Below we have reproduced my exchange with a viewer who took issue with our segment on last night's episode of System Update regarding the call of Democratic politicians for Biden to ignore a court order, and what he asserts is a wider pattern whereby we excessively criticize Democrats and insufficiently criticize Republicans.
Email from viewer:
Hello,
I have a question about your latest episode of System Update. You mentioned how you are a civil libertarian and the claims by government officials that they can exercise unlimited power is dangerous.
I completely agree that AOC was out of line with her suggestion that the administration ignore the court ruling in Texas. I’m curious though, why didn’t you address the case itself? It seems odd that a civil libertarian would ignore the fact that a single person in a black robe unilaterally declared that women in the United States can’t take this pill. Isn’t that outrageous? Shouldn’t it merit the same contempt that you correctly displayed towards AOC?
I’m asking because I see similar trends in your show. I understand that what you produce is more opinion commentary than reporting, but it still seems odd to me to gloss over that major issue.
Also, I would encourage you to look into the book banning policies from far right extremist entities, as well as states who are literally telling parents what medical care their child can or can’t receive.
I think your show would have a much broader impact if you removed the partisan lens you tend to view things through, and instead focus on the actual issues.
By all means, continue to call out politicians who suggest tyrannical moves, like AOC and this court ruling. But I think you are limiting your own impact by just focusing on one party, giving the false impression that only one party is the enemy of liberty, when it’s demonstrably true that both major parties spit on the constitution on a regular basis. There isn’t even a valid claim that one does it more than the other, unless someone literally pours through decades of news reporting with a tally system. But even if one did that, it’s still just universally true that both major parties treat the constitution like it’s an afterthought.
Side note: this article from the ABA details several court orders that the Trump admin outright ignored or intentionally slow walked. I encourage you to report this to correct the record.
Anywho, it’s a great show. I just think it could be better if it wasn’t so partisan. Creating a false impression that one party is better for liberty than another is, in my opinion, unhelpful for the cause of promoting liberty. It creates a false sense of security if only you vote for this other conglomerate.
Thanks!
Response from Glenn Greenwald:
I appreciate the thoughtful critique.
I think that if you look at what I do, you'll find far more criticisms of Republicans than it may appear. Indeed, I finished my show last night by showing the video of GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy providing full-throated support to Biden's war policies in Ukraine, pointing out that he deceived voters prior to the midterms by pretending he shared their increasing reluctance to endlessly fund that war, and argued that the establishment wings of both parties are far, far more alike than different. That belief is central to my worldview and I express it in various ways not infrequently but constantly.
I'd suggest that it only seems as if I give undue critical attention to Democrats because most journalists and media outlets other than Fox almost never criticize Democrats in any serious way, because they now see their core mission as doing anything to defeat right-wing populism (which translates into support for the Democratic Party and its leaders). Because I speak in a different key and from a different perspective, it's true that I include more criticisms of Democrats than is commonly heard, but it's not true that I refrain from criticizing Republicans, who are often guilty of the same transgressions (indeed, in last night's show, I explained that I started writing about politics to oppose the same mentality of limitless power formalized by the GOP under Bush/Cheney).
Back then, I only started writing because I thought there were issues receiving insufficient attention from the corporate media. That continues to be what I try to do with my platform: not tell people the same exact things they're already hearing from everyone else in media outside Fox (GOP is fascist, Trump is a Nazi, etc.), but instead try to highlight the fundamental flaws in the ruling class, which is now dominated by hegemonic establishment liberalism.
Thanks again,
Glenn Greenwald
