You may have heard that NBC News was able to snag an exclusive interview with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. They turned it into a one-hour primetime special on May 28. But before that aired, that night’s NBC Nightly News–likely seen by more people–delivered a lengthy segment making the case against Snowden–almost as if the network needed to establish that it certainly wasn’t taking his side.
“Members of the Obama administration have launched a frontal attack on Edward Snowden,” anchor Brian Williams began. The report gave ample room for that attack, and it was clear from the start that this was the point of the segment. Here’s how Williams described Snowden:
Many regard him as treasonous and a traitor who should pay dearly for what he’s done, and many fear he has done grave damage to the United States. Some of our viewers have let us know they are outraged that we have interviewed him at all.
So he’s a treasonous traitor, or someone who damaged the country. Or perhaps just someone you shouldn’t interview. Take your pick!
NBC played a long clip from Snowden, which ends with him saying that he considers himself a patriot.
Then they cut back to Williams:
That point proved too much today for the US Secretary of State John Kerry, who like so many other Americans finds Snowden simply a traitor to his nation.
That led to a long clip from an MSNBC show in which Kerry said Snowden had “hurt his country” and had helped terrorists, making it “harder to protect our nation.” Snowden is, Kerry said, “a coward, he’s a traitor.”
After that it was back to Williams, who called him “an energized Secretary of State John Kerry,” then turned to his NBC colleague Chuck Todd to get him to elaborate: “Chuck, without exception, this is the position on Edward Snowden you hear where you are.”
Todd confirmed that Kerry was “channeling rage,” but stressed that this was no act: “That wasn’t political theater…. That’s real rage.”
The official anger, he went on, is about “the selective leaks that they hate, that they believe has undermined America’s standing in the world.”
A point Williams underscored at the end: “That’s right, because Edward Snowden made doing business that much more difficult overseas.”
IF NBC was trying to make it abundantly clear that they’re definitely not Glenn Greenwald, they succeeded.
Indeed there is “real rage”.
If your painstakingly constructed myth about your benevolence and fealty to “freedom and democracy” had been blown sky high for a substantial portion of your global audience
You would tend to be a might vexed.
I’m sure the enablers of that fairy tale in the corpress are rather peeved by that, as well.
Interviewing Snowden just keeps the “controversy”
And the slander
And the ratings
Rolling along.
The old “shoot the messenger” gambit.
I’ve been enjoying “CounterSpin,” which I hear on WJFF-FM radio in the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York on Friday afternoons, for some time, now. I was particularly looking forward to this week’s program (5/30/14) for your comments on the NBC interview with Edward Snowden on Wednesday, 5/28/14. I was looking forward to this broadcast because I thought that, given the nature of your format, critiquing the media, you might have had interesting things to say about the total blackout of any mention in the media regarding the Snowden interview.
I was amazed to learn “CounterSpin” had nothing to say, not one word, about the lack of follow-up to the Snowden interview in the media. Yes, Peter Hart, Activism Director and and Co-producer of “CounterSpin,” cast a few half-hearted tomatoes at Brian Williams’s cautionary tone on your website—criticism I found, in this case, inappropriate, inasmuch as Williams at least had the courage to seek out and broadcast the interview with this controversial figure over a major network in prime time, something no one else has attempted. But of your own courage there was little evidence, for the interview was never mentioned on “CounterSpin.” Instead, you spent precious moments of air-time discussing the intellectual pretensions of Jeb Bush.
Is it possible that you might really consider the question of literacy among the Bush Brothers to be of greater moment than the issues raised in the Snowden interview—issues of Constitutional right to privacy, governmental overreach and the Obama Administration’s disappointing and disturbing track-record of prosecuting government whistle-blowers? Or, a point just as disturbing, the universal reticence in the media regarding these issues? Have you, along with the rest of the media, reverted so quickly to the timidity of 2003, when any discussion questioning the merits of invading Iraq was deemed unpatriotic?
The lead-in piece on the Nightly News, while full of comments (as you mentioned) about how many people are angry with Snowden, totally failed to mention that there are a lot of people who are very approving of his having done what he did.
Furthermore, while Williams later began the interview program by saying that Snowden arrived with talking points, in fact, Snowden often handled questions brilliantly, with comprehensive and nuanced answers, whle Wiliams seemed like the one with talking points, stiffly responding or posing the next question in a rehearsed-sounding way which often took little notice of what Snowden had just said.
The USA was undermined by gwb and his administration and by b.o. and his administration.
I thought Williams and NBC News showed courage in broadcasting the Snowden interview. True they gave a little too much attention to the “other side,” but Snowden came through loud and clear. It was better than I expected of them.
I largely agree with Mr. Cowan’s comment, having been impressed with Snowden’s strong justification of his actions. I also agree that Williams showed an all too rare, therefore praiseworthy willingness to let a man currently being demonized speak for himself. While Williams’ questions were obviously carefully sketched beforehand, they did serve to give Snowden a full opportunity to state his case. Furthermore, I think FAIR should, for once, give Williams and NBC kudos for being the lone outlet to allow this. However, the outlet may have tried to frame it beforehand or subsequently, I think Snowden will have won a lot of support for his position and actions as a result of the interview.
