Glenn Greenwald compares defending Edward Snowden to MSNBC defending Obama
Glenn Greenwald on Thursday dismissed claims that he is an anti-American mouthpiece for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, calling such statements “ludicrous” and defending his reporting on the government’s expansive surveillance programs.
“I think what Edward Snowden did is very admirable and heroic,” Greenwald told MSNBC’s Kristen Welker. “But at the same time the ultimate test of a journalist is — is what you publish accurate and reliable?”
“We’re on MSNBC now, where close to 24 hours a day, the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic Party is promoted, defended, glorified . . . that doesn’t mean that the people who appear on MSNBC aren’t journalists,” he said. “They are.”
Wednesday fom Harvard Law School’s Alan Dershowitz accused Greenwald of being a “hard-left ideologue” who embraces terrorists.
“As far as Greenwald is concerned, you know, he’s an ideologue,” Dershowitz told CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday. “You know, he doesn’t like America. He doesn’t like Western democracies. He’s never met a terrorist he didn’t like.”
Greenwald admitted that he respects Snowden for leaking the classified documents that have driven reporting on the National Security Agency and defended the accuracy of his reporting.
“I don’t make any bones about the fact that I consider what Edward Snowden did to be quite heroic,” Greenwald said. “I, as a journalist, am very grateful when people sacrifice their own interest to come forward to bring transparency to the United States government. That to me is what journalism is about.”
Edward Snowden may have his fans, calling him a “Hero” but the US State Department is still trying to get the NSA leaker back to the US photo CodyGat via Wikimedia commons
