Greenwald: Media Driving ‘Really Dangerous’ Escalation in U.S.-Russia Tensions

Journalist and co-founder of The Intercept Glenn Greenwald said it is “a really dangerous thing” for the media and Democrats to “ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington” to push their narrative that President Donald Trump colluded with Russian election interference.

Greenwald accused the mainstream media, during an interview Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” of being “particularly just kind of unhinged when it comes to this whole Russia issue” in their quest to “take down Trump” and label him as a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s. Calling the “hysterical and unhinged” stories something resembling an “orgy,” he said they are hurting themselves “by not being responsible” with their reporting.

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“And now I think, because of this pressure on Trump to prove that he’s not Putin’s puppet, we’ve come close to direct military confrontation in Syria — the exact opposite of what Trump said he wanted to do,” Greenwald said. “It’s a really dangerous thing to ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington unnecessarily.”

Decrying the “hostile climate in Washington created by Democrats and the media, in which any communication with Russia needs to be inherently suspicious or even unpatriotic,” Greenwald warned that this is a very “volatile climate to create for two countries like that,” with nuclear capabilities.

“And now suddenly, because there was a political benefit in 2016, Democrats tried to turn any attempt to have any relationship with Russia into sound evidence of collusion,” Greenwald said. “Even questioning any of the stories about the Kremlin and Putin and Trump suggests claims that you are a Kremlin sympathizer or a Russian agent.”

“The environment that has been created is really poisonous,” Greenwald added. “And any rational person should want the U.S. and Russia to find common ground and not gratuitously fight against one another because Trump is afraid of this Putin-puppet storyline.”

Greenwald noted that it is particularly embarrassing for the press that no clear evidence of Trump-Russia collusion has yet been uncovered during an investigation that has dragged on for months. In particular, Greenwald pointed to CNN as a prime example after it was forced to retract a fraudulent story, published last week, that tied Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund.

“And the more kinds of stories … they do that end up discredited, like the CNN story, which is one of a long line of discredited stories about Russia and Trump, the more leverage politicians like Trump have to discredit the media,” Greenwald observed. “And the public turns against the journalists and doesn’t care about their complaints. And I think there’s no one but themselves to blame.”

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After eight years of what he called a “love fest” between White House reporters and former President Barack Obama’s administration, Greenwald noted that the media have had a hard time adjusting to Trump.

“I’m definitely somebody who believes that journalists don’t have to pretend to be objective. We’re not computers. We do have perspectives and opinions. I think it’s better for our readers and our viewers and our listeners if we’re honest about the things we say,” Greenwald said. “But it has to be rooted and anchored in factual accuracy and journalistic responsibility. And I think you’re right that the press corps is consumed with hatred for Trump.”

“Naturally there is supposed to be some tension between the press corps and the White House, and kind of the idea of a free press is that they’re supposed to hold people in power accountable and people in power tend not to like it,” Greenwald added, noting that the media have been hindered in fulfilling this objective by pursuing unsubstantiated storylines.