David Gregory Asks Glenn Greenwald, 'Why Shouldn't You … Be Charged With a Crime?' Over NSA Revelations
Putting on an excellent performance as a shill for the United States government's security apparatus, MSNBC's David Gregory suggested in an interview with Glenn Greenwald on Meet the Press that FISA court oversight of the NSA's surveillance schemes should satisfy constitutional concerns about snooping. He emphasized the criminal nature of Edward Snowden's release of classified information about widespread telephone and Internet surveillance, and finally asked Greenwald why he should not be prosecuted for his part in publishing Snowden's revelations.
A brief excerpt from the exchange on Meet the Press:
David Gregory: "To the extent that you have aided and abetted Edward Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?"
Glenn Greenwald: "I think it's pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies. The assumption in your question, David, is completely without evidence — the idea that I've aided and abetted him in any way. The scandal that arose in Washington before our stories began was about the fact that the Obama administration is trying to criminalize investigative journalism by going through the emails and phone records of AP reporters, accusing a Fox News journalist of the theory that you just embraced: being a co-conspirator in felonies for working with sources. If you want to embrace that theory, it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information is a criminal. And it's precisely those theories and precisely that climate that has become so menacing in the United States…
Update: As commenter LilDebbie noted, David Gregory has his own experience with breaking the law in the name of journalism.
