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Sunday, June 30

Glenn Greenwald previews next Snowden bombshell and skewers mainstream news media

Wow. Hard words from Glenn Greenwald about "establishment journalism." As to Ed Snowden's next revelation --

From The Slatest Blog, Slate Magazine, June 29, 2013:

Glenn Greenwald previewed a yet-to-be-published document about the National Security Agency surveillance program during a speech at the Socialism 2013 Conference in Chicago on Friday night.

Speaking via Skype [...] Greenwald said the Guardian is planning to publish a document showing that new technology allows the National Security Agency to direct one billion cell phone calls every day into its data repositories.

"What we are really talking about here is a globalized system that prevents any form of electronic communication from taking place without its being stored and monitored by the National Security Agency," Greenwald told the liberal crowd.

"It doesn't mean they're listening to every call. It means they're storing every call and have the capacity to listen to them at any time."

In his speech, Greenwald excoriated the press for criticizing former contractor Edward Snowden's decision to leak the NSA documents, saying a climate of fear permeates investigative journalism and cripples the mainstream reporters' ability to speak truth to power.

“In their minds, the only kinds of leaks that are bad are leaks that the government doesn’t want disclosed to the public,” Greenwald said.

“The only thing that is journalism to them is when they carry forth the message that has been implanted in their brains by the political officials whom they serve. And I think this behavior highlights the true purpose of establishment journalism more powerfully than anything I or anybody else have ever written.”

His full remarks start around the 10:30 mark [YouTube video]:

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