The very capable David Gregory—host of NBC’s seminal Public Affairs program Meet the Press—has ignited a significant debate about the role of journalism in the Ed Snowden case. You know Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now engaged in a Leo DiCaprio game of cat-and-mouse with our Feds after blowing the lid on pervasive domestic spying activities.
Recently Gregory queried Glenn Greenwald, a reporter from the UK’s Guardian, , about his pivotal, investi
gative role in disclosing Snowden’s leaky charges. When pointedly asking Greenwald if he should be charged with a crime by “aiding and abetting” Snowden, Gregory offered up a premise that squarely took him out of the journalist’s chair and placed him in the role of government questioner, or worse.
Gregory’s query had all the marks of the proverbial “when did you stop kicking your dog” probe—any answer meant accepting a question with a faulty premise. That Greenwald and The Guardian first reported Snowden’s charges makes them, above all else, reporters who were plying the waters of a significant issue with an obvious public interest. That Snowden’s story saw the light of day was very significant and of genuine interest to you, me and the client in the next room who may also be wiretapped at the moment. Gregory’s query runs the risk of that getting lost. So too does the idea that no one is begging the obvious question of why a foreign-based reporter and newspaper was in the thick of this bombshell story while our domestic press fiddled?
As with any piece of investigative reporting that yields controversy and hollow government claims of “security” damage, the focus must be placed on the merits of the disclosure not the messenger. If Greenwald—like any reporter occupying the Fourth Estate—is the medium through which bombshells like Snowden’s are disclosed then the presumption is that he is working in the public 
interest. That’s the whole idea behind what a Free Press is and the protection it is afforded in a government system like ours.
In the event serving the public interest does not drive such a disclosure then it is the government’s responsibility to prove as such and pursue relevant legal action. But when another journalist takes on that responsibility (as many say Gregory has in this case) then he turns himself into the government’s toady. Gregory can’t have it both ways where he is sometimes a hard questioning protagonist on behalf of the profession he represents holding the government “accountable,” and other times, asking other reporters to “prove” they’ve done it right. Come clean David and decide which way you want it.
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John Durante is marketing services director for WordWrite Communications.
