[A4ET8a8uTh0]

I think the issue is that while even techies, who were not part of IC instinctively knew that the story as presented to the general population simply did not add up and explanations like 'we are only grabbing x out of y' are unlikely, the general population either did not understand or did not want to understand what it meant.

It took the more salacious variants of those stories like nsa people spying on exes[1] to get public mildly interested.

The sad thing is you are not wrong; as little as I knew back then in an irc channel. I remember after a particularly questionable comment I made a follow up with comment basically telling nsa its a joke. Then again, today people seem to add 'fbi agent' trope.

[1]https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE98Q14H/