The fundamental transformation of journalism

By Cliff Kincaid

The story carries the great title of "How Edward Snowden Changed Journalism." But the article doesn't live up to its billing. The author, Steve Coll, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, doesn't want his readers to know that journalism has changed into a form of espionage that benefits the Islamic terrorists anxious to kill us.

To use President Obama's phrase, you might call it the "fundamental transformation" of journalism.

Coll cannot bring himself to report the truth because Columbia bestowed prestigious journalism awards – the Pulitzers – on the recipients of Snowden's stolen national security documents.

We called the Snowden awards "Pulitzer Prizes for Espionage."

Ignoring Snowden's life in Moscow, in the loving embrace of Vladimir Putin, Coll also fails to report that one of the Pulitzer Prize recipients, Glenn Greenwald, has an affinity for governments, groups and movements opposing the United States. Greenwald spoke publicly in favor of "weakening" America, saying that al Qaeda's 9/11 terrorist attacks were "very minimal in scope compared to the level of deaths that the United States has been bringing to the world for decades – from Vietnam to illegal wars in Central America..."

What do the people of New York City, where Columbia University is based, think of that?

Canadians may be asking that question as well, now that Greenwald has weighed in on the terrorist attack on two Canadian soldiers, in an article titled, "Canada, At War for 13 Years, Shocked That 'A Terrorist' Attacked Its Soldiers."

Echoing his 9/11 comments about America, he said about Canada: "It is always stunning when a country that has brought violence and military force to numerous countries acts shocked and bewildered when someone brings a tiny fraction of that violence back to that country."

In other words, Canada inspired this terrorism against its own people.

The despicable Greenwald went on, "If you want to be a country that spends more than a decade proclaiming itself at war and bringing violence to others, then one should expect that violence will sometimes be directed at you as well."

This is how Snowden's accomplice Greenwald sees the world – when the West defends itself against terrorism, the West is guilty of terrorism.

Coll's New Yorker magazine piece appeared as Matt Olsen, who until July led the National Counterterrorism Center, was telling CNN that Snowden's stolen and leaked documents "changed the way terrorists communicate, causing them to fall out of the U.S. government's sight."

"They've changed how they encrypt their communications and adopted more stringent encryption techniques," Olsen said. "They've changed service providers and email addresses and they've, in some cases, just dropped off altogether."

Canadians are already dead. Dead Americans will also pay the price. Perhaps the next victim will be your wife, your husband, or your child.

When the next bomb explodes in your neighborhood, or when the next piece of the Middle East falls into the hands of ISIS, you will have Edward Snowden to thank.

By the way, Snowden's disclosures are also implicated in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, creating another intelligence "surprise" for the U.S.

There is another important conclusion here. By sheltering Snowden and refusing to turn him over to face espionage charges, Moscow is also implicated in the Islamist war against the West.

NSA's former deputy director, Chris Inglis, talked about the problem in a Washington Times article about how ISIS is "using leaked Snowden info to evade U.S. intelligence." Rowan Scarborough said Snowden's "top-secret disclosures" are the key to making the Islamic State killers "harder to find because they know how to avoid detection."

Coll's article purports to be a review of a film about Snowden, who comes across "as shrewd, tough, and hard to read." Wrong again. Snowden was a Ron Paul supporter who should never have gotten a security clearance at the CIA or NSA. He is apparently more of a libertarian than a leftist. But his conduits for secrets are on the anti-American left.

Snowden has become, in effect, an enemy combatant, under the protection of Russia.

For his part, Ron Paul has also emerged as a puppet of Putin, even defending Russia's takeover of Crimea.

Logan Beirne, author of Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency, notes that "Just as Snowden sought out a position with inside access to the National Security Agency, [Benedict] Arnold lobbied for command of West Point."

Beirne adds, "Our founding fathers faced men like Edward Snowden. They sentenced them to death."

Coll, by contrast, seems to go out of his way to obscure what Snowden and his collaborators were doing. He highlights that Snowden took steps "to protect his data and his communications with journalists made it possible for the Guardian and the [Washington] Post to publish their initial stories and bring Snowden to global attention."

Coll pretends not to understand that these are the hallmarks of an espionage operation. It's not an accident that even the Obama administration has indicted Snowden for espionage.

Coll writes about Snowden's disclosures, saying, "In fashioning balanced practices for reporters, it is critical to ask how often and in what ways governments – ours and others – systematically target journalists' communications in intelligence collection. For all his varied revelations about surveillance, this is an area where Snowden's files have been less than definitive."

Coll is mostly referring to alleged NSA surveillance of American journalists. But who, or what, are those "other" governments? And isn't it safe to assume that Snowden is under surveillance and control by the Russian secret police?

Coll, who is described as a reporter "on issues of intelligence and national security in the United States and abroad," has too much experience in this area not to recognize the truth about the Snowden espionage operation. But he won't tell the truth.

Yes, journalism has changed, and all it takes to understand the change is to visit the Columbia Journalism building, which contains a plaque saying their mission is to "uphold standards of excellence in journalism."

"Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together," Joseph Pulitzer wrote, also on a plaque inside the Columbia Journalism building.

Today's elite journalists don't seem to care if the country falls, even though their own rights would disappear in the process.

© Cliff Kincaid