Glenn Greenwald was on All In with Chris Hayes this evening, talking about the Clinton campaign e-mail hack. Usual yada yada, talking about the need for transparency, history of leaked and/or stolen documents, balancing the right to privacy with the society’s need to know, etc. Then Chris asked the question, “Does John Podesta have a right to privacy?” At this point, I am going to paraphrase because neither a video clip or transcript are available as yet. Greenwald opined that the more powerful you are, the less you have a right to privacy, and Podesta is a very powerful man, and we need to know how he comes to the decisions that he makes because of the impact of those decisions on people’s lives. So no, he doesn’t have a right to privacy.
Wow. So, because Podesta is important to the Clinton campaign, his risotto recipe gets shared with the world. And messages related to a troubled staffer who attempted suicide are splattered across the internet because, well, fuck that poor bastard, it was in Podesta’s inbox.
Well. It seems to me that a journalist standing in solitary judgement over the release of private information, weighing another person’s right to privacy over another’s need to know, is in a very powerful position. And by his own logic, then he himself has no right to privacy. Glenn, are you ready to accept your own standard for how others might regard your right to privacy? You say you aren’t as powerful as someone like Podesta, so you have a greater right to privacy than he has? I think that the person who attempted suicide would disagree with you. The day that you get hacked, I hope you do not complain.
It is a wonderful idealistic dream, a world with no secrets. In a world filled only with benevolent and caring people with unfathomable depths of compassion and forgiveness, who seek no advantage over another, no secrets would be needed. But that world does not exist. And the need for people to be able to hold thoughts, writings and conversations confidential is very real.