Guardian and WaPo Receive Pulitzers For Snowden Coverage

Late Yesterday, the Pulitzer Prize board announced (PDF) the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners. The public service prize was awarded to the Guardian and the Washington Post. The Washington Post was given the award for its role in revealing widespread surveillance by the NSA, "...marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security," and the Guardian for sparking "...a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy." Snowden released a statement praising the Pulitzer board: "Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance. This decision reminds us that what no individual conscience can change, a free press can. "

Comments

Good

[NotDrWho]

Snowden deserves a Nobel prize too. And Clapper and the other NSA leaders deserve prison time.

Re:Good

[NotDrWho]

Yeah, and Clapper and the NSA leadership probably aren't going to get prison time either. But they still deserve it.

Re:Good

[zippthorne]

Well, it's called the peace prize, not the freedom prize or the opposed oppression prize.

Re:Good

[Travis Mansbridge]

Assange merely set up a website allowing people to leak any information anonymously, regardless of the impact, without having to face the consequences. Snowden took measured, deliberate action, releasing information specifically related to our civil liberties, even allowing time for those responsible to come forward before continuing to release information. How does the Collateral Damage video or the multitude of diplomatic cables released over wikileaks compare to just one of Snowden's many revelations?

Re:Good

[Sique]

I wonder where you get that (surely classified) information from and what you deserve for revealing it to the enemy. Yes, chinese and russian spies can read slashdot, and you are revealing secrets here.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

source, please?

Or, as usual, are you just talking out your ass?

Most of the stuff Snowden has released concerns NSA spying on American citizens, not other countries. The few cases released that concerned spying on leaders of other countries were the US's own allies, not our foes. Just how in the hell is Putin gonna use that to strengthen their intelligence apparatus? Russia has made no secret of the fact that they routinely do this while America, of course, has routinely denied ever doing it.

As for who deserves prosecution... you never mentioned the ones who setup and authorized the NSA surveillance program on American citizens in the first place. They should be taken out and shot at dawn. Instead, they are getting richer and fatter on their Halliburton "thank yous".

Re:Good

[14erCleaner]

Snowden deserves a Nobel prize too.

Or at least a mention in the Pulitzer announcement. The way the announcement phrased it, you'd think the journalists dug out this information on their own, rather than having it dumped in their laps.

Re:Good

[cold fjord]

That is a splendid troll, but all I do is read the media (papers). Maybe you've noticed there is plenty of information there, including much classified information?

Re:Good

[NotDrWho]

The way the announcement phrased it, you'd think the journalists dug out this information on their own, rather than having it dumped in their laps.

This is particularly true in the case of The Washington Post. IIRC, Snowden provided all the raw info, Greenwald at The Guardian did all the journalistic legwork. And The Washington Post was just brought in at the last minutes and handed everything in finished form just to lend some U.S. credibility to the story. The Post's entire contribution was to basically say "Yeah, okay thanks, we'll publish it too." It's like giving a Pulitzer to a paper who just picked up the AP story and published it unaltered.

Re:Good

[Sique]

And you expect the media to be able to correctly asses the abilities and the inner workings of a secret agency in a foreign country? And not just blindly speculating what could have happened? Does the media read the press releases of the KGB, where the KGB announces his new spy programs?

If there are any new tactics at the KGB and the chinese Zhong Chan Er Bu, they surely will not tell the papers you are reading. And if any american intelligence agency detects new tactics of foreign spy agencies, they won't put out a press release either. So we have wild guesses in the news papers you read, and nothing else.

What we have is the former head of the NSA excusing before Germany for completely misunderstanding the german sensibilities when it comes to complete surveillance of everyone. We have about every intelligence agency running to their respective government to demand more money, and we have the intelligence agencies of Brazil and Germany begging for pardon for being that inept.

Re:Good

[BitZtream]

No he doesn't. Nothing he did promoted any values associated with any current Nobel prizes. Perhaps you should learn what the Nobel prizes are about rather than just spewing 'give him an award' first. You can certainly argue that he deserves recognition if you want, but the Nobel prizes aren't things that just get thrown around ...

