When power seduces, transparency is discarded
17 June 2013
When power seduces, transparency is discarded
Scott Burchill
Edward Snowden is accused of reckless criminality, treachery, and being uneducated, writes Scott Burchill. Why do we find such hostility to transparency in the mainstream media?
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As Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story in The Guardian explains, "there is nobody who political officials and their supine media class hate more than those who meaningfully dissent from their institutional orthodoxies and shine light on what they do. The hatred for such individuals is boundless."
Snowden is accused of reckless criminality, treachery, and being uneducated, his belief in the need for greater transparency of public surveillance by intelligence agencies cited as evidence of some mental disturbance.
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There is remarkably little hostility to selective leaks by incontinent governments, which represent the overwhelming majority of media disclosures. Bob Woodward in The Washington Post is widely regaled as a hero of investigative journalism when he turns authorised leaks from inside the Beltway into best-selling books. No secret grand juries are empanelled for him as they appear to have been for the head of WikiLeaks. Woodward adheres strictly to the rules of Washington's playbook: leaks are fine provided they are on the terms set by the powerful.
Snowden's primary failure, like that of Manning and Assange before him, is that he was not sufficiently indoctrinated to trust the state. For this lack of fidelity he must be punished and stigmatised by faithful servants of the state who know better - people who can be trusted with knowledge that confers power and influence.
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Dr Scott Burchill is a senior lecturer at Deakin University's School of International & Political Studies
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4757632.html
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