JOURNALIST ARE GUILTY

Ron Suskind, American journalist, has it all figured out. The terrorist already know what we are doing at the National Security Administration (NSA); therefore, what his fellow journalist did in reporting Edward Snowden’s revelations was justified. The public should applaud Glen Greenwald and Barton Gellman as hard-hitting journalists. At first blush this seems logical. However, in addition to the 11^th commandment, “Thou shall not criticize another journalist”, it reveals a deep seated but revealing journalist attitude. The fact is that Snowden revealed government secrets, things that are kept secret to protect the American us, the he told journalists what those secrets were. The journalist had to agree to use encrypted messaging before Snowden would communicate with them. This tells you that the information was still secret until it got into their hands, which means they were the ones that revealed it. The journalistic attitude I referred to is that journalist seem to believe that if every government agency were to open up everything to them would be in a position to decide if the information was worthy of being kept secret or made public. Thus, they claim to know more than NSA, the CIA, the FBI, and every other agency of government what should or should not be public information.

Glen Greenwald and Barton Gellman stumbled badly and Ron Suskind, as much as he would like to, cannot defend them for “aiding and abetting” their crime—yes crime. They surreptitiously came into possession of secret information and revealed it. That makes them guilt of complicity. The fact that Edward Snowden demanded they use encryption, and they complied proves their guilt.

As far as Ron Suskind’s argument that terrorist already know that NSA is tracking them, is empty rhetoric. Of course, “they” know that NSA is looking to stop terror but they have no idea how pervasive the investigation is or how NSA is doing it.  What Suskind is saying is equivalent to saying ATM surveillance cameras are known to bank robbers therefore we should stop wasting money on them and looking at the tapes.    

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