Quicklet on Glenn Greenwald's With Liberty and Justice for Some (CliffNotes-like Summary)

ABOUT THE BOOK

As a journalist, I have taken a duty to serve as a “watchdog” against injustice and government improprieties. In With Liberty and Justice for Some, journalist and political commentator Glenn Greenwald attacks many mainstream “elite” journalists’ and journalism organizations for facilitating and even championing egregious criminal behavior on the part of the politically and financially powerful. It is therefore necessary that I understand and evaluate such claims, in order that I may avoid my own improprieties.

Further, as a journalist that specifically covers federal law enforcement, I must understand the workings and criticisms of the American judicial system, the final arbiter of justice and law enforcement in the United States. Greenwald’s book is an indictment against the judicial system in America and, while I cover the executive functions of policing criminal activity, those executive functions cannot be separated from the outcomes of the court system; if justice fails in the courts, it implicates the entire process of law enforcement in that failure as well.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Danny Fenster is a graduate of the journalism school at Columbia College, where he studied long-form and narrative journalism. He has freelanced for Time Out Chicago and covered city politics at the news-and-culture website Gapers Block, as well as several community newspapers throughout Chicago.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Routinely, the politically and financially well-connected commit crimes with impunity. It began when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon over crimes committed during the Watergate scandal. In explaining his decision, Ford gave “what have by now become the standard cliches our political class uses to justify immunity.” The prosecution of the former president would be too painful and too costly to the morale of the country; the best we could do is put the past behind us and look ahead.

That excuse was used to subvert the investigation of the Reagan administration’s involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, both by Reagan and his predecessor, George Bush; Bill Clinton successfully campaigned on a pledge to investigate wrongdoing in the previous Bush administration – including the illegal supplying of money and arms to Saddam Hussein in his fight against Iran – only to use this same excuse upon election…

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