Bizarre, Media, Politics

MSNBC Host Expresses Disbelief Why Snowden Does Not Trust The Administration And Return For A Fair Trial

MSNBC has been criticized for becoming as an extension of the Obama White House in the way that Fox News was criticized as being an extension of the Bush White House. Recently, however, many have been alarmed by the degree of blind loyalty shown the president with hosts siding with the White House against press rights and attacking figures like Snowden. This open letter to Snowden by Melissa Harris-Perry however surprises as the host assures him that the Obama Administration will guarantee his rights if only he will return. This follows such scenes as a MSNBC commentator defending the Administration’s attack on press freedom but calling Holder the “Moses of Our Time.”


The letter seems almost mocking in tone for Snowden who will almost certainly face life imprisonment if he returns given the different treatment afforded people in America’s New Animal Farm system. The United States is no longer viewed by many around the world and within the country as a guarantor of civil liberties. Conversely, one can disagree with the actions taken by Snowden but he is viewed as a whistleblower and a hero by many around the world. What is striking is that we now have networks that seem to be deliver the official line and media spin for the government –something that was once ridiculed in other countries.  Yet, Harris-Perry says that she wants him to come home so she and others “can talk about something else” and assures him that the Obama Administration will treat him special due to the fact that you “made a spectacle of yourself.” Indeed, the only concern that she can think of is that our prisons are abusive, not anything to do with Obama or his policies.

Of course, the host does not mention that Obama still claims the right to pick and choose who gets a real trial and who goes to a military tribunal for a kangaroo court trial. She does not mention that Obama claims the right to kill any citizen that he decides is a threat to the United States. She also does not mention the Administration’s abusive use of classification authority to bar the use of evidence in cases and sweeping claims of nationals security privileges. Then there is the scorched earth campaign by Obama against whistleblowers. Then there are all of the powerful politicians irate over the embarrassment caused by Snowden in revealing their own complicity in the warrantless surveillance program and calling Snowden a “traitor” and spy. Yet, she simply cannot understand why Snowden does not trust Obama. After all, this is the Obama Administration . . . and this is now MSNBC.

64 thoughts on “MSNBC Host Expresses Disbelief Why Snowden Does Not Trust The Administration And Return For A Fair Trial”

  1. SWM, Excusing her for saying something stupid because she was upset by the Zimmerman case. I consider that enabling, but I’m admittedly pretty tough in that regard. I’ve seen so much enabling in my life, including in my family, that I have zero tolerance. It wasn’t enabling her being drunk, drugged, etc., but it was a “bit” enabling; w/ “bit” being key.

  2. CNN right now is trying to incite a riot and what is being done? The jury made their decision.

  3. Since when are most trials fair? Prosecutors are on a political ladder at tax payers expense.

  4. Richard Faust 1, July 15, 2013 at 9:05 am

    Dredd and Elaine M., Here’s a list for those who are unable to focus: Melissa Harris-Perry (MSNBC), Joy Reid (MSNBC), Susan Rice (USA), Samantha Power (USA), Winnie Mandela (South Africa), Idi Amin (Uganda), Jean Bokassa (Central African Republic), Mobutu Sese-Seko (Zaire/Congo), Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia), Charles Taylor (Liberia), Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Sani Abacha (Nigeria), Valentine Strasser (Senegal), Paul Biya (Cameroon),and the big kahuna himself: Barack Hussein Obama (USA, Indonesia, USA). Everyone of them are authoritarians. Just sayin’. Over and out.
    =============================
    Feisty, you left out somebody from South Am:

    1. “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

    2. “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

    3. “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

    4. “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”—Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

    5. “Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican.”—declining to answer reporters’ questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001

    6. “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

    7. “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”—Washington, D.C., April 18, 2006

    8. “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”—Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

    9. “I’ve heard he’s been called Bush’s poodle. He’s bigger than that.”—discussing former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as quoted by the Sun newspaper, June 27, 2007

