A Response To My Good Friend Glenn Greenwald
[posted by Justin Levine]
As Patterico notes, Glenn Greenwald gets it wrong all over the place. I’ll lay out the facts and let everyone decide for themselves about me (and by extension in this instance, the controversy over “The Path To 9/11” – though it’s funny how Mr. Greenwald doesn’t seem to make a distinction between the two).
First let’s review the facts that Greenwald gets correct:
Yes – Nearly 10 years ago, I did work as a legal intern, and then paid employee, for the Individual Rights Association, which is associated with David Horowitz’s Center For The Study Of Popular Culture. We did some great work in defense of the First Amendment that I am proud of. I would have thought that Mr. Greenwald would appreciate that since he too has been a First Amendment litigator – but maybe he takes a limited view of that freedom after all.
Since working for the Individual Rights Foundation, I have held jobs with Playboy and Paramount among others. It’s fair to say that these entities did not have a right-wing agenda.
During my time with the Individual Rights Foundation, we were defending Matt Drudge in the defamation lawsuit brought by Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal.
And yes, I also screened the Matt Drudge radio show for a few years. I know that partisan liberals will never forgive him for breaking the Monica Lewinsky story, but I hardly think of Drudge as some conservative party hack. He will go wherever the stink is – a philosophy which I embrace.
I’ll admit to voting Republican more often that not. But I don’t think of myself as partisan. I gleefully slam people and institutions like Bill O’Reilly, Big Corporate Culture, Fox News and Lynne Cheney when I feel they are wrong. People who know me also know that I have slammed Hugh Hewitt as coming across as a partisan political hack at times. And you know what? Just like you, I have previously mocked Hewitt’s claims for having an audience “in the millions.”
Here is where Greenwald is even more mistaken:
The screening copy of “The Path To 9/11” was not sent to me. It was sent to “The Bill Handel Show.” As I’ve indicated before, I am one of 3 producers on that show, and don’t claim to have any special influence in the media beyond collaboratively consulting with Bill Handel and the other producers as to what we should be discussing on any given day. Disney/ABC probably don’t even know I exist. They certainly don’t know my background with the Individual Rights Foundation or Drudge. When the screening copy of the film first came in, it sat on the work desk for a bit along with all of the other books and videos that the show gets media copies of. Again, it wasn’t sent to me – it was sent to Bill Handel (presumably because he is the highest-rated morning host in the second-largest radio market in the country).
Nobody connected with the show (including Handel himself) had any immediate interest in seeing the film when it was first sent to us. Then, as it so happened, I heard KFI host John Ziegler praise the film, so I borrowed the screener copy that had been sent to Handel’s show, and watched it myself. At that point, I wrote my review and recommended to the other Handel producers that Bill Handel should see this thing, since I believed it would likely become a big news topic (which I was right about).
My own review of the film is my own opinion and naturally does not reflect the opinion of Bill Handel or anyone else. Because I was apparently one of the first people to post a review of the entire film (as opposed to just Part 1 which others in Washington had seen), it happened to get some notice in the blogosphere. But again, I don’t have any huge influence in the media, and I’m confident that ABC/Disney has never heard of me. I’m just a free-wheelin’ fun-lovin’ guy who happens to like his job in radio at the moment. So lighten up Glenn, ok?
As for Bill Handel – he wasn’t sent the advance screening copy of the film because he is some right-wing wacko. He was sent it because he has the highest-rated morning talk show in Southern California, on the single most listened-to talk radio station in America.
For the record, Bill Handel supports gay rights (including marriage), thought people were nuts for wanting to keep Terri Schiavo on life support, and supports socialized medicine among other things. Everyone who listens to him knows that Handel is not a “conservative” radio host (unless simply believing in the death penalty and criticizing illegal immigration makes you “conservative” regardless of your other opinions). Still don’t believe me? Judge for yourself. Visit KFI640.com, and listen to his show through the streaming link. Politics isn’t the main focus of the show to begin with – news and entertainment is.
