The reason so much of news media sucks is they aren’t writing for you.
April 30, 2024 11:04 AM Subscribe
Ken Klippenstein resigns from The Intercept. In his announcement released through his newsletter, Ken details some of the machinations between the management class controlling journalism, and the journalists out there trying to do the work.
Klippenstein will continue publishing his work independently along with legendary editor and national security researcher William Arkin, as well as FOIA specialist Beth Bourdon.
I’m going after the journalistic priesthood, like Judith Miller’s editor for her bogus Iraq WMD stories, whose punishment was being made editor-in-chief of ProPublica (salary: $480,000) and chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
You had me at Judith Miller
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:37 AM on April 30 [4 favorites]
You had me at Judith Miller
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:37 AM on April 30 [4 favorites]
Good for him for leaving, though it is unfortunate he went to Substack. I hope he can get enough subscribers to support his venture. I started following Klippenstein's work back during the protests in Ferguson. In a since-deleted tweet, he said, "The powerful are terrified of #Ferguson protests. Just look at what NYT said." I don't know what the Times said that he was responding to back in 2014, but I remember the journalistic tourism conducted by many outlets visiting from outside of the St. Louis area at the time. I appreciate Klippenstein's independence and anti-corporate outlook. The point of being a journalist shouldn't be to get access or become buddies with the powerful. It should be to find out what's really going on, to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. (That's also the point of rock 'n' roll, by the way.)
posted by limeonaire at 11:44 AM on April 30 [18 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 11:44 AM on April 30 [18 favorites]
Atrios recently linked to a piece about the failson editor of the NYT directing reporters to write extensively on Biden’s age, not because it is newsworthy, but because he’s angry that Biden has not given him a sit down interview.
That kind of petty person controls every story America’s “greatest” paper publishes. Behavior like this is not an uncommon thing.
posted by teece303 at 12:10 PM on April 30 [31 favorites]
That kind of petty person controls every story America’s “greatest” paper publishes. Behavior like this is not an uncommon thing.
posted by teece303 at 12:10 PM on April 30 [31 favorites]
At first glance I thought this was about one of the Krassenstein brothers.
posted by NoMich at 12:10 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]
posted by NoMich at 12:10 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]
No but he is part of the UFO cover up conspiracy.
posted by Artw at 12:17 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 12:17 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]
My best stories will be your story: how they want your acquiescence for the war party, how they want your money to pay for their follies, how they want to limit the information you receive, how they want to bee up your ass controlling every aspect of your life.
Looks like he's not bringing copyeditors along with him.
I’ll be free to report without the straitjacket that is the dated norms of journalism 1.0.
or fact checkers.
posted by heyitsgogi at 12:41 PM on April 30 [7 favorites]
Looks like he's not bringing copyeditors along with him.
I’ll be free to report without the straitjacket that is the dated norms of journalism 1.0.
or fact checkers.
posted by heyitsgogi at 12:41 PM on April 30 [7 favorites]
He seems to have done some good journalism at The Intercept, but he also wrote this piece of absolutely irresponsible, conspiracy-tickling garbage. Which honestly made him pretty on-brand for The Intercept.
posted by lunasol at 12:45 PM on April 30 [9 favorites]
posted by lunasol at 12:45 PM on April 30 [9 favorites]
He seems to have done some good journalism at The Intercept, but he also wrote this piece of absolutely irresponsible, conspiracy-tickling garbage. Which honestly made him pretty on-brand for The Intercept.
"Conspiracy-tickling" I get, but I don't see any "irresponsible... garbage" in that piece -- the lady doth protest too much methinks.
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:58 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
"Conspiracy-tickling" I get, but I don't see any "irresponsible... garbage" in that piece -- the lady doth protest too much methinks.
