{"id":157388,"date":"2015-06-08T12:51:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T12:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=157388"},"modified":"2015-06-08T12:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T12:51:28","slug":"media-lessons-snowden-reporting-la-times-editors-advocate-prosecution-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/media-lessons-snowden-reporting-la-times-editors-advocate-prosecution-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Lessons from Snowden Reporting: LA Times Editors Advocate Prosecution of Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, the first story based on the Snowden archive<\/a> was published in the Guardian<\/em>, revealing a program of domestic mass surveillance which, at least in its original\u00a0form,\u00a0ended this week. To commemorate that anniversary, Edward Snowden himself reflected\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0New York Times <\/em>Op-Ed<\/a> on the\u00a0\u201cpower of an informed public\u201d when it comes to the worldwide debate over surveillance and privacy.<\/p>\n

\n

But we realized from the start\u00a0that\u00a0the debate provoked by these disclosures\u00a0would be at least as much about journalism as privacy or state secrecy. And that was a debate we not only anticipated but actively sought, one that would examine the role journalism ought to play in a democracy and the\u00a0proper relationship of journalists to those who wield the greatest political and economic power.<\/p>\n

That debate definitely happened, not just in the U.S. but around the world. And it was revealing in all sorts of ways. In fact, of all\u00a0the revelations\u00a0over the last two years, one of the most illuminating and stunning\u00a0\u2014 at least for me \u2014\u00a0has been the reaction of many in the American media to Edward Snowden as a source.<\/p>\n

When it comes to taking the lead in advocating for the criminalization of leaking and demanding the lengthy imprisonment of our source,\u00a0it hasn\u2019t been the U.S. Government\u00a0performing that role\u00a0but rather \u2014 just as was the case for WikiLeaks disclosures<\/a> \u2014 those who call themselves \u201cjournalists.\u201d Just think about what an amazing feat of propaganda that is, one of which most governments could only dream: let\u2019s try to get journalists themselves to take the lead in demonizing whistleblowers and arguing that sources should be imprisoned!<\/em>\u00a0As much of an authoritarian pipe dream as that may seem to be,\u00a0that is exactly what happened during the Snowden debate. As Digby put it yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if more members of the mainstream press will take its obligations seriously in the future. When the Snowden revelations came to light two years ago it was a very revealing moment. Let\u2019s just say that we got a good look at people\u2019s instincts. I know I\u2019ll never forget what I saw.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So many journalists were furious about the revelations, and were demanding prosecution for it, that there should have been a club created called\u00a0Journalists Against Transparency\u00a0<\/em>or Journalists for State Secrecy<\/em> and it would have been highly populated. They weren\u2019t even embarrassed about it. There was no pretense, no notion that those who want to be regarded as \u201cjournalists\u201d should at least pretend to favor transparency, disclosures, and sources. They were unabashed\u00a0about their mentality that so identifies with and is subservient to the National Security State that they view controversies exactly the same way as those officials: someone who reveals information that the state has deemed should be secret belongs in prison \u2014 at least when those revelations reflect poorly on top U.S. officials.<\/em><\/p>\n

The reaction of American journalists was not monolithic. Large numbers of them expressed support for the revelations\u00a0and for Snowden himself.\u00a0Two of the most influential papers, the New York Times<\/em> and\u00a0the Washington Post<\/em>, themselves published\u00a0Snowden documents (including, ironically, most of the stories which Snowden critics typically cite<\/a> as ones that should not have been published). In the wake of a court ruling finding the domestic mass surveillance program likely unconstitutional,\u00a0the New York Times<\/em> editorial page argued that Snowden should be given clemency<\/a>. Journalists awarded the Snowden-based reporting the Pulitzer, the Polk, and most other journalism awards. So there was plenty of journalistic support for the disclosures, for journalism. Many have recently come around<\/a> for the first time<\/a> to advocating that Snowden should not face prosecution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, the first story based on the Snowden archive was published in the Guardian, revealing a program of domestic mass surveillance which, at least in its original\u00a0form,\u00a0ended this week. To commemorate that anniversary, Edward Snowden himself reflected\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0New York Times Op-Ed on the\u00a0\u201cpower of an informed public\u201d when it comes to the worldwide debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1614,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-157388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-surveillance-big-brother","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}