As to the “stalker” comment – that’s a good one Glenn. What happened was that I was in a relationship with a co-worker at the building where the Drudge show is syndicated from (along with other radio shows that this co-worker was involved with). I broke off the relationship with her, and things regretfully turned ugly between us because we were sharing some of the same working space together. Being forced into the same working space with someone after you break up with them is hardly “stalking.” But the tension became so great that management was forced to split us apart. Given the requirements of the work there – one of us had to go since you can’t work on a live radio show from a different work space from where the show operates from. In the end, I was the one who was asked to step aside. Why? Probably because I’m the guy and she’s the girl, plus the fact that she was a more valued employee due to the fact that she was needed to work more hours in the building than me (I was also one of the highest paid screeners in the building, and I suspect that management didn’t mind getting rid of me in order so that they could pay my replacement less money. But that part is admittedly just speculation at this point). It was a regrettable incident, but there was no “stalking” involved and I have nothing to apologize for.
But hey, everyone who knows me knows that my life is an open book. If you feel that the best way to debate “The Path To 9/11” is to falsely slap a “stalker” label on me, go right ahead. It’s not going to affect my life in any way, dude. I’ve been involved with enough libel defense cases to know that trash-talkin’ is just part of the game. I get it. And with the advent of the blogosphere, more and more people get it too, since they have now managed to join a truly public debate and get sucked into the same dynamic. [Hey Glenn, feel free to use the previous “trash-talkin” link to slap the “misogynist” label on me too. It’ll be a hoot, and will no doubt boost your own credibility while diminishing my own.]
People who want to know the truth about something and engage the debate will do so. Others will find some false red-herring to fixate on in order to avoid the real debate. It also won’t stop me joining ranks with you in the future if you happen to find yourself on the correct side of First Amendment thought as a matter of principle instead of using it as a one-sided tool used to bludgeon political enemies with.
So, onward with the debate (for those who are genuinely interested…)
[posted by Justin Levine]
[…] [IMPORTANT UPDATE: Justin Levine answers Greenwald’s wild conspiracy theories (and Greenwald’s personal attacks on Justin’s character) here. Read it all and judge for yourself whether Justin’s sensible explanation makes more sense than Greenwald’s nutty flight of fancy.] […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » Greenwald Makes Wild and Untrue Allegations About “Path to 9/11″ (421107) — 9/9/2006 @ 6:25 pmHandel’s a non-idiotarian on U.S. foreign policy issues. I have a hunch that from Greenwald’s perspective, that alone is enough to put him on the Attila the Hun wing of the VRWC.
Xrlq (1f259f) — 9/9/2006 @ 6:41 pmYou moronic brownshirt fucks are in waaaaaaay over your head.
Greenwald’s got you by the balls. Sit back and enjoy it, motherfuckers…
dave (9f1e38) — 9/9/2006 @ 7:04 pmAnd for the record: the person that stated a copy of “Path Up Karl Rove’s Ass” was sent directly to “Justin” was the moronic brownshirt fuck that runs this blog.
He’s the one you should be pissed at, punk.
dave (9f1e38) — 9/9/2006 @ 7:07 pmGive it up Dave, Comments #3 & 4. Osama bin Laden will never pick you as one of his 72 virgins.
[Dave is banned. — P]
nk (41da82) — 9/9/2006 @ 7:18 pmDave’s not here!
Chong (1f259f) — 9/9/2006 @ 7:37 pmBarbara Bodine, ex-Ambassador to Yemen and nemesis of John O’Neill, weighs in on 9/11 docudrama in Patterico’s favorite fishwrap, is disemboweled online.
Dan Collins (8312b6) — 9/9/2006 @ 7:42 pmHonest to God, it’s becoming more and more evident that just about everybody to the left of Joe Lieberman has gone totally insane. Sheesh.
JorgXMcKie (4068d7) — 9/9/2006 @ 8:06 pm[Dave is banned. — P]
And appropriately so. One with such a small mind and smaller vocabulary has nothing of merit to say at any rate. Typical childish leftist rant.
Pathetic.
The first amendment is not absolute, nor does it recognize a right to be heard. Dave’s juvenile comments are unfortunately illustrative of what the left considers “discourse” these days.
JXMK, unfortunately you’re correct. I’m guessing that if the republicans retain control of congress through some miracle, that the heads of these leftists will collectively explode. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
Harry Arthur (b318a5) — 9/9/2006 @ 8:18 pmlighten up Glenn, ok?
I think we can guarantee that is one thing that will never happen.
Crank (dbd95b) — 9/9/2006 @ 8:47 pmQuote: Honest to God, it’s becoming more and more evident that just about everybody to the left of Joe Lieberman has gone totally insane. Sheesh.
