Glenn Greenwald, Erin Burnett Argue Over Burnett's Iran Coverage (VIDEO)

Salon's Glenn Greenwald and Erin Burnett went back and forth over Twitter on Friday after Greenwald savaged a recent segment about Iran on Burnett's CNN show.

Greenwald has recently written extensively about what he sees as the media "taking the lead" on hyping the threat of a potentially nuclear Iran. (HuffPost's Michael Calderone has recently written on the same subject.)

On Friday, Greenwald tore into Burnett's segment, which posed the question, "is Iran planning an attack in America?" Burnett ran through a long list of government claims about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions and desire to commit terrorism inside the United States. She then spoke to Republican Congressman Peter King about Iran.

Greenwald harshly criticized Burnett's commentary and wrote, "It’s the sort of thing you would produce if you set out to create a mean-spirited parody of mindless, war-hungry, fear-mongering media stars, but you wouldn’t dare go this far because you’d want the parody to have a feel of realism to it, and this would be way too extreme to be believable."

After someone on Twitter criticized Burnett, citing Greenwald's post, she responded.

"I've been to Iran & pro-Americanism ruled," she wrote. "I've said this many times. Now we're told Iran is domestic threat, we report that too."

Greenwald then wrote to Burnett, saying, "Your duty as a journalist isn't fulfilled by repeating what govt officials tell you - that's the job of a govt spokesperson."

Burnett responded, "We do many angles over time.I'm proud of my and my team's work. And I'm glad I went to Iran, not many have. Thanks for watching."

Watch Burnett's report below:

Comments

[observer9]

11:55 PM on 05/01/2012

"We were so honored to have an interview with him (Netanyahu) in his home."

Erin, look around--that's a courtyard. You're not in his house. Though Lord knows you've tried.

[love5pets]

08:19 PM on 04/30/2012

Accchhh...this young woman makes my skin crawl.

[davemartin7777]

04:02 PM on 04/27/2012

There's not the slightest thing unique or interesting about Bernett's show regardless of all the cute linguistic tricks, "inner circle", outer circle" etc. It's just a rehash of what CNN has been covering for the last 23 hours.

When I first heard of the show I was hoping it would be "out-front" for poor people and the disadvantaged, it's not... she's "out-front" only for rich Republicans, Wall Street fatcats and Republican politicians who want to make their cases without any push-back at all.

[essy1]

10:55 PM on 04/21/2012

Having gone to Iran is not a saving grace. You are what you say and do, and that's not pretty.

I fully agree with G Greenwald.

[Hugo Stiglitz1]

12:52 AM on 02/22/2012

cute maybe...shes so stupid shes dangerous.

[holyghostie]

10:12 PM on 02/21/2012

Erin's cute and right too.

[AdmireBucs]

12:27 AM on 05/02/2012

Ohhh your arguments are so strong that I almost can't handle it.

There are nobody who has any kind of proof that Iran has nuclear weapons....On the contrary, both Israeli and American intelligence says that they haven't decided yet whether to develop these weapons.....

How is Erin right?

[alanboro]

09:20 PM on 02/21/2012

The problem with Iran having a nuke is not that it will attack the USA or Israel (that has several hundred nukes). Also the probability of an Iran nuke getting to terrorists is infinitely smaller than the probability of one of the thousands of nuclear warheads left in former Soviet republics (or from North Korea) being sold to terrorists. The apparent problem is that the USA and Israel would not be able to attack a nuclear Iran whenever they feel like it.

Also, Iran has not started a war or attacked another country in modern history – while both the USA and Israel have done it!

[Scott Covington]

02:12 AM on 02/22/2012

Well said. That s exactly why the drumbeat of war is being heard...

[AdmireBucs]

12:28 AM on 05/02/2012

Israel is and has always been the most likely nation to employ nukes out of all the nations that have that capability.

[swift goat pet for truth]

08:21 PM on 02/21/2012

Rep. Peter King.

QED.

Erin, you lost.

[DLNYC]

06:26 PM on 02/21/2012

Here's what you need to know about Erin Burnett…

http://crooksandliars.com/2007/08/12/cnbcs-erin-burnett-we-need-chinas-toxic-food-and-lead-coated-toys-to-keep-economy-strong

Here's the quote:

"A lot of people like to say, uh, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians, and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it's currency or China is to start making say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they're keeping prices low and they're keeping the prices for mortgages low, too."

[observer9]

11:59 PM on 05/01/2012

Captain, I think we're going to have to take this lady off the plane. She's screaming unintelligible political stuff. I think she may be dangerous.

[jokelley]

04:59 PM on 02/21/2012

it's deja vu all over again.

[HoratioGalt]

04:57 PM on 02/21/2012

Then Greenwald went back to shilling for Ron Paul while pretending not to be shilling for Ron Paul. The end.

[alguien]

06:48 PM on 02/21/2012

yeah, but he's essentially right in this instance. i mean, c'mon! calling in peter king as an expert witness?

[swift goat pet for truth]

08:22 PM on 02/21/2012

On ANYTHING....

[gawdamhippies23]

12:06 PM on 02/23/2012

have you actually read his articles about ron paul? he seems pretty neutral, and appears to state the obvious that dr. paul is the only candidate on the main stage offering an alternative to the globalist hegemonic agenda. i can hear the chant now, " four more years for more wars."

horatiogalt: it doesn't matter that our government has aligned itself with corporatist thugs who are determined to bring every sovereign nation to its demise; i can make derogatory comments about people who have more integrity and courage in one pubic hair then i have in my whole body.

horatiogalt=mindless tool or useful idiot

[HoratioGalt]

11:36 AM on 02/24/2012

Cry more for me, Paulbot.

[gregcha]

03:38 PM on 02/21/2012

Now Erin is an expert on Iran after visiting for a few days? She has only sen what her minders wanted her to see. Great job CNN?

[evilgoogleman]

02:22 PM on 02/21/2012

Why on earth would Iran attack the US, it would be suicide for their country. This is complete nonsense.

Lets be real here, the oil companies are still hungry. Why?, because (and here is the real kicker) the world is running out of oil. So instead of the world turning this ship around and deciding to get off of oil once and for all, the oil companies are going to drive that train till it smacks into the wall of finite oil. All this so they can get a little more power before the oil runs out.

[echome]

01:56 PM on 02/21/2012

I congratulate Glen for calling Burnett out, she is too soft on the news and recites like a hack for Faux NotNews. CNN is trying to hard to be the Faux alternative with brown haired boobie/babies instead of the Faux Blonds. If the news was pretty we'd have it good with the current crew but the truth is not a beauty contest.

[observer9]

12:08 AM on 05/02/2012

There are many beautiful reporters not shilling for Wall Street (where she came from) and war.

[Rifleman1957]

01:35 PM on 02/21/2012

He must be mad because she turned him down again...

[LouisvilleJoe]

03:37 PM on 02/21/2012

Glenn's gay, genius.

[Rifleman1957]

02:02 AM on 02/22/2012

It was just a joke dude....