I realize that Snowden has done a lot of good by releasing the information he has, but I really don't care what he personally has to say and his controlled release of the information demonstrates to me that what he's do is as much for attention and his ego as it is anything else.
Spreading the story out allows the entire story to be told. It's not for his ego. Newspapers have X column inches to fill on a given day, and dumping it all at once would force it to be crammed into those X inches.
And it's not just him. It's Wikileaks and Glenn Greenwald, too, who clearly have motives other than ego.
Spreading the story out allows the entire story to be told.
Ok, I can see that but who is he to decide that? He's not a respected journalist with an established track record. He's the guy who stole a bunch of insider information from his employer. We don't really know what he has or what he isn't sharing with us.
If Snowden released it all at once, he would've lost leverage. He's playing for much higher stakes than "attention and ego". If he slips up, it's over for him.
It's pretty evident that there were several reasons for drawing it out: keep the story alive until it got mass attention, allow each release to be scrutinized and understood by the public, and to vet the information first to make sure no one is put at risk.
I thought Glenn Greenwald was the one who managed the releases. In any case, why is a journalist any more qualified that Snowden to make these decisions?
I didn't say he was more qualified. I just implied that he was not less qualified. So let's get back to my original question. Why is a journalist more qualified?
Yeah that's right, he gave up his life as he knew it, became the enemy of one of the most powerful organizations and lives in constant fear just so he can feed his ego, despite every attempt at focusing the story on NSA breaches and not himself. The controlled release of information by media outlets also just so happened to have a stronger effect which had the NSA chasing their tails being caught in their own lies upon subsequent release of new information - but that was secondary, he did it to temporarily feed his ego first and foremost, and perhaps for some lulz.
It's not like he's seen a dramatic, or possibly even noticeable, degradation in the quality of his life. He just traded his life of anonymity for one of fame and constant media attention with some restrictions on where he can travel freely.
I'm sure if he'd turned the data over to a respected journalist, they'd could have managed the release of information just as well. Instead he's kept the data to himself and chooses what to release allowing him to frame the story.
Why should we trust him? I mean his biggest achievement is stealing from his employer.