Comment by JorgXMcKie — 9/9/2006 @ 8:06 pm
I have to agree with you my friend! And what is more, even though the Democrats boast of how in November they will win back the House, yet still their ingrained stereotypical insecurity, self-doubt, ambivalence, defeatism, and Kerry styled flip-flopping makes them increasingly more, shrill, paranoiac, and ever more detached from reality than ever before! It is simply amazing!!!
On the O’Reilly Factor yesterday, one of Bill’s guests, a law professor from Georgetown University, admitted point blank when pressured by Bill, that he (and the Democrats) would not have roughed up the terrorist plotter captured by Pakistani authorities that gave away the plot to down 10 American airliners over the Atlantic just days before it was going to take place recently, which will have resulted in the second worst terrorist attack since 9/11!
Unbelievably, as Bill pointed out to him, the learned professor went into a theoretical harangue about our”values” and the wrongfulness of “torture” and other such abstract concepts and philosophical niceties, while holding firm to his conviction ( the Democrat’s) that he would not condone, for instance, the waterboarding, or beating up, of this terrorist sonofabitch that the Pakistanis had captured, even if it meant the information gleaned would avert the tragedy which would otherwise have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people!!! This shows how totally disconnected the professor and his beloved Democrats are from the realities of the dangers we are facing! The world should be grateful the Pakistani interrogators did not have this “Democratic” frame of mind!!!
But it only gets worse!
As we all know, recently, a documentary was made about the fictional “assassination” of President Bush. As I have pointed out in previous posts, I am of the opinion that this is but the playing out of the Democrat’s, and the Left’s, secret fantasies of their innermost hearts, which of course they do not make more public lest the Secret Service rounds them up to ask them a few questions! This documentary is to the Democrats and the Left, what a porno flick is to an introverted, social misfit, hungering for sexual gratification. No more, no less!
Yet, it is highly ironic that the Democrats and their Elitist media find it perfectly within the realm of “creative license” that such a film should be made and shown, as even the producer of the film openly admitted: “That such an assassination was very possible as a result of Bush’s foreign policy”, and yet President Clinton, Madeleine Albright, that cretin Sandy Berger, and the whole of the Democratic party are up in arms and outraged about an ABC mini-series about the events leading to 9/11 that will air this weekend, in which the indolence of the Clinton Administration is portrayed, it’s effeminate handling of the humanitarian crisis in Somalia (which cannot but bring images to our minds of the dead American pilot’s body being dragged and desecrated by the Islamist rabble through the streets of Mogadishu, while our soldiers were ordered not to shoot back by Clinton – a bunch of sitting ducks with their tails between their legs), its several failures to deal effectively with the rising Jihadist tide after the attacks on our embassies, and to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden when we had the chance!!!
The failures of the Clinton Administration are indeed responsible for 9/11! Bush had barely been in power a year when this tragedy took place – all because President Clinton was all too busy chasing interns and splattering semen around the White House, and afterwards dealing with the fallout of his actions, to deal with such trifles as “Islamist radicals” and “National Security”! What is even more “amusing” is that President Clinton, his cronies, and the Democrats, the party that harps so much about the “Fourth Amendment” and “Freedom of Speech,” when it comes to their spewing their venom, have imposed upon ABC such political pressure, as to have the network edit the “offending” parts out: Tantamount to “CENSORSHIP”!!!
But wait, it only gets better! In a recent interview, non other than the beloved “Heroine” of the Democratic Party, Cindy Sheehan, recently come back from supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, stated that she often fantasizes about going back in time and killing Bush before he could become President! Can you believe that?!?!
If she could go back in time, she would not go back to save the victims of the attacks of 9/11 (why should she? As professor Churchill says: “…they were little Eichmanns that deserved to die”!). If she could go back in time, she would not go back and kill Hitler to stop World War II, and the extermination of millions of innocent human beings in the Concentration Camps (why would she, when she is wholeheartedly sympathetic to the Islamist terrorists whom she calls “Freedom Fighters,” and agrees with them that Israel is the problem and should be wiped off the face of the earth??? Rather, “good riddance of those six million hated Jews that died in the Concentration Camps,” she’d say!). No, she would just go back to kill President Bush!!!
Alarmingly, it seems like the Democrats and the Left in America are increasingly living in an unrealistic “bubble” of their own warped reasoning and ideology, and that with every passing day they slip further from reality into that world where President Bush is “assassinated,” or “was never born,” or “lost the 2000 Elections,” to indulge their sick psyches in their politico-pornographic fantasies! It is true that in the last few years the Democrats have shown to be increasingly out of touch with reality, perceiving the world through the Wizard of Oz-like spectacles of their secular progressive, leftists ideology, and of their myopic “political correctness”! But this latest slippage of theirs into imaginary worlds of make-believe and wishful thinking is really scary!!!