On that same note, nothing the Guardian nor WaPo did in this case makes them worthy of a Pulitzer. Someone else did all the work for them.

Oh shit, nevermind, I forgot that getting a Nobel prize now days is pretty meaningless, hence Obama has one, it just goes to show how meaningless they are with Barak Bush Jr getting one before he ... did the same thing as the guy everyone hated, but more so, exactly the opposite of what he said he was going to do.

No, I don't even approve of how Snowden went about doing what he did, but a Nobel prize is just insulting at this stage. (I do approve letting the American public know the NSA was spying on its own people, full stop)

Re:Good

[Sique]

I think what we have here is you pulling accusations out of your ass without backing them up.

Re:Good

[Camel Pilot]

source, please?

Most of the stuff Snowden has released concerns NSA spying on American citizens, not other countries.

Wrong... Snowden released methods and means of foreign intelligence. People tend to overlook that.
Consider his release of information on intelligence gathering on China's Huawei and govt, Yep... he is a traitor.

Re:Good

[cheesybagel]

There are more people using Huawei telecoms hardware than just the Chinese government. I guess you think we should not discuss Cisco or Siemens SCADA vulnerabilities either.

Re:Good

[cheesybagel]

Sadat I can sort of understand. He did sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty (then got assassinated by someone who did not like it). The other guys (Peres, Arafat) signed the Oslo accords which might be horrible in several regards but at least they enshrined some sort of autonomy for the Palestinian Arabs. de Klerk released Mandela and allowed the ANC to run for elections. Kissinger... uh... perhaps the visit of Nixon to China and reopening that connection. I am not quite sure what he's supposed to have done.

Obama was total nonsense. Was it because they believed his campaign promises of withdrawing from Iraq, Afghanistan, and closing Guantanamo? They need to wait and see before they give it to someone next time.

Re:Good

[cheesybagel]

This article is cute considering I was playing The Republia Times yesterday.

Re:Good

[LookIntoTheFuture]

Putin's Russia, oddly enough where Snowden now lives, has already been exploiting the information Snowden revealed to strengthen their intelligence apparatus and exploit gaps in those of the West. Snowden doesn't deserve a Nobel but maybe the cover of Time magazine, a distinction he could share with various other notables of ill repute. (Was John Walker or Kim Philby ever on the cover?) On top of that Snowden deserves prosecution.

Maybe next time the NSA decides to go too far and aim for total surveillance of every connected person on the planet, they should remember the downsides of forcing someone to blow the whistle.

Re:Good

[cold fjord]

I guess you think we shouldn't discuss Iran's nuclear program or Chinese aggression against its neighbors and threats of nuclear war either.

Re:Good

[cold fjord]

Is there any chance that you could remember that thought should your country ever come under nuclear attack or occupation, or you find yourself caught in a terrorist WMD attack, or possibly on a hijacked airliner? Thanks.

Going to Congress would have been responsible. Snowden when far, far beyond being responsible. He betrayed his country in an anti-democratic fashion.

Re:Good

[cold fjord]

One other thing, the US has started the effort to repair the damage from Snowden's betrayal. It is going to cost billions of dollars and take years. If you are a US citizen you will be paying for that. The US will be vulnerable for probably decades, as will US allies. Going to Congress would have avoided all of that.

Congratulations are in order.

[rmdingler]

In a World where personal freedoms are all too routinely stricken from existence without constitutional testing,

it is reassuring that the Press remains a thorn in the side of those who would oppress.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why haven't they gone after the man who campaigned to stop all of this, but has done nothing?

You might remember him, Barak Obama(D).

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[cold fjord]

... it is reassuring that the Press remains a thorn in the side of those who would oppress.

Unfortunately the Press is all too often no longer "equal opportunity bastards," they are far too partial to one side of the argument.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[the eric conspiracy]

What have you done to make it more painful? Do you even vote? How about writing some letters? Or giving money to a candidate?

