[mcherm]

> This guy stabbed his own cause in the back by going public, doing press interviews, and doing whatever else he could to make the story all about him

Really? Because I don't think "the goal" is to get detailed articles written up in blogs that will show up on Hacker News, I think "the goal" is to get the story out to as many people as possible and raise its profile in hopes of influencing governments.

And you have to understand the way that the press works. They've already WRITTEN a story about PRISM... so they can't write another one, because it's not "new". However, they CAN report on the daily movements of this guy, Snowden. And they can publish every interview he gives. And each time they can (will!) review just what it is that he revealed.

I think that, intentional or not, Snowden has successfully managed to bring media attention to this issue in a way that previous efforts had not.

[gyardley]

Yeah, really. Just anecdotal, of course, but from my own conversations with (and eavesdropping on) normal people around my town, it's clear that some people know who Snowden is and are following his travels but they don't have the slightest clue what he revealed. 'Some military secret to the Chinese' is the best guess I've gotten so far.