And one has to ask in all earnest, with the threats we are facing today as a nation, with all these unwavering Jihadists hell-bent on destroying us, are these the people we want to be in charge of the security of our nation come November?!?!
Now, it doesn’t take a genious to put two and two together and figure out that if indeed the Democrats win back the House in November, between the gridlock of their obstructionism, the dismantling of the programs that have so far helped us avoid another 9/11 like the NSA program, and the CIA interrogations overseas, the freeing of the terrorist detainees in Guantanamo, and the fact that the Democrats will all be so virulently busy trying to impeach Bush that nothing else will matter to them, it is very likely we will be hit once again here in America by Al Qaeda or Hezbollah….and this time it will be far worse than 9/11!!! I hope that I am wrong!
It’s all in the hands of the American people!
Althor
Althor (d8da01) — 9/9/2006 @ 8:57 pmNot to worry, you always are.
jayarbee (5a8d06) — 9/9/2006 @ 9:40 pmAnd I suppose that in your opinion, if I’m always wrong, then delusional Democrats living out in their minds erotic fantasies of Bush being assassinated, or killed by a time-travelling Cindy Sheehan, are right?!?!
Most of you Democrats are in serious need of psychiatric attention! You are still embittered and traumatized by your loss of 2000 and compulsively obsessed with Bush hatred! Isn’t time to move on?!?!
(I hate to see how severe your dementia will become if perchance the Republicans retain the House and the Senate come November! LOL!)
Althor 🙂
Althor (d8da01) — 9/9/2006 @ 10:11 pmDave is whining on Greenwald’s blog that he got banned here. He’s mighty tough with the repeated talk of “moronic brownshirt fucks” — but let him get banned and he goes crying off to Glennie.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/9/2006 @ 10:33 pmAnd Dunkie too.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/9/2006 @ 10:35 pmXrlq
Remember, too, that Handel is a pro-Israel Jew… that alone makes him anathema to the (wink wink nudge nudge) Anti-“Zionist” Left.
Jhimmi Quisling Carter dropped that figleaf in his der Speigel interview and was pretty straight forward with teh anti-semitism.
Darleen (03346c) — 9/9/2006 @ 10:37 pmIf you feel that the best way is to slap a “stalker” label on me, go right ahead. It’s not going to affect my life in any way, dude.
Okay … if that’s what you want.
anonymous (ceebbb) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:01 pmOkay … if that’s what you want.
You sound like a guy called Charles from a different thread — or a guy called Glenn Greenwald from a different blog. To hell with evidence! We’ll just call people stuff because it’s fun!
Patterico (de0616) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:11 pmTo hell with evidence! We’ll just call people stuff because it’s fun!
Well, did you just call me “Charles” for fun ? and without a shred of evidence?
anonymous (ceebbb) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:20 pmUh, no. I didn’t.
It’s called English. Learn it.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:23 pmWell, did you just call me “Charles” for fun ?
Did the Left just collectively send their brains out to the cleaners in a few buckets or is the reading of things that just aren’t there part and parcel of their increasing slippery grasp on reality?
It is clearly written:
You sound like a guy called Charles from a different thread
Darleen (03346c) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:26 pmThat’s my favorite game you folks like to play.
You imply, you suggest, you indicate, you allude … and when you’re called on it, you go totally ‘Clinton’.
But I’ll make a deal with you, Paddy … while I’m off learning English, why don’t you take the time to grow yourself a backbone and learn to walk upright. And for chrissake, stop whining.
anonymous (ceebbb) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:37 pmNo deal. Learn English and logic first. Then come back.
See you in 10 years.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:39 pmIt’s called “Convenient Dyslexia”. It’s a condition where the victim misreads a sentence when such a misreading works to his benefit.
(This comment brought to you in a blatant attempt to get 3 or 4 new readers this week.)
Alan Kellogg (bfaf9e) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:42 pmWell, you seem a little on edge tonight, Paddy, but I understand why you can’t take the deal: the chances of you growing a backbone before the Republicans are voted out would be fairly slim.
anonymous (ceebbb) — 9/9/2006 @ 11:44 pmShorter anonymous: “Uh oh, I did not correctly grasp the facts. No matter, I’ll just act condescending and refuse to yield. It is only the internet, for Pete’s sake.”
