[jivatmanx]

MLK was protected by his fame. Rosa Park's act was entirely symbolic. Ellsberg was protected by the fact that he had given the information to a number of extremely influential Senators; something I'm sure Snowden would have loved to have done, if he was lucky enough to have that kind of access, and if there were still such thing as a senator who is honest and cares about the constitution.

(Or if "journalists" still believed their job was to serve as a check on, rather than an apologist for, the powerful)

[genwin]

Except that MLK wasn't protected by his fame. It's not just the gov't that is the risk.

[wavefunction]

There are questions surrounding who actually shot him. The man who went to prison for it may have been set up, as he denied personally shooting Dr. King.

MLK was planning a huge "live in" on the National Mall to pursue greater income equality and there were plenty of interested parties that would have wanted to prevent that.

[OstiaAntica]

Actually the shooter initially pled guilty. Dept. of Justice looked at these "questions" and concluded they are junk.

http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part2.php#over

[wavefunction]

I bring it up only to mention that it is perhaps not so cut and dry who shot MLK...

[jessaustin]

...he had given the information to a number of extremely influential Senators...

I guess the NSA learned from that episode; apparently they preemptively told every member of Congress about all the awful things they've been doing recently. Of course the secret setting in which they admitted these transgressions was designed to put the legislators at a disadvantage. Multiple Representatives have denied ever understanding what the briefings were about.