TV Criticism: Snowden and Jauch Wait for Others To Gain Courage

Edward Snowden had a message. Unfortunately, that message was obscured by the discussions after the interview that ARD showed with the whistle-blower who disclosed NSA documents. The “worldwide first TV interview” got criticized on social media sites as a deceptive package. The leading news station NDR also showed the interview on the Internet to German users, without the original English version. Thus, the new channel robbed itself of the momentum that it declared Sunday morning with two lengthy announcements.

Nevertheless, Edward Snowden showed himself for the second time in a video interview. It was clearly Snowden; he wore the same short beard, adjusted his glasses then as before, weighed his words carefully and highlighted the ones that seemed important to him in the same shy manner as in June, when he answered questions Greenwald’s questions. Even regarding context, this interview was similar to the first. But there was one major difference. This time, Edward Snowden talked about “welcoming the opportunity to talk about how we could end this for once and for all in a fashion that would satisfy everyone.”*

The discussions about the intelligence agency — ultimately only a small, namable group that is different for good reason — needed someone with expert knowledge from within to talk about what’s going on. Edward Snowden did exactly that, after he saw the director of national intelligence lie in front of Congress, and Snowden “came to realize”* that “no one else would take over the task.”* He never pulled himself into the center of the discussion, not even yesterday. It became even more obvious that Snowden’s personal fate is directly connected with this question: What will come of the espionage affair?

A Discussion Without Arguments

Snowden mentioned in the interview that so far, he had not received a phone call from the White House. In public debate as well as diplomacy, the sides have formed. Even less revealing than the conversation with Snowden was the discussion with Günther Jauch before it. Several times, the participants fell into loud laughter because the arguments seemed to make no sense. The future chief editor of bild.de, Julian Reichelt, said that he’d read all the Snowden-related documents and “did not see one case where an innocent person was investigated.” Neither did the young pirate [Editor’s note: former member of the German Pirate Party] Marina Weisband. Neither did the journalist Hubert Seipel, who had conducted the Snowden interview. Neither did the Green politician Hans-Christian Ströbele, who reminded Reichelt of the 200 million text messages and 5 billion pieces of location data that the NSA saves per day. Instead, all three laughed.

In one part of the interview, Edward Snowden talked about hearing that American government officials had spoken publicly about shooting or poisoning him. Regarding that possibility, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany John Kornblum smirked. When Kornblum said, “I think it is out of the question,”** the viewers laughed — this time. Some viewers might have known the quote of former NSA Director Michael Hayden from last fall. When asked what he thinks about Edward Snowden’s being nominated for the European human rights prize, Hayden answered, “I must admit in my darker moments over the past several months, I’d also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden, but it was for a different list.”

The participants of the discussions just shook their heads in response to other topics. For example, Hans-Christian Ströbele did so when Julian Reichelt alleged “it is center business for the intelligence agency to lie.” Hubert Seipel shook his head when John Kornblum warned that Europe will “break apart” and Germany will be “isolated and vulnerable” if the discussions maintain their level of hostility toward America. In the end, it came to this: Hans-Christian Ströbele stood up for former head of the chancellery Ronald Pofalla because he was “being portrayed as a comical figure” after the American intelligence agency lied to him twice and he had to represent these lies publicly.

Snowden Fears a “Show Trial”

Besides that, there were arguments on most of the other topics. Reichelt recalled that Snowden was in a regime notorious for the handling of traitors. Then he was reminded by Ströbele that Snowden did not choose his own fate, but is within it thanks to the cowardice of all Western democracies. Weisband added that Snowden might face a secret trial in which he could neither defend himself nor receive the protection that whistle-blowers are entitled to. Snowden talked in the interview about a show trial that he wants to escape.

The participants of the discussions could not even agree on the main topic, the espionage affair. For Kornblum, it was about the conclusion that “Germany gets suppressed because of the threat of terrorism and cyber war and will have to depend on the United States’ help.” For Weisband, it was about the question of whether freedom and democracy mean anything beyond their terms. Seipel felt the need to remind everyone that Germany and Europe can deal [with the affair] confidently, because of who they are. Even topics that were dead came back to life in the debate. Thus, Kornblum said, “the cell phone of the chancellor was not listened to,” and Reichelt added, one has to blame the chancellor for “being negligent with the use of her cell phone.”

Fruitless Discussions

As important as the debates and the task of the intelligence agency are, the public forum discussions too seem to go nowhere. They don’t deliver any answers, but instead remind us of — if anything — the old and still open questions. Ströbele, a member of the parliamentary control commission of the Bundestag, said for example that until today, the body politic has not really had its say when the intelligence agencies negotiate with each other. Marina Weisband proposed a double strategy: It should be politically discussed, and the data collection “should be made expensive and unattractive through encryption.” All that was informative, but not constructive.

ARD’s decision to discuss the Snowden interview before showing it gave Snowden the last word. He emphasized that every single person is under the watch of NSA, including the “president and federal judges.” There is no doubt that “the United States commits industrial espionage” and that the NSA works internationally. For example, it works closely with German services. In addition, one can see in this case what enormous influence private companies would have on sovereign functions of the United States today.

None of the information was really new. Edward Snowden fulfilled his self-proclaimed task. Now the courage of others is what counts.

*Editor’s note: Although an exact match of each quote of Snowden could not be found, each approximated a quote of him at this URL: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/01/27-1.

**Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.