DEMONIZING EDWARD SNOWDEN: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Snowden took classified documents from his employer, which surely broke the law. But his real crime was confirming that the intelligence agencies, despite their strenuous public denials, have been accumulating vast amounts of personal data from the American public. The puzzle is why so many media commentators continue to toe the official line. About the best explanation Ive seen came from Josh Marshall, the founder of T.P.M., who has been one of Snowdens critics. In a post that followed the first wave of stories, Marshall wrote, At the end of the day, for all its faults, the U.S. military is the armed force of a political community I identify with and a government I support. Im not a bystander to it. Im implicated in what it does and I feel I have a responsibility and a right to a say, albeit just a minuscule one, in what it does.
I suspect that many Washington journalists, especially the types who go on Sunday talk shows, feel the way Marshall does, but perhaps dont have his level of self-awareness. Its not just a matter of defending the Obama Administration, although theres probably a bit of that. Its something deeper, which has to do with attitudes toward authority. Proud of their craft and good at what they do, successful journalists like to think of themselves as fiercely independent. But, at the same time, they are part of the media and political establishment that stands accused of ignoring, or failing to pick up on, an intelligence outrage thats been going on for years. Its not surprising that some of them share Marshalls view of Snowden as some young guy Ive never heard of before who espouses a political philosophy I dont agree with and is now seeking refuge abroad for breaking the law.
Mea culpa. Having spent almost eighteen years at The New Yorker, Im arguably just as much a part of the media establishment as David Gregory and his guests. In this case, though, Im with Snowdennot only for the reasons that Drake enumerated but also because of an old-fashioned and maybe naïve inkling that journalists are meant to stick up for the underdog and irritate the powerful. On its side, the Obama Administration has the courts, the intelligence services, Congress, the diplomatic service, much of the media, and most of the American public. Snowdens got Greenwald, a woman from Wikileaks, and a dodgy travel document from Ecuador. Which side are you on?
John Cassidy
from The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/06/demonizing-edward-snowden-which-side-are-you-on.html