In the end it's simple. Apathy is the ultimate enemy of freedom.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[Vitriol Angst]

Well, we've only got two thorns for a fact at the moment -- it's kind of sad when you get a Nobel Prize for just doing your job. Kind of like Obama getting the Nobel Prize for Peace for just not being George Bush.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[Vitriol Angst]

They've gone after him -- for everything but actual offenses to the Constitution.

Benghazi, birth certificates, communism -- it's not his fault the alleged opposition party has bad aim.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[Arker]

Eh, Benghazi may not belong in your list actually. Check out Seymour Hersh's recent work re: the 'rat line'

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[Mashiki]

Well that's not really true, in the cases of both Benghazi and say F&F they're still on-going because the witnesses have either disappeared. Or the government itself has made the evidence disappear.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[cheesybagel]

I thought that guy in the Guardian recently had his computer, with the rest of the files he had, apprehended by British security forces who promptly destroyed all the remaining evidence. Oh right there it is. They 'voluntarily' destroyed the hard drives in front of the security forces.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[rmdingler]

It's all in the tone of the language, my brother. Sure, if people are a cog in the machine there will be bias.

But when you call out a lack of equal opportunity bastards in reference to a liberal whistle-blower, you sort of tip your hand.

Now you wouldn't want these liberal rat bastards (and don't kid yourself a rat bastard is an order of bastard more than mean) to suspect your intelligent reply is ridden with partisan nonsense.

You may stay true to your roots and remain cognizant that the problems with this Republic are on both sides of the aisle.

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[rmdingler]

What have you done to make it more painful? Do you even vote? How about writing some letters? Or giving money to a candidate?

That is, of course, the wrong way to look at apathy. Voter/citizen apathy is like a gay man... how could you rationally hate him when he's making your priorities statistically more likely to occur?

Re:Congratulations are in order.

[rmdingler]

It's clear to me on the order of crystal the Guardian reporters were aware of the moral of the story concerning all your eggs in one basket.

it still amazes and saddens me...

[Connie_Lingus]

...that almost everyone I speak to in real life thinks Snowden is a criminal.

he embodies everything people "say" they value in a democracy, yet they want to put him in jail and throw away the key because, basically, he embarrassed some allegedly criminal senior government officials.

clueless.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[Anonymous Coward]

He *is* a criminal. He is still right though.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criminal

This is going to be tough but George Washington is considered a criminal too and Benedict Arnold is considered a patriot, in England. Because in that country under their laws they are.

Most people still believe in the fairness of our justice system. They probably do not realize the gov would make an example of him. Until there are a few hollywood style movies making him look like a super hero. Most people will side against him.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[Anonymous Coward]

... and were doing a lot of good.

Examples?

Remember just before Snowden happened, the US were routinely accusing the Chinese and the Russians of exactly the kind of thing, as it turned out, they were themselves doing. If those things are all legal and good, why the fuss?

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[serviscope_minor]

Even the ones that weren't illegal at all and that were doing a lot of good. Either you are being deliberately ignorant or...well I can't really see it any other way.

Well, how about you enlighten us with a [citation]. So far we know the NSA were spying on their own citizens, illegally spying on their allies and were being helped by GCHQ in yet more illegal spying. The only piece of vaguely positive news I heard from the whole thing was that at least GCHQ were charging the NSA for their nefarious activities, rather than doing it for free.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't bother trying to explain "rule of law" to an apologist.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[Arker]

Snowden actually revealed nothing publicly. All those documents were entrusted to journalists. It's the WaPo, the Guardian, the NYT and so forth that decide which ones to publish and when, not him.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[datorum]

it is the same with catholic church, "it" did and does everything that is not "Christian", but still is the biggest "Christian" church on the planet... yeah, stupidity can be fascinating, but mostly it is just sad.

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[BitZtream]

Where is the law that makes it illegal to spy on our allies?

Citation needed

Re:it still amazes and saddens me...

[SpankiMonki]

There many international laws prohibiting spying. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations certainly applies - specifically, Articles 22, 24, and 27.

That's nice

[koan]

What did Snowden get?

Re:That's nice

[SpankiMonki]

What did Snowden get?

