After Wailing That No One Was Reporting on the Hunter Biden Laptop, Glenn Greenwald Is Now Wailing because Ben Collins Did

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As I’ve addressed both here and on Twitter (post 1, post 2), Glenn Greenwald has written at least three error-ridden posts wailing that no one has written about the Hunter Biden laptop that Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani used to seed an attempted attack on Joe Biden.

In an apparent attempt to generate more subscribers to his Substack of non-stop Hunter Biden laptop posts, Glenn continues to wail about people doing actual journalism. Yesterday, for example, he attacked Brandy Zadrozny (who was recently targeted directly by Glenn’s buddy Tucker Carlson) and Ben Collins, claiming that their reporting on organized disinformation efforts,  “is not journalism: it’s quashing of dissent.”

Collins responded with a long thread of the reporting that he had done over the last year, describing along the way the victims of such disinformation.

Among those stories, Collins included a story where he reported that a month before the Hunter Biden laptop was “discovered,” a fake person was pushing it.

Just days before the election, then, Collins was doing precisely what Glenn was demanding, reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop. Only, he wasn’t telling the precise story Glenn wanted told about the “laptop.”

One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden’s laptop, a fake “intelligence” document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and business in China.

The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake “intelligence firm” called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.

The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen’s profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches.

One of the original posters of the document, a blogger and professor named Christopher Balding, took credit for writing parts of it when asked about it and said Aspen does not exist.

Glenn replied to Collins’ thread with a ridiculously dickish response, then tried to suggest that because Collins is paid by NBC, he must be a fraud.

To recap then. Glenn has spent weeks suggesting no one at big media outlets was reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.

Collins noted that he did.

Glenn’s response to was to call him a fraud because he did that reporting at NBC.

I guess it wasn’t reporting he was really after.

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61 replies
  1. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Would it be over the top to describe Greenwald’s recent behavior as shrill and attention seeking? He seems to have drifted away from journalism in an effort, it seems, to protect his self-styled role as sole, omniscient, progressive outsider, a role that Taibbi and Mate also seem to covet. None of them seem to tolerate peers, only paying followers.

    • Rugger9 says:

      This is old news for GG, but one wonders what he’s hoping for as his end game. He’s smart enough to know DJT’s policies are unfriendly to libertarians like himself (i.e where AG Barr insists government can intervene in personal decisions) but is really scraping the barrel to support DJT anyhow. The laptop (if it ever existed) is at best a planted red herring.

      What is the real leverage here? I don’t think GG needs the fame of being a jackass, ruining any later career outside of the RWNM, or the money as far as I know, and he has his family situation where he wants it.

    • ADDISON says:

      Progressive my ass. The guy is a paid Russian thug and collaborator. He was being paid by the Russians long before he ever “played” progressive. From day one of his journalistic career he was anti – US Government. That part has never changed from day one until today.

    • Tony el Tigre says:

      Glenn is so delusional that he does not realize he is projecting, he thinks he’s doing actual journalism.

      One wonders what in his past might be motivating such behavior

    • BroD says:

      I think describing “Greenwald’s recent behavior as shrill and attention seeking” would be a profound understatement.

  3. Norskeflamthrower says:

    Can we now stop tryin’ to figure out why all these supposedly intelligent people who can count and wipe their own asses are franticly pushing stuff that has no relationship to reality? Are they on the spectrum, did their mothers reject them or did they have some trauma at birth? Every single one of these f***ers like Greenwald are completely compromised going WAAAAY back and that is the story of the sorry state of affairs in the entire country.

    • Ed G says:

      Never wrong…always the victim…jumps at the chance to personally insult even the mildest of criticism…an army of online sycophants…a long record of using then discarding people when it suits him…

      Gee, I wonder why he likes Trump so much!

  6. joel fisher says:

    I’m getting the vibe here: you people are all acting like AI generated people have no rights. They’re no more or less real than a corporation and we know what the GOP thinks about those: “corporations are people, too.” Thanks, Mitt Romney, for showing us the way to the brave new world.

    • John Paul Jones says:

      When AI “persons” are recognized in law, then I guess we can have that discussion. But to simply draw an analogy is not the same thing as actually making a case. If there is a case here, it seems to be “what-aboutism” directed against corporations, which kind of misses the point of what Collins was saying, which was that the “Biden dossier” was a fake ginned up for nefarious purposes.

    • Mitch Neher says:

      To the contrary, AI people make excellent little hall monitor dweebs.

      Greenwald should be replaced by one–STAT.

  8. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Poor Rudy has not practiced law in donkey’s years. I wonder if he remembers that accusations of fraud in federal court require particularity as to actor, time, place, and conduct. Unsupported allegations will not do, certainly not regarding state conduct. Alleging fraud without foundation or due inquiry – in the face of much contrary evidence – would be asking for sanctions.

    Rudy probably also forgets that First Amendment speech has limits, and that in courtrooms, mandatory rules apply to a lawyer’s conduct. Performing in front of a judge is not the same as accountability-free lying to the news media. And that as a PR representative of the president – Rudy is not protected by speech and debate clause protection. Oh, how the once mighty have fallen.

  9. GKJames says:

    Any clues as to the source of Greenwald’s startling transformation from coherent critic of execrable doings by government to peddler of name-calling diatribes against journalists?

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      No, but it appears to be years in the making and some of the behavior has always been part of his make-up.

      • Ed G says:

        Personally, the entire Snowden saga never sat right with me.

        His source just happens to make some movie-like escape to Russia with top secret intelligence…that he uses to make a huge buck from a oh-so-good billionaire. He sends his partner to fetch it through Heathrow…and his breathless reporting amounted to…did you know spies spy on people…using technology!