    10. “And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq.”—meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008

    11. “We ought to make the pie higher.”—South Carolina Republican debate, Feb. 15, 2000

    12. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.”—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

    13. “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.”—speaking on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

    14. “We’ll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America will be the pacemakers.”—Houston, Sept. 6, 2000

    15. “It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.”—Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

    16. “One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”—U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 3, 2000

    17. “People say, ‘How can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil?’ You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in’s house and say I love you.”—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

    18. “Well, I think if you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.”—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

    19. “I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”—on the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington, D.C., June 29, 2005

    20. “I think it’s really important for this great state of baseball to reach out to people of all walks of life to make sure that the sport is inclusive. The best way to do it is to convince little kids how to—the beauty of playing baseball.”—Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2006

    21. “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”—LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

    22. “You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president, but I am one.”—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

    23. “There’s a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, ‘I don’t want you to let me down again.’ “—Boston, Oct. 3, 2000

    24. “They misunderestimated me.”—Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

    25. “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”—Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008
    (The Greatest Purseident).

  6. I am surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t be, that she would say this. What Mike S said sometime up about the media and the $$.
    I do think that Greenwald saying that Snowden will release really damaging information if he is pursued (think that was the wording) smacks to me of blackmail. I am not sure if he is traitor, hero, or somewhere in between but blackmail places him more in the former category of traitor. This is purely self interest, and potential harm to the country, which was allegedly not his initial intent.

  8. Why should Edward Snowden return to the United States for a trial when he has done nothing wrong? He blew the whistle on massive government spying on American citizens and foreign citizens alike, which any American citizen worthy of the name would consider a duty, not a choice. Melissa Harris-Perry needs to revisit presidential candidate Barack Obama’s stirring words in praise of whistle-blowers and his promises to provide the “most transparent administration ever” — and then contrast those empty rhetorical exercises with the vicious and vindictive persecution of whistle-blowers that President Obama has actually conducted out of all proportion to reality and justice while indulging his own administration’s Niagra of self-serving leaks whenever politically opportune.

    Edward Snowden deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and if President Obama really wants Edward Snowden to return to his country, then President Obama should drop the phony “charges” against him, reinstate Snowden’s passport, and welcome him home to an awards presentation, not another kangaroo-court political show trial like the one so many other whistle-blowers have had to endure at Obama’s power-grasping hands.

  9. Almost all the media is following the distractions, and not the real crimes.

  10. “MSNBC has been criticized for becoming as an extension of the Obama White House in the way that Fox News was criticized as being an extension of the Bush White House. Recently, however, many have been alarmed by the degree of blind loyalty shown the president with hosts siding with the White House against press rights and attacking figures like Snowden”

    Dare I agree with JT? opps, he said “many”. Well, I’m one of the many.

    btw, I’m still here b/c I wanted it to be my decision to stop getting email announcements, but apparently that choice was taken from me. So I’ll stay for awhile.

  14. Bruce,

    The problem is ubiquitous. It’s not just MSNBC. It’s about corporate media …and what Mike Spindell said. We have the media elite who are way too friendly/kind to the political elite.

  16. Smart is often trumped by self interest. MH Perry is very, very smart, but her self-interests in being a member of the Beltway establishment tops that. A TV news gig quadruples the pay that a professor gets and the money becomes intoxicating to the point that on some issues it blunts the viewpoint.

  17. I was packing up some stuff and had MSNBC on in the backround Saturday morning. When I heard Melissa Harris Perry say this I was taken a back but at the same time she was visibly upset about Trayvon Martin and the impending verdict.

  18. lottakatz 1, July 15, 2013 at 10:04 am

    Is it possible for a civilian American citizen to be tried by a military tribunal for espionage?

    *****

    I think that almost anything is possible these days.

  19. Otteray,

    I’d call this one of Perry’s WTF moments. Evidently, she didn’t bring her car to work that day. I think she may have injured her head when she fell off the trolley.

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