Media Analysis Report: Fox News' Biased Coverage of Edward Snowden

This report provides a media analysis of a Fox News clip titled "Edward Snowden and How America Lost its Secrets." The analysis focuses on the biased portrayal of Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee who leaked confidential information about the agency's spying programs. The report highlights how the news channel presented Snowden as a traitor, using derogatory language and avoiding crucial discussions about the unethical mass surveillance activities of the Obama-led US administration. The analysis critiques the channel's selective use of interviewees, the omission of counter-perspectives, and the deliberate effort to shape public perception by portraying Snowden negatively and safeguarding the interests of the US government. The report concludes that the clip prioritized character assassination over addressing the substance of Snowden's revelations, demonstrating a clear bias in favor of the administrative power and its actions.

Running head: MEDIA ANALYSIS
Media Analysis
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1MEDIA ANALYSIS
The video clip, available on Fox News, namely Edward Snowden and How America Lost
its Secrets, as suggested by its very title, shows how Edward Snowden, a former employee of
National Security Agency of USA, acted in his own selfish interests, in exposing the NSA’s
activities, and how should be termed as a whistleblower (Fox News, 2017). Snowden leaked
invaluable information of NSA’s spying program, whereby in the most unethical way, NSA was
able to track and monitor the confidential information of the US public via telephone calls,
emails and other files. By sharing the confidential US intelligence documents with the
journalists, in 2013, Snowden certainly tried to act in public interest and safety (Diglin, 2014).
However, the clip shows a biased attitude towards Snowden, while covering news pertaining to
this incident, as the interviewee clearly said, how his disclosure threatened the security of the US
administration. Further, the interview refused to focus on Snowden’s motive, “I don’t really
know Snowden’s motive, I am more interested in his actions”, that clearly shows a censored
agenda behind the news presentation.
The channel could easily invite Glenn Greenwald, who in his book has been supporting
the action of Snowden in exposing the Obama-led government, and its spying activities. As a
media channel, it is important for Fox News to enlighten the audience about the counter-
perspectives, and the same could be achieved by calling in Greenwald for the interview, whose
book has justified the action of Snowden. However, Fox News decided to call in Edward Jay
Epstein, and right from the selection of the title, to the selection of words in labelling Snowden,
it had tried to portray Snowden as someone who is a threat to the society (Ephraim, 2017). The
content definitely highlights how Snowden had exposed sensitive data of the NSA, and yet it
deliberately maintained silence on how he exposed the facts in public interest. The broadcast
clearly exhibits the use of derogatory words such as “stole”, “theft”, “damaged”, “deliberate” and

2MEDIA ANALYSIS
“whistleblower” that clearly portray Snowden’s character in the light of a traitor, whose actions
not only displayed loyalty towards the organization he served for, but also caused irreparable
damage to the country as well (Fox News, 2017). It is indeed surprising how Fox News clip
deliberately intended to focus on the presentation of Snowden as a traitor, and failed to address
crucial issues such as the unethical act of mass surveillance of the Obama-led US administration,
and the legality of Snowden’s actions in exposing the unethical act of the government.
The clip contains highly biased content, whereby the news host as well as the interviewee
tried to portray Snowden as a whistleblower, fleeing his own country and going to foreign
nations like Russia, acting as an intelligence asset in foreign nations. However, despite all the
debate revolving around the character and intent of Snowden, the clip, not for once, focuses on
the essence of the revelations contained in the documents, leaked by Snowden. The public
service that Snowden has done outweighs any form of breach of contract that he might have
committed. Yet the question arises, why did the media channel fail to focus on the content of the
data revealed, and instead chose to assassinate his character. The answer is simple- the Fox News
authority was aware that it must favour the administrative power reigning in the US, and as such
divulging the findings of the disclosed datasheets exposed by Snowden would only aggravate the
situation. Hence, the channel chose to divert the attention of the audience towards the character
of Snowden, his so-called ‘traitor-like’ activities and his escape from the country like a
whistleblower. There is no gain stating the fact that Snowden’s escape from US prosecution
appears to be the ultimate focal point of the news clip, helping to continue the narrative of
Snowden’s personality as well as ill-motives behind his “disloyal” actions (Tarzie,
2017). However, the entire clip, nowhere does reflect on the US government’s condemnable

3MEDIA ANALYSIS
offence of spying on its residents, and in fact, not for once, does it even refer to the US
government.
The misrepresentation of Snowden in the video clip clearly shows the biased attitude of
the channel, towards the US government, and highlights its desperate efforts to safeguard the
interests of the Obama-led administration, by protecting their unethical actions, from the public
eye. The attitude shift against Snowden, and the channel’s deliberate effort to avoid critical
discussions pertaining to the clandestine mass surveillance acts of the government has helped the
channel shape public perception in a way, that the abhor the very figure of Snowden and treats
him as a potential threat to the national stability.

4MEDIA ANALYSIS
Reference List:
Diglin, G. (2014). Living the Orwellian Nightmare: new media and digital dystopia. E-Learning
and Digital Media, 11(6), 608-618.
Edward Snowden and 'How America Lost Its Secrets'. (2017). Retrieved from
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5318011512001/?#sp=show-clips
Ephraim, P. E. (2017). Whistleblowing and social responsibility in a surveillance system:
Appraising the morality of the Snowden disclosures. Mapping Media Responsibility.
Contemporary Aspects of Morals, Ethics and Social Discourse, 50.
Tarzie, B. (2017). Edward Snowden, Frenemy of the State. American Journal of Economics and
Sociology, 76(2), 348-380.