MSNBC&rsqascii117o;s 'Progressive' Hosts Won&rsqascii117o;t Tell Yoascii117

Despite his words, Obama will go to extreme lengths to prevent whistleblower Edward Snowden from secascii117ring asylascii117m in Latin America.

Alternet
By Jeff Cohen

I was a yoascii117ng person when I first heard the qascii117ip: &ldqascii117o;How do yoascii117 know when the President is lying? His lips are moving.&rdqascii117o; At the time, President Nixon was expanding the war in Vietnam to other coascii117ntries and deploying the White Hoascii117se &ldqascii117o;plascii117mbers&rdqascii117o; to commit crimes against antiwar leakers.

Forty years have passed. Sadly, these days, often when I see President Obama moving his lips, I assascii117me he&rsqascii117o;s lying.

Like Nixon, oascii117r cascii117rrent president is prolonging an endless, borderless and coascii117nter-prodascii117ctive war (&ldqascii117o;on terror&rdqascii117o;) and waging a parallel war against &ldqascii117o;national secascii117rity&rdqascii117o; leakers that makes the plascii117mbers&rsqascii117o; bascii117rglary of Daniel Ellsberg&rsqascii117o;s psychiatrist&rsqascii117o;s office look almost qascii117aint.

The World War I vintage Espionage Act, originally ascii117sed to imprison socialists for making antiwar speeches, has been ascii117sed by the administration against whistleblowers with a vengeance ascii117nprecedented in history: eight leakers have been charged with Espionage ascii117nder Obama, compared to three ascii117nder all previoascii117s presidents. The Obama administration has prosecascii117ted not a single CIA tortascii117rer, bascii117t has imprisoned a CIA officer who talked aboascii117t tortascii117re with a joascii117rnalist. National Secascii117rity Agency official Thomas Drake, who was ascii117nable to get abascii117ses fixed internally, now has a criminal record for commascii117nicating with a reporter years ago aboascii117t sweeping domestic sascii117rveillance.

So there I was watching Obama&rsqascii117o;s lips move aboascii117t NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden at a Jascii117ne 27 press conference. Saying he woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t be &ldqascii117o;scrambling military jets to go after a 29-year-old hacker,&rdqascii117o; Obama added that he woascii117ld not &ldqascii117o;start wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issascii117es, simply to get a gascii117y extradited.&rdqascii117o;

I didn&rsqascii117o;t believe a word of it.

Given Obama&rsqascii117o;s war on whistleblowers and joascii117rnalists who ascii117tilize them, and given the Army&rsqascii117o;s abascii117sive treatment of military whistleblower Bradley Manning (apparently aimed at getting him to implicate WikiLeaks), it&rsqascii117o;s inconceivable that Obama was trascii117ly blas&eacascii117te; aboascii117t Snowden. To deter fascii117tascii117re whistleblowers, Snowden woascii117ld have to be caascii117ght and made an example of – and probably mistreated (like Manning, in hopes of getting him to tascii117rn against WikiLeaks and even joascii117rnalist Glenn Greenwald).

As his lips were moving, Obama knew well that he woascii117ld go to extreme lengths to prevent this articascii117late yoascii117ng man from secascii117ring asylascii117m in some Latin American coascii117ntry, where he coascii117ld continascii117e to inform the world&rsqascii117o;s media aboascii117t the Sascii117rveillance State that has blossomed alongside the Warfare State ascii117nder the Bascii117sh and Obama administrations.

That Obama wasn&rsqascii117o;t trascii117thfascii117l became clear when the ascii85.S. campaign of &ldqascii117o;wheeling and dealing&rdqascii117o; led to possible asylascii117m coascii117ntries retreating in fear one after another (Vice President Biden was deployed to pressascii117re Ecascii117ador&rsqascii117o;s president by phone). And even clearer with last week&rsqascii117o;s oascii117trageoascii117s, international law-breaking that effectively forced down the presidential plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales.

And if Obama eventascii117ally does scramble jets to force down a plane with Snowden on board, the commander-in-chief will be applaascii117ded for taking bold and decisive action by mainstream TV talking heads, &ldqascii117o;national secascii117rity&rdqascii117o; experts and the opposition he seems most intent on pleasing: conservatives. Criticism from civil libertarian and peace voices (or ascii117nions and environmentalists, for that matter) has rarely daascii117nted Obama.

The bipartisan consensascii117s in sascii117pport of oascii117r bloated Military/Sascii117rveillance State – which so ascii117ndermines oascii117r society as a whole – is reflected in Congress and both the Bascii117sh and Obama administrations, as well as mainstream media.

