Journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared on MSNBC on Thursday to declare he has plenty more NSA stories to mine from the classified documents that whistleblower Edward Snowden trusted him with, and called out the 24-hour news network’s “liberal agenda” in the process.
“Every journalist has an agenda,” Greenwald said when MSNBC’s Kristen Welker addressed criticism that he had become “a spokesman” for Snowden. “I’m on MSNBC now, where close to 24 hours a day the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic party are promoted, defended, glorified [while] the agenda of the Republican party is undermined. That doesn’t mean the people who appear on MSNBC aren’t journalists. They are.”
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When Welker proceeded to ask if defending Snowden “crosses a line” as a journalist, Greenwald said he makes no effort to hide his admiration for whistleblowers like Snowden or Chelsea Manning, because he’s grateful for their efforts “to bring transparency to the United States government.”
“Sure, I do defend him, just like people on MSNBC defend President Obama and his officials and Democratic party leaders 24 hours a day,” Greenwald added.
Snowden, who has temporary asylum in Russia for another eight months, appeared on Great Britain’s Channel 4 on Christmas Day to deliver a pre-recorded “Alternative Christmas Message.”
“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” Snowden warned viewers after comparing modern-day surveillance efforts to those depicted in George Orwell’s “1984” novel. “And that’s a problem, because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are, and who we want to be.”
Greenwald said he has no plans to stop reporting on the NSA until he’s reported every “newsworthy” story found within the documents he got his hands on last June.
“There are a lot more NSA stories that are extremely significant, about what the NSA has been doing to the American people, and to the privacy rights of people around the world that has not yet been reported that absolutely will be reported,” Greenwald said. “There’s nothing President Obama or the United States government can do to force us to conceal newsworthy stories.”