> Serious question, why are the Snowden leaks so revered and not the reporting of James Risen several years earlier?
Because, historically, the US Press is compulsively deferential to the NatSec state.
It's the same reason the press twistered themselves to report the Mark Klein revelations as a warrantless wiretapping issue - instead of the NSA live cloning internet backbone traffic in a room custom built by AT&T for the purpose.
That the US press was loudly silent over US Gov's revenge campaign against - not only James Rosen but also James Risen and other journalists who outed NatSec wrongdoing - is for me one of US Journalism's most defining (non)actions.
by the time we got to the point where PotUS candidates were pausing their campaigns so they could return to DC to vote in favor of amnesty for AT&T,
99% of the coverage was about the ancillary warrantless wiretapping issue; NSA's bulk collection of US citizen's data was soundly ignored. Every bit of this process was stunning to witness.
Because, historically, the US Press is compulsively deferential to the NatSec state.
It's the same reason the press twistered themselves to report the Mark Klein revelations as a warrantless wiretapping issue - instead of the NSA live cloning internet backbone traffic in a room custom built by AT&T for the purpose.
ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Klein
That the US press was loudly silent over US Gov's revenge campaign against - not only James Rosen but also James Risen and other journalists who outed NatSec wrongdoing - is for me one of US Journalism's most defining (non)actions.
ref: US Gov's persecution of James Risen https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/03/james-risen-anonymou...
ref: US Gov's persecution of James Rosen https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/05/james-rosen-name...