Glenn Greenwald Could Be The Future Of News

[Commentary] Much of the speculation about the future of news focuses on the business model: How will we generate the revenues to pay the people who gather and disseminate the news? But the disruptive power of the Internet raises other profound questions about what journalism is becoming, about its essential character and values. This column is a conversation -- a (mostly) civil argument -- between two very different views of how journalism fulfills its mission.

In this online exchange, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story of Edward Snowden’s revelations of the vast surveillance apparatus constructed by the National Security Agency, and New York Times writer Bill Keller debate on the value of aggressive but impartial reporting coming from major establishment newspapers vs. independent blogging and “activist journalism.” Greenwald has announced he was joining a new journalistic venture, backed by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar, who has promised to invest $250 million and to “throw out all the old rules.”