Spiegel: Attacking the messengers:

[Luminous Animal]

4. Media Continues to Focus on Snowden Rather Than the Information He's Revealed

https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/07/media-continues-focus-snowden-rather-information-hes-revealed

Outside of the US, media coverage seems much more interested in the substance rather than the style. The German press, for example, has focused much its attention on the complicity of German intelligence with the NSA, while in India, the revelations have prompted a broad dialogue about that country’s own spying apparatus. The same goes for Brazil. In Egypt, press have looked at the NSA in the greater context of the police state. The press in these countries doesn’t seem to hinge holding the US government accountable for privacy abuses based on Snowden’s temporary location.

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Pundits and commentators have instead chosen to focus on Snowden at the expense of the information he exposed, and unfortunately, pundits often drive news in this country as much as, or more than, straight reporting in newspapers. Harris-Perry is far from alone. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank claims to believe that Snowden was justified in leaking information about the NSA’s spying, but spends more time accusing him of undermining his own cause than he does supporting that cause. The Post’s Jonathan Capehart has spent nearly 2,500 words vilifying Snowden, but next to none on the information that Snowden revealed. This list goes on.

As Kevin Gosztola wrote last week, it is these disingenuous arguments that distract from the real issue. If Harris-Perry, Milbank, or Capehart want to turn the focus from Snowden to the illegal and unconstitutional spying conducted by the NSA, they should use their considerably prominent platforms to do so. No one is stopping them.