An enlargement of the target on his back.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth

[dbIII]

Well that's what the propaganda says but in reality they don't have any more stuff than the Washington Post has.
Snowden betrayed some corrupt officials for the benefit of his country. Those corrupt officials like to frame things in another way but they showed they are putting themselves before their duty to their country via actions such as lying to Congress.

Re:Meanwhile, back on planet Earth

[cold fjord]

Snowden betrayed multiple intelligence operations of Australia. Are you cheering that on as well?

Re:Meanwhile, back on planet Earth

[dbIII]

Considering that part of that was things like industrial espionage of an Indonesian Clove Cigarette manufacturer for the benefit of commercial clients in the USA where presumably kickbacks would be given to someone in US intelligence who gave the job to the Australians - fuck yes. We should not be risking intelligence assets on that shit just so that someone in Washington gets paid a bribe. Since another was Australia's Telstra handing communications data to the NSA and giving full access to some intercontinental cables - fuck yes.
Snowden betrayed a bunch of people going far beyond what their jobs should have allowed TO HIS COUNTRY. He told his country what is going on. He did your country and mine a service. The only losers are the people who went too far and tried an East German Stasi approach to intelligence instead of the targetted approach the USA had used in the past.

Exposing the rot in your country so that it can be cured is different to betraying your country. The bullshit along the lines of "because he told the Washington Post it's the same as telling the KGB" is just damage control by some people who will probably lose their jobs and could even be facing jail time.

Re:Meanwhile, back on planet Earth

[cold fjord]

My mistake, I thought you were an Australian.

Re:Meanwhile, back on planet Earth

[dbIII]

Is that some sort of petty insult suggesting I'm not a "real" citizen? I am an Australian and envious of the US Constitution that the NSA is spitting on. They have betrayed your country and Snowden caught them at it. They have betrayed my country by circulating information about an Australian intelligence operation on the Indonesian President very widely (in a powerpoint presentation FFS) and Snowden got hold of it.

Since the NSA is such a shambles with outside subcontracting, civilians in roles that should be military and various horse judges running things due to social connections, you can be certain that Putin could have got hold of everything Snowden had and more many years ago. With a cast of thousands and people employed due to connections you can be certain that someone in that shambles had a night at Vegas and got a job offer. They have shown from lies to congress that patriotism is not going to stop them doing that, so it's not going to stop them from selling out either.

On interesting bit of the recent anti-Snowden propaganda is a rant similar to yours in the Murdoch press from Laim Fox - the former UK defence secretary who had to resign after a string of very serious security breaches in negotiations with Israel's Mossad and Sri Lankan military intelligence. I suppose at least he knows a bit about the subject matter. The online version is behind a paywall, but it's amusing that he uses the "treason" word for material far less sensitive than the material he gave unauthorised people access to.

Let's throw that back at you - so you support King before Country (and Constitution). My mistake, I thought you were an American and not an English Loyalist.

Re:Happy.. Happy.. Joy.. Joy..

[BitZtream]

Why would it piss the government off? All it does is distract you from what they are doing while you dance around like you've scored some big win.

Its no different than Obamas' peace prize. Its stupid and shows just how much of a sheep people like you are.

Yay! Prizes for everyone ... even thought they haven't done anything.

Congratulations, you're EXACTLY the kind of person that causes these sort of problems to go so long without anything being done about it because you're more concerned with a pat on the back than resolving the issue.

collusion

[fred133]

collusion: secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, esp. in order to cheat or deceive others...

And that's what we have these days between the government and our so-called Public utilities,(notice I don't say OUR government,it isn't ours anymore)

Back when it was the "Bell System", J. Edgar would just "drop a dime" and get any info He needed from Ma Bell, ....on a case by case basis.
The government broke up the Bell System,In the name of "competition", SBC went around and bought all the Baby Bells, and put them back together under 1 roof,
Now, the NSA and SBC/ATT are in bed together... and they are giving the NSA free reign to the whole system.
We need to put pressure on ATT ... no matter what ISP/phone company you may choose to use, it still goes through ATT's backbone some where in its transit to the other end of the line....
the question is who are ATT's major stockholders? and how can we pressure them?