I’m so glad you gave this filthy little “journalism” episode a prominent place. Having seen Williams tout his upcoming Snowden interview on the Nightly News, I tuned in to see it. But it was such a debacle (on williams’ part) that I couldn’t watch. Why didn’t Williams ask Dan Ellsberg what he thought? Piece in the Guardian today. Kerry is, what can one say?
To pick up on the end of Carol Wheeler’s preceeding comment:
Funny coincidence — there was once a U.S. serviceman with the exact same name as John Kerry who came back from Vietnam determined to let the world know about things our government did over there, despite the fact that it would be embarrassing for the government when these revelations became public knowledge.
Yeah, it was hard to miss the schizophrenia of it all.
I was startled by Kerry’s statement, and thought the tone was inappropriate. He may have been serious, but the rage seemed over-the-top cartoonish. I’m sure he would not want to be viewed as feeling helpless, but that was the effect.
I was not able to watch the NBC interview, but from the clips I saw on other outlets, Snowdon won any debate. He is smart, honest, and clear about his philosophy and intentions. Secretary Kerry is fuming, because Snowdon is making public what the State Department is about, rather than what it wants to appear to be. When asked why he was in Russia (suggesting some collusion with the Russian government) Snowdon replies that his passport was revoked by the State Department, and so he could not travel to South America as he had intended. He also made clear that he did not expect justice from our Justice Department, which has drawn up an indictment of some 30 counts of espionage, based on an old and rarely used law. Please, Mr. Secretary, get real.
How can John Kerry get real? He participated in the Winter Soldiers hearing in order to advance his own political career, and now he is getting old, which if one is a sociopath totally lacking in self-awareness as Kerry is, means one becomes a cartoon as one ages. He’s a parody of himself and it’s hard to conceive of a more unattractive, grotesque human being. Turn the sound off when he’s on TV; it looks like the undertaker has already made him up and laid him out in his coffin.
Kerry is himself a traitor for his vote for NAFTA, which was economic treason against American working people.
The fascists in the U.S. government and the telecommunications corporations are traitors for their gross violations of the Fourth Amendment, which states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
There was/is absolutely no probable cause or affirmation justifying the wholesale spying on the American people. The enablers of this travesty are CRIMINALS under American law, and patriots will work toward their (eventual) indictment and prosecution, however long it takes.
Im not sure what the best medal to award snowden with is but i found this:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/award-the-presidential
I don’t think kerry knows what courage means. someone should email him a link to dictionary.com
ok ok, it kinda suck that the terrorists got all this intelligence that led to them blowing up all that infrastructure/people on our soil over the past year, but it seems like a worthy trade off for checking gov’t power.
wait, I’m being told this didn’t happen. now im confused.
btw, williams is a regular guest of Jon Stewart’s, which makes me think he must be a pretty quality person. thoughts?
It’s so evident the only reason NBC decided to do this interview and segment was to further undercut and attack Snowden… under the guise that they were *impartially* giving him a voice. Please.
And to Carter- Quality-by-association is kinda like guilt-by-association; it’s completely wrong. Stewart is quality. Williams (the sellout) is not.
The daytime coverage of Snowden and the nighttime interview show clearly the bi-polar nature of NBC/MSNBC. They love to think they can sell to the lug-nuts on the right as well as the hubcaps on the just a little left of center. I wonder if Snowden was aware how black are the souls of Brian Williams and Chuck Todd.
The fact remains that Edward Snowden is a controversial figure in public opinion. He just is. Saying that he’s not is not accurate.
I support what Snowden is doing, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Do you care more about Snowden’s work or about what NBC allegedly opines? I think we should be thrilled Snowden got a chance to appear on NBC. How many other networks stepped up to the plate? If I was a a freedom and transparency activist, I’d be thrilled. That’s a big win, don’t you think? I wouldn’t get caught up with what NBC News or what Brian Williams thinks. That’s all smoke and mirrors compared to the bigger issue: shedding the light on NSA programs and/or abuses. Snowden is doing that.
@ctrenta- The only reason he’s “controversial” is because our government and media have spun the narrative that way. They are mad as hell that he’s exposed their dirty little secrets, and they’re trying to get the public to rally around them, not him.
No, it’s not “a big win” for us “transparency activists.” We are NOT thrilled, for the very reasons this articles has spelled out.
You’re missing the bigger picture. If not for our government trying to silence future whistleblowers by making an example out of him, Snowden wouldn’t have to hide in some other country to do what “he’s doing.”
I call him a traitor and spy that HELPED this country.Look he went in to steal all he could BEFORE he had any idea what it was he was stealing.So he is NOT a whistle blower.He is a thief….a traitor…..and since I believe the Russians have every bit of information he stole…a spy.But he did hit pay dirt.And it has helped.So he should go to jail with a big thank you
Gawd, to think I supported both Kerry and Obama. But then, there was NO other possible choice.
B Pratt…BULLSHIT!I can see you feeling that way with Mccain.But Mitt WAS A BETTER CANDIDATE.Forget the R in front of his name.Plain and simple he was better.On a scale of one to a hundred- Mitt being 100 ,Obama was about a three.And if Ryan were a hundred …..drunk laughing uncle Joe is a minus ten.
Tonight on your six o’clock broadcast I had to turn Brian off. Our President is the most arrogant self serving A.H. If Congress doesn’t impeach him we are all in trouble!