The kitchen clock is off by hours, but no one notices; dishes tend to pile up in the sink; the living room contains a table and a couch and a large TV, an Xbox console and a box of poker chips and not much else. The refrigerator is not always filled with fresh vegetables. A family of monkeys occasionally raids the banana trees in the backyard and engages in shrieking battles with the dogs. ...PeterMaass,NYT
That's the background for a long, detailed description of the work and current life of videomaker and activist Laura Poitras who collaborates with Glenn Greenwald, Guardian reporter, on the saga of Edward Snowden. Poitras is with Greenwald at Greenwald's Rio home (ten dogs, cat, apparently obliging partner).
Snowden is also interviewed by Maass for a Q&A also coming up in the Times' Sunday magazine.
Peter Maass: Why did you seek out Laura and Glenn, rather than journalists from major American news outlets (N.Y.T., W.P., W.S.J. etc.)? In particular, why Laura, a documentary filmmaker?
Edward Snowden: After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism. From a business perspective, this was the obvious strategy, but what benefited the institutions ended up costing the public dearly. The major outlets are still only beginning to recover from this cold period.
Laura and Glenn are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the faceof withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures. ...NYT
As always happens, reporter or documentarian like Poitras is singled out for harrassment by the US government. Her quasi-detentions in airports have been regular occurrences for years. The fact that the governmeent does this -- grabbing at the Patriot Act provisions for power -- tells us very precisely what it now takes to be an American "patriot." You can be sure the writers of the Declaration and subsequent participants in the Philadelphia meetings to draw up a Constitution would -- these days -- be subject to wiretapping and delays in airports.
Ben Franklin on the no-fly list? Of course! This is "national security"! This is America!
