Wikipedia: Effort To Change Description of Snowden From “Dissident” To “Traitor” Traced To U.S. Senate

The desperate efforts of Congress to change the public view of Edward Snowden appears to be continuing. This week someone in the Senate attempted to change the description of Snowden as a “dissident” to a “traitor” on Wikipedia. The White House and congressional leaders are clearly alarmed that many view Snowden as a whistleblower. The media groups like NPR previously yielded to pressure not to call Snowden a whistleblower and instead use the less flattering term “leaker.” However, that is not enough because it does not seem to have helped.

Snowden’s disclosures have embarrassed President Obama and congressional democrats, including Democratic members, who have been openly misleading the public about warrantless surveillance. While refusing to push for the prosecution of National Intelligence Chief James Clapper for perjury in earlier testimony, they are demanding that Snowden be tried as a traitor. These are politicians who know that optics are everything when spinning a scandal. It is essential for them to have Snowden referenced in the least flattering ways like “traitor” or “criminal” as opposed to “dissident” or “whistleblower.” The same tactics have been used with regard to Julian Assange. Media outlets have yielded to demands that he never be called a journalist or a whistleblower. He is simply defined as “an Assange.”

The attempt by the person in the Senate to change the description of Snowden was blocked by a keen eye of an editor. The person’s IP address was tracked back to the US Senate and the change was attempted one day after Snowden was granted political asylum in Russia.

In the meantime, Sen. Charles Schumer (D., NY) is calling Putin a “bully” for protecting Snowden. Of course, the United States has been threatening nations to cut off humanitarian aid and trade if they grant asylum to Snowden. It is the U.S. government that has been spying on every citizen without warrants and threatening journalists disclosing such abusive programs. It is the U.S. government who put reporters under surveillance and lied to the public. Schumer has nothing to say about that, but Putin is a bully. The funny thing is that Putin is a bully. A well-documented, unabashed bully. However, Democratic Senators have no moral standing to be denouncing others after their shameless role in the erosion civil liberties in this country. Once the party most associated with fighting for privacy and civil liberties, Democrats like Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi are fighting to reinforce a growing security state apparatus in the country. They are joined by Republicans who followed a similar blind loyalty to George Bush in the prior administration. Even Senators like Al Franken are speaking out in favor of these massive surveillance systems and attacking Snowden.

The problem is that the public is not buying it. They are the subjects of these surveillance systems and polls show that the public is now more fearful of their own government’s attack on privacy than they are terrorists. That is why Snowden has to be mocked and vilified and ultimately tried as a criminal. They know that in the eyes of voters either Snowden is a traitor and a villain, then they are.

Source: Daily Mail