Government Officials Use The Media To Anonymously Make Case Against Edward Snowden [View all]

[dkf]

Huffpo documents all the propaganda the Govt is spouting on Snowden to sway public opinion...

Sick.

CHANGING TACTICS?

Anonymous officials this week have told several news organizations -– often using nearly identical language -- that the NSA leaks had prompted members of terrorist groups to change the way they communicate.

....list of quotes from WAPO ABC REUTERS CNN ETC

But for the most part, Dozier acknowledged that "officials wouldn't go into details on how they know this, whether it's terrorists switching email accounts or cellphone providers or adopting new encryption techniques."

A situation in which officials will anonymously say something is happening but cannot, or will not, provide evidence forces journalists to violate an unofficial rule: show, don't tell.

BELIEVING WITHOUT SEEING

Reports about what Snowden did, or didn't do, since leaving the U.S. have similarly been filled with anonymous sources suggesting worst case scenarios. This week, some have provided little more than assumptions and educated guesses that the Chinese and Russians must have seized a large cache of NSA documents.

....list of quotes from NYT WSJ WAPO ETC

It's possible that officials may be proven correct, and that the leaked NSA documents did fall into the hands of foreign governments. But while Snowden provided details of U.S. spying on China and Hong Kong to the South China Morning Post, there's no evidence he has willingly or unwillingly provided all the documents obtained to the Chinese and Russians.

And yet despite the lack of direct evidence, anonymous government claims have carried significant weight in the media this week, influencing the cable news debate and helping to try Snowden in public, long before any actual trial on charges of espionage takes place.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/edward-snowden-media_n_3510581.html