes and 7,800 comments in 14 hours (shown below, left). The following morning, Greenwald then appeared on The Hill’s Rising to explain why he resigned from the publication. After being uploaded to YouTube,^[9] the clip received over 26,500 views, 3,600 likes and 1,000 comments in roughly three hours (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References