Discussion for article #223052
There are laws against government eavesdropping on American citizens, and there are laws against leaking official government documents.
So no one likes a tattletail, er… whistleblower?
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“NYT Book Reviewer Wonders If Glenn Greenwald Should Be Locked Up.”
A decent book reviewer would demand that Dan Brown be locked up. Have you read that train wreck “The Lost Symbol”?
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Why eavesdrop when ninnies pour their empty souls into Twitter???
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" there are laws against leaking official government documents."
Yes, and they only apply to government employees. By definition, if a reporter has the document, it’s already been leaked. And by the precedent of the Pentagon Papers case, a reporter has a First Amendment right to report on the government. The government cannot simply declare its inner workings to be “classified” as a way to shut down the press. If the government cannot manage to keep its own secrets, it’s not the legal obligation of the press to help.
A long time ago I thought Kinsley was a smart guy. But he’s become like many of his brethren - too enamored of his own pliancy while being subservient to those in power.
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Oh for fuck’s sake. Being a self-righteous thin-skinned dick who doesn’t believe it is possible to take a position opposed to his in good faith isn’t a crime. Neither is publishing state secrets you didn’t steal yourself. At least, not in this country.
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Shorter Kinsley: If a journalist is willing to publish evidence that the NSA is lying to Congress and breaking the law, then we should think about locking that person up before they tell the world how to hack into our nuclear-weapons launch system.
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Yeah, that Kinsley needs a tougher hide.
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“chase down and publish any national security leaks they can find”
These weren’t just “any” national security leaks. These were of monumental scale and importance.
Kinsley is a transparently pathetic apologist for the Obama administration’s intelligence/security people.
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Sooner or later, Snowden’s impresario will drown in his own megalomania.
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No.
I’m not sure I agree about the prosecution, but its clearly not an obvious case.
Greenwald went well beyond the usual role of journalist. Possibly participating in the theft of state secrets and escape of the thief.
If the stolen secrets showed illegal or immoral actions by the government, then all involved can appeal to the moral judgments of the public and courts. But, that’s not clearly the case here. Some of the stolen information was (at least) embarrassing. But, among the unknown number of gigabytes taken, there very likely are legitimate and vital state secrets.
In any event, the logic of Civil Disobedience is that you do the deed required by conscience, then accept the consequences.
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Because Kinsley questions the legality of publishing state secrets he’s an apologist for the Obama administration? Way to reduce things to black and white.
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1 / Greenwald is saving his gunpowder for a Big Reveal from the NSA document, coming soon. I would put money on the possibility that the NSA was collecting private sex/financial stories of important players in the Government and Industry (international and domestic) for eventual blackmailing purposes. Wait and see.
2 / Kinsley is opaque on exactly how citizens are supposed to find out about government overreach and lawbreaking without the leakers and their helpers in the media. He implies that we aren’t supposed to find out.
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So Greenwald was somehow involved with Snowden before the release of the documents? I’d like to know how that could be remotely possible.
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Oh dear. Cue the Pernicious G flying monkeys who I’m sure have already descended on this book critic…
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Uh huh. Considering he’s been leveraging that old nugget for over a year into a nice solid grifter’s living, you’ll pardon us if we’re just the teeniest bit skeptical any of this is going anywhere but into his pockets (the nice cushy $250million dollar “media” deal, the book deal, media appearances, paid speaking engagements).
Grifters gotta grift, and they count on nobody being any wiser about it…
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Mike has a pretty bad case of pulitzer envy
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Don’t infer approval of Kinsley. It’s just that he isn’t worth the electrons it would take to insult him.
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A dilettante writing for Vanity Fair goes all patriotic - “lock 'em up”!
What a fucking lightweight.
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His broader point about Greenwald failing to see the opposing viewpoint is valid, but my god does Kinsley say some idiotic things. The idea that the “Constitution is for exerybody” and doesn’t provide any special protection to journalists kind of runs afoul of the first line of the Bill of Rights. Or does he not consider that part of the Constitution?
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