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:58 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
Brings up too many sad memories for Chambers fans and people expecting True Detective Season 1 to have a Cthulhu at the end.
posted by Artw at 1:02 PM on April 30 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 1:02 PM on April 30 [5 favorites]
I'm just gonna add that going after Steve Engelberg of ProPublica, when that nonprofit is doing the best journalism on the planet -- and exactly the kind of work Ken says he wants to do -- is a weird flex.
posted by martin q blank at 1:03 PM on April 30 [26 favorites]
posted by martin q blank at 1:03 PM on April 30 [26 favorites]
The biggest problem with that CARCOSA article is attributing Carcosa to to True Dective. Shout out to Ambrose Bierce's 1886 "An Inhabitant of Carcosa," The King in Yellow, etc. Though attributing it to True Detective is on brand, given its...um...complicated lineage.
posted by chromecow at 1:16 PM on April 30 [10 favorites]
posted by chromecow at 1:16 PM on April 30 [10 favorites]
He's done some good work through the Intercept, but the tone of the piece, with its ire for media elites while saying nothing about the rising tide of authoritarian populism, the charming mention of a woman "shrieking" about an HR violation, and its contempt for longstanding journalistic norms (not to mention the whole Substack thing) make it seem like he's about to take a hard turn into Cranksville. The kind of thinking where allying or at best overlooking Qanon MAGA bullshit seems like a good idea because they despise many of the same people you do.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:27 PM on April 30 [24 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 1:27 PM on April 30 [24 favorites]
Regardless of anything else, I did get a big laugh out of him giving the Intercept a photo cred for the org chart he leaks.
posted by Jarcat at 1:33 PM on April 30 [7 favorites]
posted by Jarcat at 1:33 PM on April 30 [7 favorites]
Yeah, this definitely reads like “I’m about to do the right-wing grift”, which is one reason to go for Substack.
posted by The River Ivel at 1:46 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 1:46 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]
I've liked Klippenstein's work, or at least what I have read, but always had extra skepticism when reading The Intercept because of Glenn Greenwald (I know, he flounced dramatically in 2020 with his own Substack announcement).
I'm not worried that Klippenstein will be going down the Greenwald path (though of course I am just some rando on the internet), mostly because this diagnosis of newsroom censorship is not described, per Greenwald's 2020 post, "a deep fear of offending hegemonic cultural liberalism and center-left Twitter luminaries" with "Hunter Biden materials" being suppressed as one of the final straws for Greenwald.
From Klippenstein's post:
I'm not worried that Klippenstein will be going down the Greenwald path (though of course I am just some rando on the internet), mostly because this diagnosis of newsroom censorship is not described, per Greenwald's 2020 post, "a deep fear of offending hegemonic cultural liberalism and center-left Twitter luminaries" with "Hunter Biden materials" being suppressed as one of the final straws for Greenwald.
From Klippenstein's post:
In my time at The Intercept, I’ve watched the newsroom increasingly become dominated by management and bureaucrats whose numbers continue to swell as the number of people who actually produce news dwindles. While the Intercept now has one poor copy editor for the entire website, it employs two staff attorneys, as well as a legal fellow, a chief strategy officer, a chief digital officer, a business coordinator, a senior director of development and an associate director of development, a product manager, a senior director of operations, a chief of staff, and a chief operating officer. And for the first time in The Intercept’s history, as of Monday, the new editor-in-chief now answers to the CEO.posted by spamandkimchi at 2:04 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]
Casey Newton: "has anyone ever left the Intercept in like, a chill way"
posted by gwint at 3:29 PM on April 30 [15 favorites]
posted by gwint at 3:29 PM on April 30 [15 favorites]
Looks like he's not bringing copyeditors along with him.
If you’d read the full post you would have seen that he aims to fund an editor, another journalist, and an attorney for FOIA requests.
Substack aside (and yes the owners are pieces of shit), I expect that Ken will continue to do good work. I’ve been following him for years - he’s a good journalist who really doesn’t care for access journalism.
He relies heavily on FOIA for his sourcing, which speaks to his diligence in pursuing a story.
posted by awfurby at 3:32 PM on April 30 [16 favorites]
If you’d read the full post you would have seen that he aims to fund an editor, another journalist, and an attorney for FOIA requests.
Substack aside (and yes the owners are pieces of shit), I expect that Ken will continue to do good work. I’ve been following him for years - he’s a good journalist who really doesn’t care for access journalism.
