I'm pretty sure that Snowden was a limited hangout, think about it: if he was such a threat to the state, why did the mainstream media give him a massive platform? You could say that they were forced into it because it was such a big story, but A) there are plenty of big stories that they just don't cover, and B) they gave him way more coverage than they needed to, they could have just mentioned it once or twice, said that "we don't have all the facts yet and the information hasn't been verified". They didn't have to interview him, but they did, many times, even after the hype around him had died down. They're obviously very comfortable having him on mainstream news. And it seems like they're never hostile to him, they always treat him as a well-respected expert. Maybe this has changed in the last few years, but that's how I remember it. The MSM was instantly on board with the story, they immediately treated it as true, the only real controversy was whether he should have revealed it or not.
I thought the way it happened with Snowden is he ran to the Guardian with some harddrive of data. And as it was about the US spying on the UK, the Guardian was happy to print. Plus it's one of those things that the people up top find easier to change the culture around than cover up completely I think. Everybody always vaguely knew the US spies on everybody, but soon after Snowden it flipped from "if you think they're spying on you, you're nuts" to "well obviously they're spying on you lmao, if you think that isn't normal and natural you're nuts." Which tbh neatly neutralises everything Snowden revealed.
But I really don't know much about it! I was just reading a book about the Panama Papers (which I know is legit because it revealed massive corruption around the world and none of my IRL vaguely-political friends remember anything about it - def hushed up lol) and they mentioned Snowden as a previous leak, so I got curious about looking him up. Also I've heard the autobiography is pretty interesting in general, like as a book.
Sorry for the super late response but I just wanted to say this was a really good counterpoint to my original comment, and I appreciate you writing it ❤️
Oh, thanks! I thought about it some more and the accusation of the leaks being a limited hangout seems credible as well. I guess we won't know for a long time, if ever.
Anybody read his autobiography? I'm kinda interested in trying it
I'm pretty sure that Snowden was a limited hangout, think about it: if he was such a threat to the state, why did the mainstream media give him a massive platform? You could say that they were forced into it because it was such a big story, but A) there are plenty of big stories that they just don't cover, and B) they gave him way more coverage than they needed to, they could have just mentioned it once or twice, said that "we don't have all the facts yet and the information hasn't been verified". They didn't have to interview him, but they did, many times, even after the hype around him had died down. They're obviously very comfortable having him on mainstream news. And it seems like they're never hostile to him, they always treat him as a well-respected expert. Maybe this has changed in the last few years, but that's how I remember it. The MSM was instantly on board with the story, they immediately treated it as true, the only real controversy was whether he should have revealed it or not.
deleted by creator
What's a "limited hangout"?
I thought the way it happened with Snowden is he ran to the Guardian with some harddrive of data. And as it was about the US spying on the UK, the Guardian was happy to print. Plus it's one of those things that the people up top find easier to change the culture around than cover up completely I think. Everybody always vaguely knew the US spies on everybody, but soon after Snowden it flipped from "if you think they're spying on you, you're nuts" to "well obviously they're spying on you lmao, if you think that isn't normal and natural you're nuts." Which tbh neatly neutralises everything Snowden revealed.
But I really don't know much about it! I was just reading a book about the Panama Papers (which I know is legit because it revealed massive corruption around the world and none of my IRL vaguely-political friends remember anything about it - def hushed up lol) and they mentioned Snowden as a previous leak, so I got curious about looking him up. Also I've heard the autobiography is pretty interesting in general, like as a book.
Sorry for the super late response but I just wanted to say this was a really good counterpoint to my original comment, and I appreciate you writing it ❤️
Oh, thanks! I thought about it some more and the accusation of the leaks being a limited hangout seems credible as well. I guess we won't know for a long time, if ever.
Hope you have a great day! :)
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Limited_hangout
Thank you, TIL!