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Journalism of Courage
When Janine Gibson,editor-in-chief of The Guardians website in the US,realized that one of her columnists had a scoop about secret NSA surveillance potentially one of the biggest leaks in US intelligence history she presented it to Guardians top editor in London with classic British understatement.
Ive got a little story to chat to you about, she told the editor,Alan Rusbridger. Last weeks revelations is a major coup for the news organization.
Glenn Greenwald,the columnist who broke the story,has been a longtime critic of Patriot Act and other national security steps that the government has taken since 9/11.
For the NSA story,the paper allowed him to cross over to the news pages and cooperate with a source who leaked the documents. Greenwald said his source knew the views I had and knew for someone to do this story the way it had to be done he had to be in an adversarial posture vis-à-vis the US government.
Barton Gellman,an investigative reporter at The Washington Post,said Snowden also discussed the documents with him. But he balked when Gellman and The Post would not agree to Snowdens timeline and conditions regarding the story.
The NSA story also came with benefits: Guardian website recorded its highest day of traffic Monday.
