Glenn Greenwald: Journalists Are High Priests

Here’s an excerpt from Glenn Greenwald’s interview on Democracy Now, where he spoke about the organized worship of General Petraeus and the religious treatment of the military by the press:

And so, what you really see is there’s—there’s a perception that there’s no national religion in the United States. Christianity is not the state religion—that’s true. But the national religion in the United States is worship of all things military. And journalists are its high priests.

Journalists in America have created a culture of blind worship of government power. America is not a free democracy or a constitutional republic, it is as much of an elitist theocracy as Israel and Iran.

A culture needs heroes. General Petraeus filled the role of a national hero for a while, but mostly because the media gassed him up.

The media is involved in the creation of mythic heroes.

Real heroes rise up from the spiritual soil of a nation regardless of the media’s treatment of them, and often times, the media denigrates and belittles them.

Real heroes are just, brave, and honest. General Petraeus is an artificial hero, and a villain in disguise of a hero. He was called “Mr. Burns” in the army.

Pat Tillman was a real American hero. His legend will live on.