In 2013, Snowden, a contractor working for the National Security Agency reaches out to a team of journalists with highly sensitive and classified information. Snowden, 29 at the time, was a high school drop-out who later worked for the CIA, Dell, and in 2013, Booz Hamilton Allen. [1] Through these positions as a computer systems administrator, Snowden was able to access, download, and subsequently release official government documents that proved the United States was spying on innocent American citizens. “Among the revelations are the NSA’s bulk collection of phone and internet metadata from U.S. users, spying on the personal communications of foreign leaders including U.S. allies, and the NSA’s ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data.” [2] Knowing these documents would provide critical information to the American public, Snowden knew he had to make them public someway or another, “‘The government and corporate sector preyed on our ignorance. But now we know,’ Snowden says. ‘People are aware now. People are still powerless to stop it but we are trying. The revelations made the fight more even.’” [3] Since then, the public’s perception of the government has shifted drastically.
Based on the weight of the revelations, the team Snowden drafted was given a very important job. Journalists received thousands of documents from Snowden and were then given the task to filter through and decipher information to make it digestible. “Journalists do not solely provide information for public deliberation; they also interpret information based on their professional standards and shared history,” [4] Rebecca Rice writes in “Journalistic Reporting on State Secrets.”
In order to ensure fair and understandable coverage of the documents, the team selected was chosen based on their experiences in covering governmental accountability and transparency. Because the topic is so important to Americans, the people chosen to work are important. If coverage is overexaggerated or subdued, people will get distorted views of the situation at hand. “Journalists’ engagement in debate around their profession can also cast interest away from the content of the secrets revealed.” [5] Evidence from previous situations has shown a neglected responsibility of providing coverage with due diligence, so Snowden’s leak was a chance to get it right. “Finally, Greenwald says that the mainstream media has been complicit in these abuses, and by refusing to report on them, they fail to perform a crucial check on the government.” [6]
[1] NBC News, “Who is Edward Snowden, the Man Who Spilled the NSA’s Secrets?” 26 May 2014, https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/who-edward-snowden-man-who-spilled-nsas-secrets-n114861. [2] NBC News, “Who is Edward Snowden, the Man Who Spilled the NSA’s Secrets?” [3] Pete Vernon, “5 years ago, Edward Snowden changed journalism,” Columbia Journalism Review, 5 June 2018, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/snowden-5-years.php. [4] Rebecca Rice, “Questions of Professional Practice and Reporting on State Secrets: Glenn Greenwald and the NSA Leaks,” Secrecy and Society 2, no. 2 (2021): 4, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/2377-6188.2021.020207. [5] Rice, “Questions of Professional Practice and Reporting on State Secrets,” 10. [6] Rice, “Questions of Professional Practice and Reporting on State Secrets,” 17.Image Credits:
Arend van Dam, NSA Prism Program, Illustration, Cagle Cartoons, 12 June 2013, https://www.cagle.com/arend-van-dam/2013/06/nsa-prism-program.