(UPDATE 7/16/13, 3:00PM EDT: Former Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) has had a fascinating email exchange with Edward Snowden. See farther down, below.)
Continuing his efforts from the past few days to set the record straight on the MSM’s attempts to contort, propagandize and generally whitewash the salient facts surrounding the now-documented U.S. government’s ongoing, massive, global surveillance, as brought to the fore last month via unauthorized disclosures of top secret information regarding same by former CIA and NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald took some very incisive shots at Reuters, MSNBC, and many others in the MSM, in a radio interview with HuffPo Gay Voices Editor-At-Large Michelangelo (“Mike”) Signorile on his SiriusXM show, yesterday.
(I published a post here, on Sunday, about the Reuters and AP stories that Greenwald discusses below, titled: “Greenwald: Snowden Delivered ‘Thousands’ of Doc’s, They ‘Contain NSA Blueprint’.”)
Glenn Greenwald, Guardian Reporter, Blasts Media, MSBNC Over Edward Snowden Stories
Michelangelo Signorile
Huffington Post
07/16/2013 10:57 am EDT
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the leaks of National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, blasted the American media on Monday and said a recent Reuters story on Snowden was a "fabrication." Speaking in a radio interview, Greenwald also accused MSNBC talk show hosts of bias and said they were "desperate to distract attention away from [the NSA] disclosures."
Greenwald made the heated statements during a conversation with me on SiriusXM. He said a recent Reuters article -- which quotes him as saying that it would be the U.S. government's "worst nightmare" if certain details Snowden possesses are leaked -- is "extremely inaccurate." The story was based on an interview Greenwald offered to the Spanish-language Argentine daily La Nacion.
The Reuters story was followed by an an Associated Press story on Monday, which quotes Greenwald in La Nacion saying Snowden holds NSA "blueprints." Greenwald also addressed the AP story on the radio show, and said the media reports imply that both he and Snowden are making reckless threats and attempting to blackmail the U.S. government.
Per Signorile, Greenwald stated the quotes
“…were taken out of context to mean the ‘opposite’ of what he intended to stress in the La Nacion interview.” The point of the entire exercise, according to Signorile’s report of Greenwald’s commentary on his SiriusXM radio show was that,
“…Snowden has been and will continue to be responsible with all the information in his possession.”
"I knew when I began reporting the [NSA] story, that the technique that the U.S. government uses -- and its media allies use -- against anybody who discloses what they're doing in the dark is to distract attention away from the contents of the revelations," Greenwald said. "[But] this weekend was probably the most extreme and obvious distortion, really a fabrication on the part of Reuters, that I’ve seen yet."
Signorile’s HuffPo story continues on to note Greenwald’s reference to former MSNBC producer Jeff Cohen,
“… who recently charged that the network and several of its talk show hosts are protecting the Obama administration in coverage of the NSA story. Cohen is the founder of the media watchdog group FAIR.”
"If you’re a loyalist of the Obama administration, as most of MSNBC is," Greenwald said, "you are desperate to distract attention away from these disclosures."
(Well, I’m just grateful that never, ever, ever happens here at Daily Kos! Heh…heh…)
Greenwald continued on to note that people such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry are attempting to personalize these NSA stories, turning them into “shoot-the-messenger” pieces, while she simultaneously criticized Snowden and Greenwald for doing that, themselves.
On Saturday, Kossack David Harris Gershon (a/k/a The Troubadour) posted THIS EXCELLENT PIECE, pretty much nailing Melissa Harris-Perry for exactly what Greenwald notes above. (Well worth the read, IMHO. Again, see: “MSNBC to Snowden: Return to U.S. So We Can Talk About Something Else.”)
Greenwald even stated as much in his post at the Guardian on Saturday, as well…
.... For those who say that they wish there was more attention paid to the substance of the NSA stories than Snowden: here is the list of the NSA revelations we've published over the last month. Feel free to focus on them any time.
Greenwald reminded the audience that when he was on MSNBC speaking about civil liberties abuses during the Bush administration, the outlet gave him a
“positive reception.” But,
"…the fact that I’ve spent the last three years reporting about the civil liberties abuses of the Obama administration changes the universe for partisan hacks who are on MSNBC, whose role is to defend the president and the White House.”
Signorile and Greenwald also discussed efforts by the New York Daily News to “’smear’ his image.” And, they talked about the SCOTUS decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and, how that has now opened the door to recent discussions between Greenwald and his Brazilian partner, who have lived in Rio de Janiero for the “past several years,” to consider returning to the U.S.
Here's a link where you may listen to the Signorile’s full interview with Greenwald, from his show on SiriusXM Progress 127.
# # #
UPDATE 7/16/13, 3:00PM EDT: Former Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) has had an email exchange with Edward Snowden, per Glenn Greenwald, over at The Guardian.
Here's Senator Humphrey's first email to Snowden (click on the link, immediately above, for the text of his email to Greenwald, and for the content of Snowden's response to Senator Humphrey).
(Really quite powerful stuff, IMHO!)
Mr. Snowden,
Provided you have not leaked information that would put in harms way any intelligence agent, I believe you have done the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States Constitution.
Having served in the United States Senate for twelve years as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee, I think I have a good grounding to reach my conclusion.
I wish you well in your efforts to secure asylum and encourage you to persevere.
Kindly acknowledge this message, so that I will know it reached you.
Regards,
Gordon J. Humphrey
Former United States Senator
New Hampshire
The two follow-up emails (from Humphrey to Greenwald and Snowden's response to Humphrey) are as powerful as Humphrey's original communication.