Journalist Behind NSA Story Calls Out Flip-Flopping Liberal Media Now 'Cheerleaders' for Domestic Spying

Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the recent stories about massive NSA spying, isn't taking kindly to a number of liberal media types who appear suddenly and oddly sympathetic to our collective lack of privacy.

Greenwald told Business Insider that the likes of Time magazine's Joe Klein and The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin, among others, have become NSA apologists for "principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic" reasons.

Glenn Greenwald (Credit: YouTube)

"I'm not surprised," Greenwald said in an email to Business Insider. "I've been amazed and disappointed for a long time at how the most slavishly partisan media Democrats who pretended to care so much about these issues when doing so helped undermine George Bush are now the loudest apologists and cheerleaders for these very same policies.

"If they started a club called Liberal Pundits to Defend the National Security State, no auditorium in the country would be large enough to accommodate them.

"To call them principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic is to be overly generous."

Greenwald has a long history of reporting on issues relating to privacy and surveillance, and he has been especially critical of both the Bush and Obama administrations. Last week, he said the U.S. wants to "destroy privacy and anonymity" around the world.

The depth of the unusual media divide on the NSA story has been illuminated most clearly with Greenwald, who was a constant critic of the Bush administration. This time, liberal critics have heaped more scrutiny on him.

TheBlaze has reported Greenwald's assertion that there are "a lot more significant revelations" to come concerning the NSA. He's been pretty visible of late as well; Greenwald has argued with people on both ends of the political spectrum over NSA spying (e.g., with an MSNBC host over her Obama "talking points" as well as with former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer on CNN).

Here's a clip of Greenwald talking about additional stories on the NSA he says are forthcoming, via Fox News:

(H/T: Business Insider)

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