Although I do my level best to maintain a diverse set of news sources, across the political spectrum, at some point it would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge the unique debt I owe to Glenn Greenwald at Salon. Greenwald is known as a "civil-liberties fanatic" by his detractors, as though that's somehow a bad thing. He is tireless, merciless, arrogant, unapologetic, and singularly focused on one thing - accountability in government and the media. He has taken on George Bush, Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, Dick Cheney, Chuck Todd, Keith Olbermann, Richard Cohen, David Brooks, Tim Geithner, Hank Paulson, and dozens of others - basically anyone he suspects of being more influenced by money, politics, influence, or prestige than they are by their various responsibilities to the public. He has no ambitions to be a TV star, and is famous for being exhaustively detailed and comprehensive in his arguments. On the torture issue in particular, he has a greater command of fact than pretty much anyone, save perhaps Jane Mayer. I don't by any means agree with Greenwald all of the time, but he is among the very best at what he does, and what I try to do on this page.
This week Greenwald is taking some heat from Joe Klein, for making public some disparaging comments the latter made about him in a supposedly private online journalists forum. Klein's been taking potshots at Greenwald for a couple of years, ever since Greenwald ripped apart some opinioneering Klein did on Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. So I'm taking this opportunity, along with many others, to give Greenwald the support he deserves.
If you do a daily news roundup each morning, whether you're conservative or liberal, do yourself a favor and include this link in what you read each day. You won't regret it.
A quick business trip (darn actual work) has interfered with my upcoming post on what to do if you just can't conclude that torture never ever works. Looking forward to hearing what people think, so hopefully later this week.
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