“No Place to Hide” by Glenn Greenwald of Snowden Affair infamy is a highly recommended read.
We all know, mainly from mainstream media, of Edward Snowden’s revelations of US government NSA surveillance of all of our electronic communication. We all have heard of the supposed damage that Snowden has done to the American fight against terrorism. We all have listened to media pundits and politicians’ vilification of Snowden and cries for his apprehension and trial by the US “Justice” System.
Glenn Greenwald masterfully debunks all such superficial and naive demagoguery. In the initial fast page turning few chapters Glenn describes the thriller like sequence of events that first lead Snowden to pick out and reach out to Greenwald as the journalist who would serve as the “Grand Revealer”, conduit and gateway of his damning information, followed by the surreptitious meetings of Greenwald team and Snowden under the threat of arrests by Hong Kong and/or American intelligence services.
I have always felt that US mainstream media is not truly independent and just pays lips service to the establishment. Now, the author crystallizes for us the relationship between the US government and the “political” media, such as The Washington Post, New York Times and the like. His words describe beautifully why the US media is not to be fully trusted with setting forth controversial or highly critical articles on the authorities.
For example, here is how Glenn describes worst attributes of the US media: “excessive closeness to the government, reverence for institutions of national security state, routine exclusion of dissenting voices” together with the accusation that “Establishment media organizations … do the most to protect the government, thereby enhancing their stature and importance”.
The final nail in the coffin of trust in the US media for me was this “The culture of US journalism mandates that … treating them (government assertions) with respect no matter how frivolous they are … they invariably give great weight to official claims, even when these claims are patently false or deceitful.”
The fact that the US Senate recently passed laws that curtail the power of the NSA to snoop on innocent Americans is further validation of Glenn’s claims and delineation that Snowden is a hero whistleblower rather than a traitor.
I have just got my hands on the next Glenn Greenwald book – “And Justice for Some”, about huge deficiencies in the USA Justice System that I am looking forward to read and share my opinion of it thereafter.