Glenn Greenwald
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And when you do, you see things that I think people should be aware of.
Oftentimes, one of the things that is most dangerous to journalism is when you get a source who can provide you with an important value.
And this is a big scoop, right?
This is the sister of this serial killer in a case that has gotten major attention.
He's kind of this enigma and mystery.
He has never spoken.
He didn't defend himself in court.
He pled guilty.
No one understands why he did what he did.
He won't provide any information.
And now the sister is speaking for the first time.
It's a big benefit to the reporter at the New York Times to get the story.
It's why we're talking about it.
It gets a lot of attention.
And one of the problems that bad journalists fall into, the temptation that they refuse to resist, is that when you have a source who's giving you an important story that can help your career, it's very tempting to start trying to almost become their advocate, like to take their side, to almost say to them,
If you give me this story, I will help you as well.
And it becomes this quid pro quo where now the journalist isn't doing journalism by interviewing this source.
The journalist hat is out the window because they're so grateful they got the story.
And in the course of probably negotiating, they have a personal relationship that develops.
And so you have all of these questions.