Glenn Greenwald goes off on host for asking if he could be charged for working with Edward Snowden

(Image credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist with the Guardian who originally broke the story of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program known as PRISM, attacked “Meet the Press” host David Gregory for asking if Greenwald would be criminally liable for “aiding and abetting” the leaker, Edward Snowden.

This comes after it was revealed that the Obama administration is going after Snowden for espionage.

“I think it’s pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies,” Greenwald said to Gregory.

“The assumption in your question, David, is completely without evidence, the idea I’ve aided and abetted him in any way,” Greenwald continued in the video embedded below.

Greenwald went on to point out that the Obama administration is actually attacking the entire basis of investigative journalism through their spying on AP reporters and a Fox News journalist.

“The scandal that arose in Washington before our stories began was about the fact that the Obama administration is trying to criminalize investigative journalism by going through the e-mails and phone records of AP reporters, accusing a Fox News journalist of the theory that you just embraced, being a co-conspirator in felonies for working with sources,” Greenwald said.

“If you want to embrace that theory, it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information, is a criminal,” he said.

“And it’s precisely those theories and precisely that climate that has become so menacing in the United States,” Greenwald said.

“It’s why the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer said investigative reporting has come to a standstill – her word – as a result of the theories that you just referenced,” he said.

Gregory quickly shot back, saying, “The question of who’s a journalist may be up to a debate, with regards to what you’re doing.”

Apparently, uncovering the massive secret surveillance program which we now know extends around the globe doesn’t really count as journalism.

“Anybody who’s watching this understands that I was asking a question. That question has been raised by lawmakers, as well. I’m not embracing anything. But obviously I take your point,” Gregory said.

Later, Greenwald continued the attack on Twitter.

Has David Gregory ever publicly wondered if powerful DC officials should be prosecuted for things like illegal spying & lying to Congress?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 23, 2013

Who needs the government to try to criminalize journalism when you have David Gregory to do it?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 23, 2013

I was jailed by Mugabe's Zimbabwe for "practicing journalism". Is David Gregory saying Obama's America should do the same to @ggreenwald?

— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) June 23, 2013

.@DavidGregory Not sure you should be suggesting criminal charges for a journalist. http://t.co/AkOIvnVkry #irony http://t.co/nJeSwPMYf2

— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) June 23, 2013