He relies heavily on FOIA for his sourcing, which speaks to his diligence in pursuing a story.
posted by awfurby at 3:32 PM on April 30 [16 favorites]
I've liked several things Ken Klippenstein has written, and I wish him luck, but the tone of this piece does not make me think he's the sane, rational one in the outlined discussions, and some of his complaints are just plain dumb.
Yes, a media outlet built on adversarial journalism and leaking of information the rich and powerful would rather be kept under wraps has a whole two lawyers and a legal fellow on staff. This seems entirely unremarkable.
I'll wait to see what he ends up producing, but I'm not entirely optimistic that taking the reins off completely will lead to good changes in his writing.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:47 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
Yes, a media outlet built on adversarial journalism and leaking of information the rich and powerful would rather be kept under wraps has a whole two lawyers and a legal fellow on staff. This seems entirely unremarkable.
I'll wait to see what he ends up producing, but I'm not entirely optimistic that taking the reins off completely will lead to good changes in his writing.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:47 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
Seems like he’d have less complaints about the lawyers if they didn’t try to tank stories explicitly because they might piss off rich people.
posted by youthenrage at 4:29 PM on April 30 [10 favorites]
posted by youthenrage at 4:29 PM on April 30 [10 favorites]
Thank you for posting this. In these days of dying journalism, keeping track of who leaves why and what management is doing really matters. Like others, I've liked some of what Klippenstein writes a lot.
posted by lwxxyyzz at 6:35 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
posted by lwxxyyzz at 6:35 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]
Seems like he’d have less complaints about the lawyers if they didn’t try to tank stories explicitly because they might piss off rich people.
i mean the intercept was founded by a billionaire. this is the problem with capitalism as practiced: journalism is not a public good and must be paid for by SOMEONE. doing real, good journalism is expensive, thus .......that someone is usually rich.
posted by lalochezia at 7:10 PM on April 30 [5 favorites]
The biggest problem with that CARCOSA article is attributing Carcosa to to True Dective.
if you stick around to the end it also credits True Detective with inventing the quote "Time is a flat circle" : /
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:06 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]
if you stick around to the end it also credits True Detective with inventing the quote "Time is a flat circle" : /
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:06 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]
The specific examples he lists about managerial overreach into editorial decisions are pretty damning, I think:
During the call, Bill told me immediately after, Bralow said that Annie Chabel, the CEO, had concerns about how the story might come off to the Intercept’s donors. Bill said that that might be unfortunate but wouldn’t influence his decision to publish, and that if Bralow had any legal concerns — as opposed to editorial — he would be happy to address them.
After a heated back and forth, Bralow declared: “I’m killing the story.” Bill replied that he would resign, prompting Bralow to back off (I had said I would leave if Bill didn’t edit me, the reason Bralow retreated.)
“I don’t see the point of the story,” Bralow then complained before Bill told him to fuck off (literally, lol). We published.
And
Such an incident happened once again when a source provided me with diplomatic cables revealing the Biden administration’s private attempts to pressure other countries to vote against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN. Having received the documents just days before the UN vote, I urgently needed to get the story out in time for it to inform public debate. But again, The Intercept had “legal concerns.” I pushed back, stressing the story’s time sensitive nature, that the documents were unclassified and the source confident they were safe to publish.
But Mazurov didn’t see it that way. He emailed Bill a list of over 20 separate “source protection concerns” he believed needed to be answered before publication. This kind of security theater had emerged in the wake of the criminal prosecution of two Intercept sources; but they had leaked classified information, and this was unclassified. With the UN vote drawing near, it seemed to me that The Intercept’s solution to its past source protection fiascos was not to publish journalism.
Bill wrote to Bralow that Mazurov’s list was surely some kind of “joke,” and he forced publication the day before the vote.
