Business Insider Ridiculously Blames Ed Snowden For All The Damage The NSA Has Caused
from the blame-the-messenger dept
Business Insider isn't exactly known for its hard hitting journalism, but it takes a fairly special level of ridiculousness to take the Open Technology Institute's report from earlier this week, covering just how much damage the NSA has done to our economy, and blame the whole thing on Ed Snowden. Yet that's exactly what BI's Eugene Kim has done. The title is particularly ridiculous:New Report Shows Edward Snowden's Revelations Are Seriously Damaging U.S. Tech FirmsIt's not Snowden's revelations that are the problem here, it's the NSA's actions. But Kim has no time for that. Let's blame the messenger everyone!
The nonprofit New America Foundation released a new report this week that summarizes the impact of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelation on U.S. tech firms.Because, you know, it's not like anyone should actually put any of the blame on the folks who, you know, actually caused all of that loss in trust by hacking into networks and services and spying on everyone. No, let's blame the guy who blew the whistle on it. Incredible.
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Filed Under: damage, ed snowden, eugene kim, journalism, nsa, surveillance, torture report
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Shooting the messenger
It might be useful to speculate on how often messenger shooting helped, in the end, throughout history. Anyone know?
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Re: Shooting the messenger
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Blaming Snowden
-- from a TED Talk by Mikko Hypponen
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Re: Blaming Snowden
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Re: Blaming Snowden
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If not Snowden, then someone else
Snowden is not the one to blame. The NSA is.
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About secrets
People won't keep secrets, even when told they are supposed to, and even when they agreed to it, when they think that leaking the secret is actually in the national interest and their patriotic duty -- even at great personal cost.
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Re: About secrets
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Actually...
Most of the article is about the damage that the revelations have caused, only twice did the article mention Snowden.
And, well, the way it's worded, well, it WAS Snowden's revelations about the NSA, so it's TECHNICALLY correct. Even if it's worded in such a way that the average person (who doesn't keep up on this stuff) could think it's Snowden's fault.
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Re: Actually...
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Oh, wait.
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Re: Actually...
Look, we all hate what NSA/US gov. has done here, but don't let emotion override your good sense. Not the entire world is against snowden.
On the title my first instinct is also like "they are blaming the messenger".
however, if you read the content, it's quite an accurate description of the article. It's NOT saying snowden is causing the damage, but this revelation is causing the damage, and that is true.
For example, if person A shot person B and person C reported this incident causing a police gang crackdown, the title "The shooting reported by person A makes local police start a gang crackdown" is not taking aim at person C, but is describing the "reporting"
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Re: Re: Actually...
I mean to say " "The shooting reported by person C makes local police start a gang crackdown"
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Re: Actually...
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Re:
http://oti.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Surveilance_Costs_Final.pdf
This paper attempts to quantify and categorize the costs of the NSA surveillance programs since the initial leaks were reported in June 2013. Our findings indicate that the NSA’s actions have already begun to, and will continue to, cause significant damage to the interests of the United States and the global Internet community. Specifically, we have observed the costs of NSA surveillance in the following four areas:......
I guess BI people don't read very well.
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How much $$
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It's also true that I am more than happy to pay that price than I am to give up freedoms and allow the US government to abuse it's power. The cost in dollars is insignificant when compared to protecting freedom.
As noted before, just because Snowden's actions have cost the US, that doesn't mean Snowden was wrong in what he did or that it's his fault. He did what he did to protect the Constitution and rights of every American. Those who did the wrong Snowden exposed are to blame for any costs.
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You're too quick to forgive sNOwden
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Re: You're too quick to forgive sNOwden
"Now as a result of this agency getting spanked around the globe, you are going to watch our freedoms erode away completely."
I rather think that we'll see some degree of regaining our freedom, not the opposite. But even if you're right, the blame for it lies entirely with the agency, not with the whistleblower.
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Re: You're too quick to forgive sNOwden
Had he not blown the whistle, the Snoop and Scoop would have escalated exponentially as the spooks realized they could get away with anything and everything, especially as technology was making what used to be expensive or impossible, easy and cheap to do.
By popping their cherry in public, Snowden has made the world aware that it is being spied on in ways that they were all assured were not possible - ways that the public and business had indeed been paying to keep impossible at ever increasing rates.
Once the NSA succeeded at their goal - to have all the dirty laundry on all the people of earth, to know where everyone went every day and at what time and who they spoke to and hung out with and what they ate and read and drank and smoked and watched and loved and hated and who they had sex with and when and where and who they had wronged and how and when and where - did you think that they would not then use this data in exactly the ways that Snowden exposed - blackmail, coercion, extortion, character assassination and real assassination - for profit and power.
And just to set the record straight, Snowden was not "hacking even into the President's phone".
He said it would be easy to do, not that he had done it.
Just a little heads-up here.
Shooting the messenger, in no way alters the activity of the perps who planned and executed the crimes that the messenger is reporting. It does however, make it harder to discover who the perps are and what they have done because other messengers will fear the same stupid reaction when they try and inform the public about other crimes and other perps.
By blaming Snowden, you do a huge dis-service to your country and its citizens and aid and abet the bastards who are using your laws and your constitution for ass-wipe.
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"Now as a result of this agency getting spanked around the globe, you are going to watch our freedoms erode away completely."
Congratulations! You just won the Most Idiotic Comment of the Day award!
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No, let's blame the guy who blew the whistle on it. Incredible.
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Police!
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Re:
So, its not a very good straw man.
I can't even give you a "Nice Try" for that one.
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Where the light never shines.
"OK, you caught us. We did indeed overstep our mandate and we did indeed steal shit we really should not have.
So we're gonna make reparations to everyone we wronged and close down these programs and create a slew of laws and watch-dogs to insure that this sort of thing never happens again in this country.
We are very, very sorry for any inconvenience and harm we may have caused. Our intentions were pure, but we simply got caught up in the process and lost our way."
Instead, they sent forth their best bull-shitters and lied time after time and pretended that it was all legal and above board because they had super honest and super smart watch-dogs analyzing their every move, making sure they did nothing wrong every step of the way. So there!
Because of this attitude, most people with a brain now believe the Spook Agencies and the whole membership of The Most Transparent Administration In American History have been continuously insincere about everything, and that they will continue to be insincere because they are guilty of every single crime Snowden has pointed out.
Because of this attitude, most everyone is certain that they are just a cabal of plain evil little shits who want to peak into your private life so they can blackmail you whenever the mood strikes them, or ruin your life if you happen to get in their way.
It was this pathetic and childish "sticking to their story" and lying about everything (that they are still in fact doing) that has cost the USA its Moral High Ground Position in the global arena, not the exposure of their crimes by this century's greatest American Patriot.
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It doesn't look like they're blaming Snowden.
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Re:
They are and they are not.
The wording lays the blame at Snowden's feet for "exposing" the public to the NSA's semi-legal clandestine global surveillance activities and lays the blame at the NSA's feet for getting caught without an effective plausible denial at the ready.
The implication is that had Snowden minded his own business and kept his mouth shut like a good loyal minion, the NSA would still be merrily secretly collecting and analyzing the planet's communications, black-mailing heads of state, judges and others to comply with their needs, and destroying citizens lives and reputations around the world, and the world's populations being none the wiser, would still be supporting American companies as if nothing was amiss.
Which is of course, entirely true. :)
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