"To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?" he asked.
Greenwald replied that it was "pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse" about such a thing, and that there was no evidence to back up Gregory's claim that he had "aided" Snowden.
Gregory replied that "the question of who's a journalist may be up to debate with regards to what you're doing," but added that he was merely posing a question others have asked, and not taking sides.
Greenwald tweeted about the exchange soon after:
Who needs the government to try to criminalize journalism when you have David Gregory to do it?
Gregory then addressed that tweet, and Greenwald, later in the show. "This is the problem from somebody who claims that he's a journalist who would object to a journalist raising questions," he said.
His colleague Chuck Todd wondered aloud how much Greenwald was "involved" with Snowden. "Did he have a role beyond being a receiver for this information?" he said.
If I didn't hear so much of this kind of talk coming from journalists I might have thought Gregory was playing devil's advocate. (And Todd admitted that journalists are struggling now to get anyone to talk to them because of the chilling effect of the government's aggressive posture toward leakers.) But it's quite clear that the only sources most of these celebrity insiders value are those who are in powerful positions. They have no reason to personally worry about being accused of "aiding and abetting" anyone the government wants to prosecute because they would never do any kind of journalism that would run counter to what their government sources want to reveal to the country.
What's most extraordinary is that these beltway stars are the ones whom everyone considers professional journalists. If I close my eyes when watching that program I could swear I'm listening to some bitchy cheerleaders talking about that horrible fat girl. An embarrassing performance.