The Guardian published a story Thursday afternoon that revealed, via leaked documents, some of the NSA’s rules regarding collection of data from U.S. citizens. The Washington Post Friday published a story based on the same documents.
Both news organizations are reporting from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee.
Greenwald said in an email to Poynter that Snowden doesn’t have any say in the order in which the Guardian is rolling out scoops about documents he gave the organization. Greenwald told The New York Times Snowden “has now turned over archives of ‘thousands’ of documents…and ‘dozens’ are newsworthy.”
In an email to Poynter, Barton Gellman, who has been reporting the Snowden leaks for the Post, says Snowden “has not tried to influence the order in which we write about the material he provided, and I would not cede that kind of editorial control.”
I asked Gellman how the Post is scheduling the debuts of its scoops from the documents. “Sorry, but those are questions I would seldom if ever answer about my future work,” he writes in response. “Stay tuned.”
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