Recently, I watched the movie The Post on Netflix (2017 with Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep). The movie is the true story of journalists from The Washington Post attempting to publish The Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the remarkably courageous decision made by Katherine Graham, who had inherited the newspaper after husband’s suicide. (Reminder: this is a true story).
Watching the movie, I could not help contrasting the public reaction that followed the publication of The Pentagon Papers (which were provided by a whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg) and the reaction to Edward Snowden's revelations about secret illegal US spying programs. In both cases, the American public was informed (by a government contractor) of things their government was doing in secret, and in violation of the US Constitution. For those who don't know or don’t remember, The Pentagon Papers was a 7,000 page top-secret RAND Corporation study of the Vietnam war commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. It contained facts about the Vietnam war which the American people were never supposed to know. After the initial publication of The Pentagon Papers by the New York Times in the Sunday edition of June 13, 1971, the reaction of the public was immediate; it led to street protests; it led to Congressional hearings; people were outraged, and so was the American press.
I turned 13 in 1971. I wasn't a bit interested in the Pentagon Papers; and to be quite honest, I never understood why it was such a big deal. I'd seen the thick paperback in bookstores, which became a bestseller, but couldn't imagine anyone actually buying and reading it. I didn’t understand that the case was a big deal, not just because of what was inside The Pentagon Papers, but because when the New York Times attempted to publish them they were enjoined from doing so by a federal court. America's government, in other words, tried to keep the American people from learning the truth about what it was doing. People bought and read The Pentagon Papers because they were outraged by the fact their government would go to almost any length to prevent them from knowing the truth. People were protecting their right to know by using that right.
Imagine today's pathetically weak US news organizations acting in this manner: When the New York Times was ordered (on Jun 15, 1971) to cease the publication of The Papers, their biggest rival, the Washington Post, without hesitation started printing it (on the 18th of June). And when the Post was also threatened with a court injunction, the Boston Globe began printing it, then the Chicago Sun-Times started printing it; all 11 Knight Newspapers started printing it, along with the LA Times. In all, The Pentagon Papers was distributed to 17 national news organizations, most of whom planned to print it. On June 29th, only two weeks after its initial printing Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), during a filibuster against the selective service draft, entered 4,100 pages of The Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record.
On June 26, 1971, again only two weeks after the initial publication of The Pentagon Papers, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the government's case for prohibiting that publication; the Court returned a decision only 4 days later, on June 30, 1971. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States of America upheld the 1st Amendment right of the New York Times and the Washington Post to publish the information. It was a huge blow to the government of Richard Nixon, and it was a clear victory for the American people and the American free press. It was huge. It marked a major change in the relationship between the government and the media. The US media declared itself independent of the government, an independence they have since largely ceded. As the authors of a college textbook on free speech in America wrote, "the journalists of America pondered with grave concern the fact that for fifteen days the 'free press' of the nation had been prevented from publishing an important document."
It surprised me to learn how immediately the American people, and the American press, and the American Congress, and even the US Supreme Court, reacted to The Pentagon Papers, and what a contrast that reaction was to the lackadaisical response to what Edward Snowden revealed; which is no less significant, no less shocking, and touching far more of us directly. Edward Snowden had to defect from the US to release the information he provided us; he had to do it through foreign journalists and publications. A badly-weakened American press wouldn't touch it. Americans should be shamed by that; and, indeed, it indicates just how morally apathetic Americans have become. How little they value their freedom.
I gave up my job, my career, my clearance, and I staked my freedom on a gamble: if the American people knew the truth about how they had been lied to, about the myths that had led them to endorse this butchery for 25 years, that they would choose against it. And the risk that you take when you do that is that you'll learn something, ultimately, about your fellow citizens that you won't like to hear, and that is that they hear it, they learn from it, they understand it, and they proceed to ignore it.
– Daniel Ellsberg, Radio Interview, 1972
The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests.
– Edward Snowden, Hong Kong interview, June 6, 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video
The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.
– Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice
Source: New York Times v. United States (Pentagon Papers) 1971
Both Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden are true American heroes. Both men put their lives and careers squarely on the line for their values and their honor. Both men expressed their greatest fear: that their fellow Americans would not possess the backbone to do the same.
Times, apparently, have changed. And, apparently, so have Americans.
Edward Snowden deserves a fair trial. That’s the right of every American citizen.
