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It is always unconscionable for the government to punish people for expressing an idea merely because government officials - or the majority of citizens - decide that those ideas are 'dangerous' or 'wrong.' That is a power nobody ought to possess.

Glenn Greenwald

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Glenn Greenwald
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: March 6
Blogger
Journalist
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Pundit
Writer
Queens
New York
Glenn Edward Greenwald
Government
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Citizens
Unconscionable
Always
Nobody
Punish
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Ought
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When people in power can operate in the dark, inevitably they abuse that power. So, you need outside forces to bring light and transparency to what they're doing. And, one of the ways you do that is through journalism, and through guaranteeing a free press. That is its purpose, to provide a check on those who wield power.
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When journalists are 'accused' of being 'advocates', that means: challenging and deviating from DC orthodoxies.
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It is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the United States. Virtually everything that government does, of any significance, is conducted behind an extreme wall of secrecy. The very few leaks that we’ve had over the last decade are basically the only ways that we’ve had to learn what our government is doing.
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Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.
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The more fear confrontational activism can put into the heart of the political class, the better.
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The ultimate test of a society's freedom is not how it treats its good, obedient, compliant citizens it's how it treats its dissidents.
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He's the President—it's the responsibility of every citizen to criticize aggressively when they think it's warranted.
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The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that—whether from fear, careerism, or conviction—uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function.
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You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But democracy is an illusion - a sham - if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.
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It's so much easier to debate people when you can pretend that they hold moronic position that they don't actually believe.
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[N]othing is less reliable than unchecked claims from political officials that their secret conduct is justified by National Security Threats and the desire to Keep Us Safe.
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The same president who has insisted that core moralism drives him has brought America to its lowest moral standing in history.
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As a journalist, I think the only question that you ask yourself - once you've determined that the material is authentic - is what is in the public interest to know. And then you go about and report it.
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Those [American Jews] who favor the [Israeli] attack on Gaza are certainly guilty of such overwhelming emotional and cultural attachment to Israel and Israelis, that they long ago ceased viewing this conflict with any remnant of objectivity.
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When you cheer for the erosion of Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs rights, you're cheering for the erosion of your own.
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[I]f you want instant, reflexive support for the US government's police and military powers, MSNBC is the place to turn these days.
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