Sure, all papers have their internal tensions, but the shift Klippenstein documents with a few examples seems troubling, and worth giving up a nice severance package to expose. Thanks to him for not taking the cash to sign that NDA.
posted by mediareport at 9:10 AM on May 1 [4 favorites]
During the call, Bill told me immediately after, Bralow said that Annie Chabel, the CEO, had concerns about how the story might come off to the Intercept’s donors. Bill said that that might be unfortunate but wouldn’t influence his decision to publish, and that if Bralow had any legal concerns — as opposed to editorial — he would be happy to address them.
After a heated back and forth, Bralow declared: “I’m killing the story.” Bill replied that he would resign, prompting Bralow to back off (I had said I would leave if Bill didn’t edit me, the reason Bralow retreated.)
“I don’t see the point of the story,” Bralow then complained before Bill told him to fuck off (literally, lol). We published.
And
Such an incident happened once again when a source provided me with diplomatic cables revealing the Biden administration’s private attempts to pressure other countries to vote against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN. Having received the documents just days before the UN vote, I urgently needed to get the story out in time for it to inform public debate. But again, The Intercept had “legal concerns.” I pushed back, stressing the story’s time sensitive nature, that the documents were unclassified and the source confident they were safe to publish.
But Mazurov didn’t see it that way. He emailed Bill a list of over 20 separate “source protection concerns” he believed needed to be answered before publication. This kind of security theater had emerged in the wake of the criminal prosecution of two Intercept sources; but they had leaked classified information, and this was unclassified. With the UN vote drawing near, it seemed to me that The Intercept’s solution to its past source protection fiascos was not to publish journalism.
Bill wrote to Bralow that Mazurov’s list was surely some kind of “joke,” and he forced publication the day before the vote.
Sure, all papers have their internal tensions, but the shift Klippenstein documents with a few examples seems troubling, and worth giving up a nice severance package to expose. Thanks to him for not taking the cash to sign that NDA.
posted by mediareport at 9:10 AM on May 1 [4 favorites]
ProPublica, when that nonprofit is doing the best journalism on the planet
Well, except for that utterly embarrassing time they and Vanity Fair got played by GOP Congressional staffers with a ridiculously stupid take on Mandarin translation on a COVID LAB LEAK!!! story. That ProPublica then doubled down on the story - after many Mandarin speakers carefully explained how wrong it was - is pretty far from "the best journalism on the planet." James Fallows has deets and links, if you want to read more.
But yeah, generally, they're pretty good.
posted by mediareport at 9:18 AM on May 1 [7 favorites]
Well, except for that utterly embarrassing time they and Vanity Fair got played by GOP Congressional staffers with a ridiculously stupid take on Mandarin translation on a COVID LAB LEAK!!! story. That ProPublica then doubled down on the story - after many Mandarin speakers carefully explained how wrong it was - is pretty far from "the best journalism on the planet." James Fallows has deets and links, if you want to read more.
But yeah, generally, they're pretty good.
posted by mediareport at 9:18 AM on May 1 [7 favorites]
> an attorney for FOIA requests.
FOIA requests are surprisingly easy to file, but an attorney would be handy to mount an offense when the answer is "no", or "no records found." As a non-attorney it has been tricky to navigate the waters beyond that initial denial.
Of course I've also received FOIA records where hundreds of pages of correspondence are nothing but "Dear Recipient, [ENTIRE TEXT OF LETTER REDACTED] Sincerely, Sender." That's practically as useful as a "no," but even more difficult to work around (grumblescoff).
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 9:32 AM on May 1 [5 favorites]
FOIA requests are surprisingly easy to file, but an attorney would be handy to mount an offense when the answer is "no", or "no records found." As a non-attorney it has been tricky to navigate the waters beyond that initial denial.
Of course I've also received FOIA records where hundreds of pages of correspondence are nothing but "Dear Recipient, [ENTIRE TEXT OF LETTER REDACTED] Sincerely, Sender." That's practically as useful as a "no," but even more difficult to work around (grumblescoff).
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 9:32 AM on May 1 [5 favorites]
You've got to love that final, italicized line.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:46 AM on May 1
posted by yellowcandy at 9:46 AM on May 1
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posted by NoxAeternum at 11:37 AM on April 30 [19 favorites]