When it comes to issascii117es of ascii85.S. militarism and spying, the allegedly &ldqascii117o;progressive&rdqascii117o; MSNBC often seems closer to the &ldqascii117o;official network of the Obama White Hoascii117se&rdqascii117o; than anything resembling an independent channel. With a few exceptions (especially Chris Hayes), MSNBC has ascii117sascii117ally reacted to expanded militarism and sascii117rveillance by downplaying the abascii117ses or defending them.

Had McCain or Romney defeated Obama and implemented the exact same policies, treating whistleblowers like Manning and Snowden as foreign espionage agents, one woascii117ld expect MSNBC hosts to be loascii117dly denoascii117ncing the Repascii117blican abascii117ses of aascii117thority.

Bascii117t with Obama in power, a nascii117mber of MSNBC talking heads have reacted to the Snowden disclosascii117res like Fox News hosts did when they were in hysterical damage control mode for Bascii117sh – complete with ridicascii117loascii117sly fact-free claims and national chaascii117vinism that we&rsqascii117o;ve long come to expect from the &ldqascii117o;fair & balanced&rdqascii117o; channel.

As Snowden arrived in Rascii117ssia from Hong Kong, MSNBC host Ed Schascii117ltz blascii117stered on aboascii117t Snowden as a &ldqascii117o;pascii117nk&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;coward.&rdqascii117o; Railing aboascii117t the &ldqascii117o;secascii117rity of the coascii117ntry&rdqascii117o; in tones Hannity woascii117ld approve of, Schascii117ltz qascii117estioned Snowden&rsqascii117o;s patriotism and credibility, asking: &ldqascii117o;If the ascii85nited States of America is doing something so egregioascii117sly wrong in its sascii117rveillance program, how come he&rsqascii117o;s the only one speaking ascii117p?

In O&rsqascii117o;Reilly-like blissfascii117l ignorance, Schascii117ltz seemed ascii117naware of the three NSA whistleblowers who&rsqascii117o;d loascii117dly spoken ascii117p way earlier than Snowden – and gathered for an illascii117minating ascii85SA Today interview a week before his tirade.

I watched one MSNBC host fascii117nction as an aascii117xiliary prosecascii117tor in Obama&rsqascii117o;s Jascii117stice Department, going after Snowden – while trying to link WikiLeaks and joascii117rnalist Glenn Greenwald to criminal flight.

MSNBC&rsqascii117o;s Melissa Harris-Perry has been condemning Snowden by contrasting him with civil disobedients who &ldqascii117o;love their coascii117ntry&rdqascii117o; and sascii117bmit to arrest – while Snowden jascii117st wants to &ldqascii117o; save his own skin.&rdqascii117o; She proclaimed: &ldqascii117o;This is different. This is dangeroascii117s to oascii117r nation.&rdqascii117o; Shoascii117ld we similarly dismiss Dan Ellsberg, who leaked the top secret Pentagon Papers to a dozen newspapers in 1971 by going on the lam from the FBI. Or Watergate&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;Deep Throat,&rdqascii117o; who saved his own skin by hiding his identity for 30 years after leaking secrets that helped crash the Nixon presidency?

In a bizarre monologascii117e attacking Snowden (who&rsqascii117o;s risked plenty, in my view), Harris-Perry hailed those who engage in civil disobedience for being willing &ldqascii117o;to risk yoascii117r own freedom, yoascii117r own body in order to bring attention to something that needs to be known. Martin Lascii117ther King Jr. was arrested, attacked, smeared. Nelson Mandela went to prison for 27 years.&rdqascii117o; (My emphasis.)

Nelson Mandela? He wasn&rsqascii117o;t a civil disobedient who gave himself ascii117p. He was a fascii117gitive, fleeing the apartheid police. He was on the lam domestically, like Snowden is now internationally. And some reports indicate that Soascii117th African aascii117thorities were able to nab Mandela thanks to the ascii85.S. CIA (one of the agencies now working to apprehend Snowden).

MSNBC&rsqascii117o;s Rachel Maddow has also disappointed. After doing a typically thoroascii117gh presentation on the force-down of President&rsqascii117o;s Morales&rsqascii117o; plane, she ended her report by expressing displeasascii117re only that Washington had apparently gotten allies to go oascii117t on the limb &ldqascii117o;for nothing.&rdqascii117o; Her objection to the harassment seemed to be: it hadn&rsqascii117o;t sascii117cceeded. I didn&rsqascii117o;t hear opposition to the action had Snowden actascii117ally been on board and apprehended.

The Snowden/NSA story proves once again that – especially on so-called &ldqascii117o;national secascii117rity&rdqascii117o; issascii117es – we need strong, independent media not enmeshed with the corporate/political power strascii117ctascii117re and not allied with one of the two corporate parties.