Following Edward Snowden’s Christmas message to the world, Glenn Greenwald appeared on MSNBC to talk Snowden and apparently snipe at the mainstream media’s coverage of the NSA leaks and the Obama administration.
We’re on MSNBC now, where close to 24 hours a day, the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic Party are promoted, defended, glorified—the agenda of the Republican Party is undermined. That doesn’t mean that the people who appear on MSNBC aren’t journalists; they are. I think every journalist has a viewpoint. My viewpoint is very clear. I don’t hide it. It’s that I think what Edward Snowden did is very admirable and heroic. But at the same time, the ultimate test of a journalist is “Is what you publish accurate and reliable?” And I think, with regard to every story that we’ve published over the last six months, there hasn’t been a single correction made to any of them. Very few have been called into question. And I think that’s the ultimate question when it comes to “Is this journalism?” (via)
MSNBC’s Kristen Walker did her best to deflect the criticism, but Greenwald held firm to the idea that he defends Snowden much like “people on MSNBC defend President Obama and his officials and Democratic Party leaders 24 hours a day.”
Greenwald has been in the middle of the Snowden revelations since the beginning, unleashing the first NSA leaks via The Guardian and becoming almost as targeted and praised as Edward Snowden. The spotlight is so bright that Greenwald is not advised to travel from his home in Brazil and has faced harassment from authorities around the globe.
After MSNBC, Greenwald gave a keynote at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany and noted that the Snowden revelations were far from over. From Wired:
“There are a lot more stories to come, a lot more documents that will be covered,” Greenwald said. “It’s important that we understand what it is we’re publishing, so what we say about them is accurate.”
Regardless of how you feel about Snowden and the NSA leaks, it is hard to deny the effect they have had on the public and it’s views on privacy. People are kind of paying attention in between outrage over Duck Dynasty and Obamacare. If anything, people are more wary of the information they are receiving from government and media sources. A seed of doubt has been planted and I think only time would overcome it at this point.
(Via 24HNews / Mediaite)