Hip-hip-hooray! The Guardian and the Washington Post -- that is, Glenn Greenwald and Barton Gellman -- shared a Pulitzer today for their coverage of Edward Snowdens NSA revelations. In other words, Snowden won a Pulitzer (at one remove)! In a sense, it was the only obvious choice and would have been a shocker if the Pulitzer board hadnt done it. But they did. So congrats to all involved! Tom The awards to The Post and Guardian for their NSA reporting are likely to generate debate, much like the Pulitzer board’s decision to award it public service medal to the New York Times in 1972 for its disclosures of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government history of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In both the NSA and Pentagon Papers stories, the reporting was based on leaks of secret documents by government contractors. Both Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg -- who leaked the Pentagon Papers to Times’ reporter Neil Sheehan -- were called traitors for their actions. And both the leakers and the news organizations that published stories were accused by critics, including members of Congress, for enabling espionage and harming national security. But Post executive editor Martin Baron said Monday the reporting exposed a national policy with profound implications for American citizens’ constitutional rights and the rights of individuals around the world. “Disclosing the massive expansion of the NSA’s surveillance network absolutely was a public service, Baron said. In constructing a surveillance system of breathtaking scope and intrusiveness, our government also sharply eroded individual privacy. All of this was done in secret, without public debate, and with clear weaknesses in oversight.“ Baron added that without Snowden’s disclosures, We never would have known how far this country had shifted away from the rights of the individual in favor of state power. There would have been no public debate about the proper balance between privacy and national security. As even the president has acknowledged, this is a conversation we need to have.” washingtonpost/politics/washington-post-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-public-service-shared-with-guardian/2014/04/14/bc7c4cc6-c3fb-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?hpid=z1
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 19:53:42 +0000
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