I’ve followed the Edward Snowden revelations with my jaw dropped. He is a hero in a great American pattern, an individualist who took on his government in the name of the people. How young he is! How intelligent! How self-possessed and articulate! How thrilling is his bravery, to have put his future on the line for the sake of a great principle, transparency and accountability.
But I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in Snowden’s media reception. The media can obviously relate to him. He’s so attractive and articulate, and he had the wisdom to work with the Guardian and the Washington Post. And his revelations involve US, the average American, who cherishes his or her privacy.
I can see the way this issue is gong to cut. The MSM is torn, but a lot of them are on Snowden’s side. They don’t like the government overreach he has exposed. Joe Scarborough is troubled by the government rifling through every call you’ve made, every website you’ve visited. Chris Matthews has misgivings too. I’ve noticed that the media like comparing him to that other civilian contractor whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, who didn’t do jail time.
Not like that weirdo traitor Bradley Manning. Who opened the floodgates to Julian Assange and put American troops at risk, and who is now being tried in secrecy, and will never see the light of day again.
This is BS, and to his credit, Glenn Greenwald has said so, in embracing Bradley Manning as a hero on MSNBC the other day. So has Daniel Ellsberg, embraced both Snowden and Manning.
I am sure you could find a hundred distinctions between Manning and Snowden. Snowden acted because of civil rights violations. Manning acted because of human rights violations– the threat of torture to Iraqis protesting. Manning was isolated at an army base, Snowden was in a highflying job in Hawaii. Manning is a gay kid from the sticks who cared about the other, Snowden’s straight and from the D.C. area and pulling down $200,000. And Snowden took care to cull his releases, surely because he had seen what happened to Manning, who was indiscriminate.
But if you care about this country and the moral swamp we’ve gotten into since 9/11 and the “war on terror,” you really have to put aside these distinctions, more and more of which the media will seek to chisel out in days to come, and embrace both men. They acted from the same impulse: they wanted to redeem our society from the national security state that has engulfed it, and they did so by means of sunlight, because they believed in the people’s right to know. They both staked their futures on that principle, so when we stand up for Snowden, let’s stand up for Private Bradley Manning.
Good post, Phil. Manning is a great American. Imagine if Hagel or Power had his courage. This NSA stuff is very bad news for the US tech industry as well. The FT is not impressed.
I don’t know–I haven’t been watching TV on this, so you might be right, but online I see the authoritarian pseudo-liberal Obama-bots (APLOB’s for short-a term I just invented) trashing Snowden too. And they hate Greenwald with a passion. Once the national security state fell into Obama’s hands, they became its biggest fans.
Richard Haass is wrong.
Glenn Greenwald is a hero.
Snowden and Manning are brave.
‘But if you care about this country and the moral swamp we’ve gotten into since 9/11 and the “war on terror,” you really have to put aside these distinctions, more and more of which the media will seek to chisel out in days to come, and embrace both men. They acted from the same impulse: they wanted to redeem our society from the national security state that has engulfed it, and they did so by means of sunlight, because they believed in the people’s right to know. “….Phil
Amen, amen, amen brother.
More Snowdens, more Greenwalds, more Mannings.
Oh, we only entered the moral swamp ten years ago? Ever heard of COINTELPRO?
Or the internment of Americans during WWII? People call it “McCarthyism” but all that was started by the liberals in Congress, he jumped in late and was of course more bellicose, but it was no doubt a “liberal” witch-hunt to start.
This idea that the US has only recently entered the swamp is OUTRAGEOUS, and frankly, can really only exist in the minds of hyper authoritarians or blissfully ignorant well borns.