Monday, September 19, 2016

Journalists Against Journalism

Whatever one thinks of Snowden's actions, the people who really made it public - and made determinations of what was or wasn't in the public interest to reveal - were the journalists. It's quite impressive that the WaPo editorial board has come out with both barrels against their own journalists.

There isn't necessarily a contradiction between arguing that Snowden should be prosecuted for his handling of the information and saying that nonetheless it was in the public interest to publish the information. You can argue that whistleblowers perform an important function, but that nonetheless the law is the law so they'll just have to fall on their swords to do so. But it's hilarious to argue that he should be prosecuted because their own colleagues over in the newsroom had news judgment they didn't agree with.