After Ignoring Reality Winner, MSNBC Uses Her Whistleblower Case To Attack
Snowden
MSNBC producers crafted a partisan and warped segment against one NSA
whistleblower to justify giving air time to the mother of another NSA
whistleblower
Kevin Gosztola
Feb 2
Screen shot from the segment on NSA whistleblower Reality Winner that aired
during MSNBC's "The ReidOut" hosted by Joy Reid
Three and a half years after NSA whistleblower Reality Winner was arrested
and charged under the Espionage Act, MSNBC finally invited her mother Billie
Winner-Davis on the network on January 29. Billie was able to share her
message on why Reality Winner deserves compassionate release from federal
prison during a pandemic.
The segment on "The ReidOut," hosted by Joy Reid, was a worthwhile
opportunity to speak to a national audience and potentially reach staff in
President Joe Biden's administration. However, to justify giving
Winner-Davis air time, the segment was crafted in a partisan and warped
manner that demonized anyone who supports NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden
over Reality Winner.
It depicted Snowden as a "traitor" while suggesting, even though Reality
Winner also leaked classified information, that what she did was patriotic
and possible to forgive.
Last September, Snowden appeared on MSNBC's "11th Hour," which is hosted by
Brian Williams. Snowden urged President Donald Trump or any future president
to end the war on whistleblowers.
"[Trump] should pardon Reality Winner for trying to expose election
interference. He should pardon Daniel Hale for revealing abuses in the drone
program, or Terry Albury for trying to expose systematic racism within the
FBI. And these are all people who are deserving of pardon," Snowden
declared.
Snowden put clemency for Reality Winner and other whistleblowers before
clemency for himself. In fact, he has always supported Reality Winner. He
published an op-ed that condemned her pretrial detention immediately after
she was arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act.
"Winner is languishing in prison, while figures like Edward Snowden have
become the darlings of civil libertarians," Reid stated. "Her petition for
clemency was overlooked by the former president, who went on to pardon his
cronies convicted in the Russia probe."
Uninformed MSNBC Guest: 'What She Did Was Wrong'
For many, many months, supporters of Reality Winner appealed to Malcolm
Nance, who is a former naval cryptologist known for weaving unverifiable
conspiracies about Trump and Russia that stray extremely far from the truth.
They did so because they believed Nance might use his platform as an MSNBC
analyst and a Twitter user with nearly a half-million followers to help free
Reality Winner.
But Nance ignored Reality Winner and her supporters up until January 29,
when he appeared during the same segment as Billie Winner-Davis.
Kevin Gosztola @kgosztola
Shameless #Resistance grifter @MalcolmNance was invited on MSNBC's "The
ReidOut" to talk about supporting freedom for NSA whistleblower Reality
Winner. Instead, he chastised her. "What she did was wrong. She released
classified information, and there's a way to do this..."
January 30th 2021
69 Retweets221 Likes
"When [Reality Winner] became a civilian contractor, you could understand
the allure of wanting to go out there and make a significant impact on a
very important, you know, story of the day," Nance said. "On the other hand,
what she did was wrong. She released classified information."
"And there's a way to do this. Take a look at [Lieutenant] Colonel Alexander
Vindman and others. That's water under the bridge."
Apparently, it is not "water under the bridge" otherwise Nance would have
stuck to the script, attacked Snowden, and allowed MSNBC to boost her as a
whistleblower worthy of support.
Nance showed he possesses no grasp of the two-tiered system for
whistleblowers. Reality Winner's case is not analogous to the case of
Vindman, whose disclosures were a key basis of the first impeachment case
against Trump.
Vindman was a high-ranking official, who could easily turn to Congress. In
contrast, Reality Winner was a low-ranking contractor. She could go to her
supervisor, but the political nature of what she said would have likely
turned her into someone monitored as a potential insider threat.
Reality Winner could have disclosed information to the inspector general's
office that oversees the NSA, but her complaint might have been ignored.
Worse, the inspector general might have forwarded her name to the Justice
Department for a leak investigation, as happened in the cases of the NSA
Four-Bill Binney, Thomas Drake, Ed Loomis, and Kirk Wiebe.
Also, it is common for people like Nance to attack whistleblowers for being
egotistical and out to enrich themselves. Talk of the "allure" of making an
impact on a significant news story evokes this banality.