OHNOES (2a9e90) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:05 amEven shorter anonymous: “I can say any stupid thing I like because I am anonymous.”
Patterico (de0616) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:07 amThe facts are these: (I will type slowly:)
Mr Paddy (our former talk-radio ‘call-screener’) was implying that I
was someone calling himself “Charles from a different thread,” or, oddly enough “Glenn Greenwald from a different blog.”
This would be obvious to anyone familiar with Paddy’s obsession with “sockpuppets,” and his tendency to pout when he cannot find the name and address of the people online he dislikes.
This disingenuous crap — where half-educated people like yourselves try to play linguist/semanticist — has worn thin.
But all seriousness aside, if you mean people keep saying things that offend me, I might just have to contact an attorney to seek a restraining order against each and every one of you.
anonymous (ceebbb) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:17 am(If nothing else, it might make a good story to con the rubes into filling the tip jar. Might even come up with enough spare change to go house-hounting in the Rockies.)
Shorter Anonymous: “Who needs facts? I wants to make me some fun of thems wingnuts!”
OHNOES (2a9e90) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:24 amWell, the trolls showing up so quickly to fling poo, is equivalent to a standing ovation for the quality of Justin’s post.
Lew Clark (abbec6) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:24 amMr Paddy (our former talk-radio ‘call-screener’) was implying that I
was someone calling himself “Charles from a different thread,” or, oddly enough “Glenn Greenwald from a different blog.”
No, dumbass. I was saying you SOUND. LIKE. THEM. Because you like baseless accusations and so do they.
And how damned stupid are you not to realize that I am not the person you describe as a former talk-radio call screener.
You are a huge waste of everyone’s time.
This is what you get when you post about Greenwald, folks. Idiots like this.
Unfortunately, it was necessary this time, because the bilge Greenie was spouting could only be refuted by Justin and me.
But you attract a huge group of morons. Like this guy.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:25 amLonger Anonymous: “I mean, it ain’t even like you’re REAL people. More like villainous cartoon characters whose every action is a calculated ploy to fool those wingnut masses!
Or, you know, I just like to say dumb crap just cuz it makes y’all mad.”
OHNOES (2a9e90) — 9/10/2006 @ 12:27 amSo, what is this I see here? Is this a case in which a blogger is defending himself against scurrilous allegations, both in detail and with vehemence?
Pretty cool stuff, I say.
What say you, GiGi?
Pablo (08e1e8) — 9/10/2006 @ 3:56 amMy baby bro, a physicist,and I have been having a conversation and he’s come up with what I consider a perfect description of the insane that belong to the Democratic Party, ANSWER, La Raza or whatever: modal myopia. It goes beyond and deeper than the herd mentality, group think or the lemming phenomena. I tell you what he is so that you all understand that, although he doesn’t have modal myopia, his and my understanding on various issues differ. That is why we “discuss” issues, to learn from each other.
That is what this blog and others try to do, bring up, discuss and learn new things. Just my thought.
Sue (d8c366) — 9/10/2006 @ 10:45 amIt would be nice if instead of wasting bandwith on petty posturings defending a few “ruffled feathers” our participants would devote their postings more to the issues. God only knows that with the “Modal Myopia” of some of the leftists Democrats who participate here, which the above poster cited, the discussions are “off the wall” enough!
Let’s discuss the issues!
Althor
Althor (ee9fe2) — 9/10/2006 @ 11:30 am[…] I have already debunked the idea that this blog was provided with a copy. A guest blogger here, Justin Levine, was able to obtain a copy because he is a radio producer for a major L.A. talk-radio host — one who is not a doctrinaire conservative, by the way. […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » Destroying the Myth That Right-Wing Bloggers All Received “The Path to 9/11″ (421107) — 9/10/2006 @ 9:02 pmWell, did you just call me “Charles” for fun ? and without a shred of evidence?
Comment by anonymous
Too funny.
Again, parodying you people really isn’t possible anymore.
The Ace (8154cd) — 9/12/2006 @ 1:30 pm[…] When we last checked in on “Mr. Civility” Rick Ellensburg, he was falsely accusing my guest blogger of having stalked his ex-girlfriend. […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » Rick Ellensburg: The Master of Innuendo (421107) — 10/4/2006 @ 6:21 pm