        I mean if only Collins was so principled to have profiteered of either a foreign intelligence asset or forever exiled kinda-whistleblower (maybe?) Then he could be truly free of the bad billionaires at NBC and finally report the One Sacred Truth only Greenwald knows.

    • subtropolis says:

      It’s partly Clinton Derangement Syndrome. Greenwald had bought into a lot of the 90s Clinton conspiracy crap, if only because it was pushing back at The (very nefarious) Man. When Hillary got the nod over Bernie it sent him over the edge. The Russian efforts to sow discord between Democrats likely reinforced his outrage, but he’d already long ago made up his mind that she’s evil.

      Everything since seems to be him doubling down. It’s nonetheless utterly incongruous. Although I had my issues with him as recently as five years or so ago, I never would have guessed at his current bizarro state.

  10. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Regarding Trump’s announced troop pullback from Afghanistan and Iraq, frankly, it seems delayed. But doing this now is not to enact policy or correct a past wrong. It’s to exact payback.

    Is Trump trying to look strong, to distract, to act out against American voters, the Pentagon or CIA? Is this a threat against actors in the ME whom he thinks are insufficiently supportive, or to help others with designs in the region, such as Russia. Pick your poison. Regardless, this is not about policy or protecting American interests. It’s personal, it’s vindictive, and it will cause harm. It’s what he does.

    • Rugger9 says:

      It depends on where the troops go. There is a rumor floating around that DJT had to be talked out of a strike on Natanz which would probably trigger a large scale war in the area. Also, there is no real way to prevent the Iranians from putting anti-ship missiles along the length of the Straits of Hormuz. Even Pompeo thought it was a really bad idea, but DJT is also desperate.

      • Alan Charbonneau says:

        As I posted months ago here and on Twitter, my biggest worry is that, if he lost, Trump would start a war with Iran, North Korea, or China (in order of likelihood). I so want to be wrong, but he’s just the kind who would do such a stupid, destructive thing.

        • Rugger9 says:

          Venezuela is more likely and in our proverbial back yard. We just stopped Iranian tankers from going there, and we supported a recent coup attempt there.

      • Fraud Guy says:

        Maybe those troops are the ones Trump wants to bring home to round up the Democrats according to the Qverse. #livingwiththeenemy

    • timbo says:

      gotta bring them back so they can participate in our herd immunity. wouldn’t want them to die heroically overseas, ya know.

  11. David Steele says:

    OT: Apparently the Wayne County Board of Canvassers blocked certification for (if I read it correctly) only Detroit on a party line vote, which looks like the next wave of GOP interference in the election. One hopes the MI SoS/governor hits them with a request for a mandamus writ to force the GOP into court to detail the actual fraud.

  12. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Having power and knowing how to use it are two different things. Donald Trump today terminated, Chris Krebs, the Director of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. That would appear to be a vital job – especially during a transition of presidential administrations. Krebs was fired because he disagreed with the president’s lies about voter fraud.

    WTF should Democrats quietly walk away from such destruction – fully supported by the entire GOP – with no attempt to impose consequences, in order look to some mythical future? What future would that be, I wonder.

    Going from one clusterfuck to the next, 87 year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley has tested positive for Covid. The litany of own goals by this administration is dismally long.

    Natasha Bertrand points out on twtr that Krebs can now talk to Team Biden, at least about some things.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      Firing Chris Krebs would also be pour encourager les autres, the hundreds of other government officials who might dare to correct or say No to Donald Trump as he burns to act out in the waning days of his regime.

  13. earlofhuntingdon says:

    As EW implies on twtr, MI Republicans are openly trying to pixie dust away all of Detroit’s voters, and, by extension, the votes of all people of color who don’t support them.

    They’re working hard on similar claims in Nevada, presumably attempting to queer the pitch for an EC-based victory. Thankfully, Rudy G. did such a bang-up job for them today in Pennsylvania, their goal will be harder to achieve, if not impossible.

    Winning by any means – foul or fouler – is now the Republican mantra. They’re proud of it.

    https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1328846541847748608

      • subtropolis says:

        Let’s keep in mind that it’s not just Trump. In fact, one could reasonably argue that much of the destruction wrought by this so-called administration was suggested by others. Trump simply does not understand how most of government works.

    • Rugger9 says:

      I had noted this seems to be the new method of election fraud, but unless Nevada has 37 electoral votes it’s a waste of time. MI GOPs already caved on Wayne County. However, the GOP is kind enough to tip their hand and the Ds need to prepare for 2024.

  15. The Old Redneck says:

    I just feel sadness when I see this stuff coming from GG. He was once a serious and formidable journalist. Now he is flailing, raving, and seems delusional. He spews personal insults at people still practicing journalism who disagree with him.
    Is there any hope for an intervention? Or has he just gone too far around the bend?

    • Dmbeaster says:

      Frankly, who cares. He has a long history of being poisonous and weird. He has gone so far over the edge that there is no point to even looking curiously into whatever hellhole he has dug for himself. He reminds me of a good friend from 40 years ago who is now completely unrecognizable in every way, and I just no longer care.

  17. Terry Mroczek says:

    I cannot believe that our founders had what is happening now in mind when they crafted the constitution – that freedom of speech means you can make shit up about someone just to harm their father or that freedom of press means that you can promote and amplify falsehoods just because you hold a grudge. “Healing” this country may mean doing surgical removal of a malignant cyst before the real healing can begin and that cyst is the generation and promotion of lies and falsehoods intended to do harm. Back in the day, I was taught that the first step to develop trust was through honesty. We can’t heal without trust and we cannot trust without truth.

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