Greenwald plans return to U.S. soon

"For months now, members of Congress and government officials have floated the idea of going after Glenn Greenwald for being an “accomplice” to Edward Snowden. Even members of the media have questioned whether Greenwald has been “aiding and abetting” Snowden. Well, Greenwald has had enough, and he told Salon that soon enough, he will be returning to the United States to “force the issue.”

Greenwald has been living in Rio de Janeiro with his partner David Miranda for years, and has not been in the United States for a while, because he has been very worried about all the heated rhetoric being used about him and his role in reporting on NSA surveillance programs. Greenwald even said he tried to get assurances from the government months prior that nothing would happen to him if he returned, and he received no such assurance.

And now he plans on returning to the U.S. at some point soon, saying, “I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the f*cking principle is enough… On principle I’m going to force the issue.”

Greenwald is somewhat confident nothing will happen to him were he to return, but “everybody recognizes that there’s some risk.” Most recently, the head of the House Intelligence Committee called Greenwald a “thief” who is “selling stolen properties” that Snowden gave to him."

Mediaite

In light of this article, what one word would you use to describe Greenwald's frame of mind?

Ezra is hiring

"Project X (working title) is a user's guide to the news produced by the beat reporters and subject area experts who know it best.

We'll have regular coverage of everything from tax policy to True Detective, but instead of letting that reporting gather dust in an archive, we'll use it to build and continuously update a comprehensive set of explainers of the topics we cover. We want to create the single best resources for news consumers anywhere.

We'll need writers who are obsessively knowledgeable about their subjects to do that reporting and write those explainers -- as well as ambitious feature pieces. We'll need D3 hackers and other data viz geniuses who can explain the news in ways words can't. We'll need video producers who can make a two-minute cartoon that summarizes the Volcker rule perfectly. We'll need coders and designers who can build the world's first hybrid news site/encyclopedia. And we'll need people who want to join Vox's great creative team because they believe in making ads so beautiful that our readers actually come back for them too. 

Sound like you? Then apply now.

Job location: Vox Headquarters, Washington, DC. "

Ezra Klein has signed with Vox Media. Based on the negotiations with the Washington Post, which did not pan out, it is speculated that he "plans to hire at least three-dozen editorial staffers at the new venture."

How will Ezra do?

According to Huffpo, Ezra Klein is leaving the Washington Post to begin a new venture, and has enlisted the aide of fellow Juicebox mafioso, Matt Ygleisias:

"Klein's possible departure from The Washington Post had been the talk of D.C. media for the past month, with the paper finally announcing Tuesday that he, Melissa Bell and Dylan Matthews were leaving for a new venture.

Yglesias, a longtime friend of Klein who came up in the same political and policy blogging world, is the first non-Post journalist to join up [now that he will be leaving Slate].

Klein has not yet announced the site's name or his financial backer, but speculation within the Post has focused on Vox Media as investing in the project. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Klein has been in talks with Vox -- which owns sites like The Verge, SB Nation and Curbed -- among other potential investors."

For some background on the origin of the term, Juicebox Mafia:

(2009) "Much internet attention has been given to the “Juicebox Mafia”, a group of very young, Jewish, liberal bloggers who have been sharply critical of Israel, especially in the wake of the recent Gaza incursion. The terms Juicebox Mafia was coined and popularized by ideological opponents of the group (Noah Pollack in Commentary, Marty Peretz in the New Republic);  but like the terms “Tory” and “queer”, it’s an insult which fast became a badge of honor.  The core of the Juicebox Mafia would include Matthew Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman, Ezra Klein and Dana Goldstein." -Jeet Heer

(2008) Marty Peretz of The New Republic stated the the "tag-line" was specific to the "Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein and Ackerman trio," and was "provided by a regular contributor to TNR," which according to Spencer Ackerman, was Eli Lake (scroll to third comment). In the same piece Peretz also said: "I pity them their hatred of their inheritance. Actually of both their inheritances, Jewish and American. They are pip-squeaks, and I do not much read them. But when any one of them writes a real doozey it is likely to come to my attention.I have known one of them, Spencer Ackerman, a smart young man but, alas, not as smart as he thinks and certainly not as smart as he needs to be. He worked at The New Republic for maybe two years or even three for which I apologize; you can look up his trash by yourself."

I recall when fifty-something Mickey Kaus was let go by Slate, and a short time later Ezra, then in his early twenties, was brought aboard. You know that left a mark.

Omidyar/Greenwald: new media venture

In order to short-circuit the traditional alliance between governments and news outlets, Glenn Greenwald is going to leave The Guardian to begin a new "media venture" with eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar: 

On the one hand, people like Assange, Greenwald and Snowden need newspapers or similar media outlets. Without some such outlet, they are voices in the wilderness. On the other hand, exactly because newspapers play a crucial political role in validating knowledge, they have complicated relationships with governments and politicians. This leads them to actions which people like Assange and Greenwald are likely to see as compromises with power.

 And this is why the new venture is so interesting. It will likely shape up as a serious journalistic enterprise. Capital of USD $250 million can hire some very good people. The venture has the potential to become the kind of news source that can turn information into knowledge. Yet it doesn’t sound as if it’ll be bound by the kinds of political relationships that most newspapers are embedded in... 

Today it was announced: