NSA reporter leaves paper for eBay billionaire backed media biz

Glenn Greenwald leaves Grauniad for Pierre Omidyar project

Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the NSA surveillance story, is leaving British daily The Guardian to join a mysterious new eBay billionaire-backed publication.

The American journalist has been a thorn in the NSA's side ever since he worked on the release of documents leaked by its contracted sysadmin Edward Snowden, who has now fled to a secret location somewhere in Russia.

News that Greenwald was quitting the Graun broke earlier this week, but the involvement of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar came to light today in a Reuters report.

It is not yet known what form the "journalistic" project will take.

Omidyar is estimated to be worth $8.5bn and has a long-standing interest in left-leaning politics. He runs the Omidyar Project, which invests in "market-based efforts that catalyse and economic and social change".

In a blog post, he wrote:

Right now, I’m in the very early stages of creating a new mass media organization. I don’t yet know how or when it will be rolled out, or what it will look like.

What I can tell you is that the endeavor will be independent of my other organizations, and that it will cover general interest news, with a core mission around supporting and empowering independent journalists across many sectors and beats.

The team will build a media platform that elevates and supports these journalists and allows them to pursue the truth in their fields. This doesn’t just mean investigative reporting, but all news.

Greenwald will be joined on the new project by Jeremy Scahill, national security reporter for The Nation and author of a book called Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. ®