Glenn Greenwald's "Most Important Issue"

I read Glenn Greenwald's blog at Salon.com  almost everyday.  It is refreshing to see topics that most media ignore.  It is also nice to read an intelligent, well thought out article, and Greenwald does this with the best of them.  

Recently I came across an article written by Jeremy Scahill(see below post), documenting torture at Guantanamo that is still taking place under the Obama administration.  While this may be of no surprise, it is important.  You may remember that President Obama on his first days in office wrote a series of executive orders, among them was one that banned "enhanced interrogations"(a.k.a. torture) of detainees.  This article painstakingly documents how torture is still the norm or SOP(standard operating procedure) of Gitmo.  If this is the case, then CIA black sites are most likely still in operation.  The media, and the base of supporters who elected Obama, seem to be ignoring this issue.  Maybe they think if they ignore it it will go away.  

I am simply amazed that a blogger like Greenwald who has been covering Gitmo and related executive abuses for so long could simply not mention this report.  All this at a time when the national media was debating what should be done with the detainees after closing Gitmo.  The president announced a new system of "preventative detention" which is the equivalent to thought crime.  Still not a word about this report or it's implications to future thought criminals.  

Greenwald, who i admire, often suggests folks write congressmen and pressure Obama and others on issues that are important to the future of this country.  So after a week or so of reading Greenwald's work and seeing no mention of this report, I was prompted by his often given advice of applying pressure to those who I wanted to influence.  I wrote a few lines in the "comment" section of his blog, inquiring about why he has not yet discussed it and what he thought.  After a few other commenter's suggested I write my own blog (how little they know), I finally came across Greenwald's response.  And Here it is:

"There is never any such thing as The Most Important Issue. There are always many important issues. People who don't move beyond the adolescent stage of self-absorption always think that whatever issue they are most interested in at any given moment is, by definition, the Most Important Issue.

Every week, there are a whole slew of extremely important issues I never write a word about. For one thing, like everyone else, I only have a finite amount of time and energy and can't write about every important issue. I can't possibly write about all the important issues.

Beyond that, there is a whole slew of reasons why I may not write about even a very important issue: maybe I'm not aware of it; maybe I have nothing worth saying about it; maybe I'm ambivalent about it; maybe I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to write about it; maybe I think others are already writing everything there is to say about it; maybe I think there are more constructive ways to spend my time; maybe the topic just doesn't interest me much; maybe I'm not in the mood to write about it, etc. etc.

Imagine if I had spent last week writing about this Gitmo issue instead of what I wrote about -- how many people would be here saying: "Obama proposes indefinite detention and you have nothing to say about it??? Are you in the tank now for Obama?" -- or: "Obama nominates someone who is going to be on the court for the next 30 years and could swing the balance of power on all executive power issues and you have nothing to say???," etc.

No matter what issues I choose to write about, there will always be people who think that the issues I selected are unimportant and that I'm ignoring the Most Important Issue. I appreciate -- and rely on -- constructive suggestions about what topics to cover. I frequently follow those. But I don't appreciate petulant complaints that the topic I choose to write about -- the one that is interesting or important to me - isn't interesting to someone else. Who cares? There are 43 million blogs on the Internet. When the bloggers who I read focus on something that doesn't interest me, I just go read something else. I don't write to them telling them to focus on what interests me instead." -- G. Greenwald

My response:

Glenn

Your Blog is always pointing out what others write, and how they ignore blatant hypocrisy. You have repeatedly praised Obama's executive order banning the use of "enhanced interrogation". You always say you will judge Obama on his action not his words.

You did judge him on his words...granted it was his written word. Now it has come to light that the actions taken are contradictory to the words. NOT a peep from you.

This is just important to me...I am self absorbed. Well, you have no one to thank but yourself. You turned me on to this stuff. Pretending that this is just a minor issue that only concerns me is simply not the case. Your own writing shows how important this issue is. If these orders are nothing more then for show, then what things do you have left to point to to praise Obama?

I thought i let it go yesterday,then i read you ranting response about how

"Imagine if I had spent last week writing about this Gitmo issue instead of what I wrote about -- how many people would be here saying: "Obama proposes indefinite detention and you have nothing to say about it???"

well imagine you write about indefinite detention and fail to mention that those detained may be tortured!

Talk about hypocrisy....you then write:

"But I don't appreciate petulant complaints that the topic I choose to write about -- the one that is interesting or important to me - isn't interesting to someone else."

You do this to others all the time. I can't count the amount of post you have done where you are breaking down what others have written and complained about the content. Your rant is obviously searching for a good reason to avoid the topic.

Make it about me..not about the issue.

"I may not write about even a very important issue: maybe I'm not aware of it; maybe I have nothing worth saying about it; maybe I'm ambivalent about it; maybe I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to write about it; maybe I think others are already writing everything there is to say about it; maybe I think there are more constructive ways to spend my time; maybe the topic just doesn't interest me much; maybe I'm not in the mood to write about it, etc. etc."

How does any of those above reasons apply to this issue? You mean to tell me that your not aware of this? Or ambivalent to it? If this is truly your reasons for not addressing this issue...maybe it is time to read another blog.

and to all you "leave Glenn alone, get your own blog" types...

I will and I do"

--Jeff Avitabile