Sigh.
Look, Edward Snowden is no traitor. To be a traitor, one must be aiding an abetting a national enemy of the United States. Edward has done nothing of the sort. Has he broken the law? Yes. In an act of civil disobedience and to make a political statement. For that, in my view, he should be willing to face prosecution. However, he disagrees. He thinks he can't get a fair trail so therefore he decided to take his chances as a fugitive. Whatever. That part is a small part of the story. What happens to Snowden is fucking irrelevant. Stop giving a fuck where Snowden is.
Glenn Greenwald is a journalist. There is no question about this. He worked sources, wrote for a well known publication on a matter of public policy. Matters he has studied and written about extensively. You might not like Glenn Greenwald or his writing. I certainly do not. But Greenwald broke this story in way that almost every established media outlet (save the good people at McClatchy who have been on this for years), has not. Considering the impact of this story and his work, Greenwald deserves a fucking Pulitzer. But this is a small part of the story. What happens to Greenwald is fucking irrelevant. Stop giving a fuck about Greenwald's credentials.
The story here is about personal data and secret laws. It is about the boundaries between personal privacy and the security of the nation. It is about global diplomacy and surveillance. It is about technology and modern life in the 21st Century. And it is about corporate and governmental power versus personal liberty. That is what we ought to be talking about because that is what is really at issue here.