What to Make of Snowden? CBS Asks Bush-Era Counterterror Official
The debate over the government's surveillance powers that was set off by whistleblower Edward Snowden is an important one. Who is invited to take part in that discussion really determines the kind of...
View ArticleEdward Snowden and the State-Identified Journalist
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (6/11/13) wrote about Edward Snowden yesterday in a way that helped make it clear why so many in the press seem upset that the former NSA consultant revealed the...
View ArticleFAIR TV: Pundits Attack Snowden, Maddow's Misinformation, WaPo Op-Ed Sales Job
Pundits attack NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Rachel Maddow makes false claims about Iran and nuclear weapons. And the Washington Post's new "Sponsored Views" feature will let let corporations and...
View ArticleSnowden and Bob Schieffer Fight the Power
CBS's Schieffer followed the establishment media's script on Snowden: We don't know what exactly the government is doing, and we should know, but the guy who's generated the discussion about all of...
View ArticleDavid Gregory Doesn't Understand David Gregory's Snowden Question
NBC's David Gregory didn't just "ask a question." The question as posed assumed that the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald was involved in a crime--aiding and abetting--and the question Gregory was pondering...
View ArticleABC Pundits on Snowden: The Center Holds!
NBC's David Gregory's "Hey I'm just asking but are you a criminal?" question on Sunday's Meet the Press has been getting a lot of attention, but the Sunday morning discussion of Edward Snowden on ABC's...
View ArticlePeople Who Urge Calm Over NSA Spying Make Me Nervous
It's as if it's not possible for the government to violate people's Fourth Amendment rights (to be protected against "unreasonable searches and seizures") unless it violates their First Amendment...
View ArticleWashington Post: Let's Punish Ecuador (Again)
The Washington Post, clearly missing its old left-wing Latin American target, sneers that "replacing the deceased Hugo Chavez as the hemisphere's preeminent anti-U.S. demagogue" is Correa's mission.
View ArticleSnowden Is Helping Terrorists (But Don't Quote Me on That)
It looks like we might be on to a new phase in the Edward Snowden saga: anonymous government officials going to compliant media outlets to complain that his revelations have made it easier for...
View ArticleFAIR TV: Gregory vs. Greenwald, Snowden Anonymity, Time's Bush Nostalgia
What are David Gregory and Andrew Ross Sorkin really trying to say about Glenn Greenwald? Unnamed government officials are telling media outlets that Edward Snowden's NSA whistleblowing is helping...
View ArticleChalk Another One Up to Free Speech Hypocrisy
It seems inadequate for U.S. media outlets to critique the level of free expression in the country where NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is seeking asylum without comparing it to the level of free...
View ArticlePress Latched On to Snowden's 'Dropout' Status
Edward Snowden has been characterized as many things in recent weeks, but journalists' discounting him as a "high-school dropout" speaks volumes about media portrayals of education.
View ArticleFAIR TV: Snowden & Hayden, Pro-Equality 'Bias,' Climate Coverage
CBS covers the Edward Snowden and the NSA scandal by asking Bush-era NSA chief Michael Hayden for help. And NPR wonders if media coverage of marriage equality is too tilted in favor of... equality?...
View ArticleWashington Post's WikiLeaks/Snowden/Greenwald Conspiracy Theory
To Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus, something about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden just doesn't smell right. Lucky for him he gets space in a prestigious newspaper to work out his...
View ArticleFAIR TV: Terror Alerts and the NSA, Snowden's Asylum, Covering Weiner
The media are using the government's warnings about a terror attack to boost NSA surveillance. Plus media get mad about Russia's decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden temporary asylum. But...
View ArticleWhat Do You Call Edward Snowden?
CBS's Scott Pelley suggests that Edward Snowden admitted to being a "spy" for Russia. But he's not the only one using odd language to describe the NSA whistleblower.
View ArticleFAIR TV: Snowden the 'Spy,' Stop-and-Frisk Factcheck, Student Loan Rates
On FAIR TV this week: CBS tries to call Edward Snowden a "spy," and Bill Kristol makes his ABC comeback with a bogus defense of New York's stop-and-frisk police searches. Plus: Student loan rates are...
View ArticleJeffrey Toobin, Expert on Bizarre Analogies
In his attack last week on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin (8/20/13) started off by comparing the release of classified information about government spying to the...
View ArticleWhistleblowers and Mass Shooters: Time Connects the Dots
Whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, and mass shooters Nidal Hassan and Aaron Alexis: Time wonders how these four dangerous individuals managed to slip through the system?
View ArticleDoes Being a Pundit Ever Mean Having to Say You're Sorry?
"The early denunciations of Snowden now seem both over the top and beside the point," the Washington Post's Richard Cohen writes. He should know--he wrote one of them. And now he says his initial...
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