Please proceed, Glenn

While President Obama was holding a press conference yesterday to lay out his proposed reforms to surveillance programs, both the NSA and DOJ released white papers documenting the specific programs and justifying their legality/constitutionality.

So now we'll wait to see if folks like Glenn Greenwald will take the time to analyze this information to the extent they picked through the documents released by Snowden. I'm personally not going to hold my breath for that. Because if you just assume that the government lies, there's no need to pay attention to what the President or DOJ or NSA say - you simply mock it and spend all your time talking about the guy you recently said we should ignore in favor of a discussion about the policy. And gawd forbid that you ever lower yourself to actually propose any reforms yourself. Because then those would be subjected to the same kind of scrutiny you expect others to apply to the President's proposals.

Take a moment with me to imagine what an actual "activist journalist" would do now that his priority issue is center stage in the public discussion. Would that journalist simply be spending his time mocking reform proposals and consumed with touting he and his leaker's reputation? Or would s/he be celebrating the conversation and engaging with proposals of their own? If you suffer from Obama Derangement Syndrome and are only concerned with your own celebrity, you would do the former. If, on the other hand, you were deeply committed to the issue you pretend is your priority, you would do the latter.

As the President said yesterday, this is not how he would have preferred to have the conversation. But having it we are. Its Glenn Greenwald's chance to show his true colors. Please proceed, Glenn.