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Reddit Q-and-A on NSA reporting Reddit Q-and-A on NSA reporting
(about 5 hours later)
This afternoon, along with Guardian US editor-in-chief Janine Gibson, I participated in Reddit's "ask me anything" feature, where the highest rated questions rise to the top and the guest answers each of them. The questions focused on our NSA reporting, and were largely smart and provocative. The full discussion can be read here. (updated below)
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/>This afternoon, along with Guardian US editor-in-chief Janine Gibson, I participated in Reddit's "ask me anything" feature, where the highest rated questions rise to the top and the guest answers each of them. The questions focused on our NSA reporting, and were largely smart and provocative. The full discussion can be read here.
UPDATE
For those who find the Reddit format difficult to navigate, both Tech Crunch and the Guardian have excerpted some of the highlights from the discussion.
There were two questions in particular I was happy to have been asked. First, someone asked: "I just realized you've done a good job keeping your source out of the limelight, it feels like he's slowly fading from public conciousness and the real story is gaining traction." My reply:

"This is an astute point, and the credit for this is due to Snowden.
"One of the most darkly hilarious things to watch is how government apologists and media servants are driven by total herd behavior: they all mindlessly adopt the same script and then just keep repeating it because they see others doing so and, like parrots, just mimic what they hear.
"All whistleblowers are immediately demonized - they have to be "crazy" lest people think that there is something valid to their view that they saw injustices so fundamental that it was worth risking their liberty to expose.
"That's why Nixon wanted Daniel Ellsberg's psychoanalysis files: degrading the psyche of whistleblowers is vital to defending the status quo.
"The script used to do this to Snowden was that he was a 'fame-seeking narcissist'. Hordes of people who had no idea what 'narcissism' even means - and who did not know the first thing about Snowden - kept repeating this word over and over because that became the cliche used to demonize him.
"The reason this was darkly hilarious is because there is almost no attack on him more patently invalid than this one. When he came to us, he said: 'after I identify myself as the source and explain why I did this, I intend to disappear from media sight, because I know they will want to personalize the story about me, and I want the focus to remain on the substance of NSA disclosures.'
"He has been 100% true to his word. Almost every day for four months, I've had the biggest TV shows and most influential media stars calling and emailing me, begging to interview Snowden for TV. He has refused every request because he does not want the attention to be on him, but rather on the disclosures that he risked his liberty and even his life to bring to the world.
"He could easily have been the most famous person in the world, on TV every day and night. But he chose not to, selflessly, so that he would not distract from the substance of the story.
"How the people who spent months screaming 'fame whore' and 'narcissist' at him don't fall on the ground in shame is mystifying to me. Few smear campaigns have ever proven more baseless than this one."
I was also asked: "Do you see the US Democratic Party as hopelessly corrupt in terms of orchestrating progressive change? If so, what can we to do roll back abuses of surveillance state and take back system from the rich?" My reply:
"I never see any political questions as hopeless or unchangeable, but consider this:
"When I first began writing in 2005, I was focused primarily on the Bush NSA program, and I was able to build a large readership quickly because so many Democrats, progressives, liberal bloggers, etc, were so supportive of the work I was doing. That continued to be true through 2008.
"Now, a mere four [years] later, Democrats have become the most vehement defenders of the NSA and the most vicious attackers of my work on the NSA - often, some of the very same people cheering so loudly in 2006 and 2007 are the ones protesting most loudly and viciously now.
"Gee, I wonder what changed? In the answer lies all you need to know about the Democratic Party."
The rest of the discussion was driven by almost uniformly smart and thoughtful questions.
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