Internet Takes Smears Against Glenn Greenwald And Make It An Awesome Meme

from the #ggscandals dept

Ah, the days when you love "the internet." We already wrote about how some in the mainstream media -- including the NY Times and the NY Daily News -- had decided to pursue what were clearly smear pieces on reporter Glenn Greenwald, who broke the NSA surveillance story with leaks from Ed Snowden. The smear campaign involved digging way back into the past and dredging up a couple of completely minor things that weren't newsworthy when they happened and aren't newsworthy now. What was encouraging was reading the comments on the NYDN piece, which we won't give traffic to by linking from here, where most of the commenters condemned the paper and the reporter for the smear campaign.

However, "the internet" knows how to take something stupid and turn it into an awesome meme. Witness the #ggscandals hashtag on Twitter, in which people are coming up with a variety of fake "scandals" that involved Glenn Greenwald, highlighting just how ridiculously petty the claims being levied against Greenwald really are. The tweets are coming fast and furious. Here's just a random sample of tweets that came in on the tag over the course of less than a minute: In one simple move, a ton of people on the internet are showing the mainstream media that is trying to smear Greenwald what they think of them -- picking up on random tiny petty issues from his past and trying to make it out like it has any news value these days. Maybe, next time, instead of digging into Greenwald's past to try to make something out of nothing, reporters from the NY Times and the NY Daily News could, maybe, look into the NSA's surveillance efforts. You know, the story they didn't break and have been slow to report on.

Filed Under: ggscandals, glenn greenwald, internet memes, ny daily news, ny times, smear campaign
Companies: ny daily news, ny times

McNamara's Syndrome: Being Late To The Game On An Internet Meme

from the what,-you-hadn't-heard-of-it? dept

Last week, Network World columnist Paul McNamara had an amusing post about some jittery Circuit City execs who had demanded that all stores destroy copies of Mad Magazine, after it made fun of Circuit City. While, Circuit City actually showed it had a pretty decent sense of humor in apologizing for the trigger happy exec who demanded the destruction of the magazines, the situation gave McNamara a chance to mention The Streisand Effect -- the phrase I jokingly coined years back, which has recently become a somewhat commonly used phrase.

McNamara, though, hadn't heard of it before -- which isn't really that surprising. While the phrase is used here and there, it's still mostly known among a rather small group of folks. But, McNamara wanted to know if there was a similar phrase for not knowing an internet meme until after everyone else seemed to know about it. I sent him an email suggesting that he use his own name as part of it because, for example, Mike Godwin gets a lot more attention for Godwin's Law than I'll ever get for The Streisand Effect (and not least of which is because Godwin's Law is a lot more interesting). McNamara seems to have taken my suggestion, and declared that being late to the game on an internet meme should henceforth be called McNamara's Syndrome. I'm all for it. Now, if only Paul were to send a cease-and-desist letter to Techdirt for mentioning his name in this manner, then he'd be sure to get some attention for the phrase.

Filed Under: internet memes, mcnamara's syndrome, memes, streisand effect