"There is a way for Ms. Winter [sic] to get a pardon," Nance added. "She
needs to show remorse. Come out and expose what she did. We all know what
that is, and to show that, in comparison, General Michael Flynn, the former
director of Defense Intelligence Agency, was-I mean, was committing crimes
that he admitted to the FBI."
Nance knows so little about Reality Winner's case that he mixed up her last
name. If he had known any of the basic details, he would not have said she
needed to "show remorse" to get a commutation or compassionate release.
Reality Winner did not go to trial. She accepted a plea agreement. To do so,
she was required to take responsibility for her actions, and she apologized.
'A Straight-Up Traitor'
Joy Reid brought Nance into the conversation by asking him about "purist"
civil libertarians who see him as a "cause celebre."
"But the House Intelligence report in 2016 found that the vast majority of
the documents that Mr. Snowden stole really had nothing to do with programs
impacting individual privacy interests. They instead pertained to the
military, defense and intelligence programs of great interest to America's
adversaries," Reid stated.
"And he is now in Russia, where he has safe haven. And yet you have seen
Republican lawmakers pushing the former president to pardon him. There's
been a lot of people on other sides of the aisle also pushing for a pardon
for him."
Reid asked, "Why do you suppose that Reality's story has not become the kind
of cause celebre for those who care about information getting out that could
help the public? This [helped] expose our voting systems were targeted."
Biden was directly involved in contacting world leaders in June 2013 to
discourage them from offering Snowden asylum. He ended up in Russia because
the State Department revoked his passport, and he was trapped in a Moscow
airport. It's the fault of United States government officials that he is
living in a country deemed to be one of America's top adversaries.
The House Intelligence Committee report cited by Reid was described by
Barton Gellman as an "'aggressively dishonest' piece of work." (Gellman
worked on the Snowden documents for the Washington Post.)
Opponents of Snowden with roots in the national security establishment
frequently utter this talking point about the vast majority pertaining to
military and intelligence programs of "great interest to America's
adversaries." However, this "shrill brigade" of critics, as the New York
Times referred to them, has never "presented the slightest proof that his
disclosures really hurt the nation's security."
"Many of the mass collection programs Mr. Snowden exposed would work just as
well if they were reduced in scope and brought under strict outside
oversight, as [President Barack Obama's panel recommended," the Times
editorial board further insisted.
Nance's answer to Reid was boring and uninspired. "Why the right-wing has
Edward Snowden as a cause celebre? That man's a straight-up traitor. I mean,
he literally exposed programs I swore to die before I would ever release in
the hands of our enemies. And he did it with such blithe spiritedness. He
joined the CIA and the NSA with the intent to release this information."
There is zero evidence to support this assertion that Snowden joined the CIA
and the NSA with plans to disclose information to journalists. Even the CIA
doesn't subscribe to this conspiracy theory.
"The CIA did not file any report on Snowden indicating that it suspected he
was trying to break into classified computer files to which he did not have
authorized access while he was employed at the CIA, nor was he returned home
from an overseas assignment because of such concerns," Todd Ebitz, CIA
spokesperson, stated in October 2013.
Blaming Trump and The Justice Department For What Happened
Fortunately, the broadcast glitched and marvelously scrambled up Nance's
words so viewers were unable to hear all of Nance's delirious message
endorsing much of the war on whistleblowers.
Reid asked Billie Winner-Davis if she thought Reality Winner went to The
Intercept because it had published documents from Edward Snowden. "Did she
think that that was a sympathetic outlet for her? And what do you make of
what happened as a result of that same news outlet not really concealing her
identity?"
The problems with The Intercept's handling of Reality Winner and the
document she disclosed were numerous. But to ask Billie Winner-Davis to
rehash these issues on national television when her chief concern is
bringing her daughter back home is vain news entertainment. It is elite
hosts and producers at MSNBC posturing as more rational and responsible
gatekeepers than the so-called fringe media, which is The Intercept in this
case.
Nevertheless, Billie Winner-Davis nailed the response. "I do realize that
mistakes were made. Mistakes were made both by The Intercept and by my
daughter that led the FBI straight to her door. But I can't blame The
Intercept for what's happened to my daughter."
"I blame Trump, and I blame Trump's DOJ for what's happened to my daughter.
They're the ones who arrested her, who denied her bail, who have persecuted
her under the Espionage Act, who have denied her compassionate release, and
who have made sure that she got the longest-ever sentence for a crime of
this nature in the United States."