NBC poll on Snowden totally flipped since yesterday.

[grasswire]

NBC asked yesterday if Snowden was a patriot or a traitor, and the numbers favored traitor.

Today, 60 percent say patriot, 40 percent say traitor.

So, it appears that most viewers did find him to be sincere and authentic and appreciated his risk-taking and his motives.

Score one for civil liberties!

Being on the right side of history is evident.

[Capt. Obvious]

1. He's a Traitriot™

[Skittles]

6. your name really suits you

[Whisp]

2. Most viewers watch reality shows.

So I guess in that respect I can understand that Snowden, acting like he was genuine, passed.

[ProSense]

3. Link? The last thing I saw was this from NBC

"when the broadcast ended, there were at least 4,435 references on Twitter describing Snowden as a patriot, and at least 4,084"

[Jack Rabbit]

19. Relax, ProSense

It's not a scientific poll.

Now you can make a lengthy OP about it to that effect that you can reference later when somebody dares to praise Snowden and Greenwald for their work or dares to call this kind of mass surveillance a police state tactic so that you can whip that poster with a red herring.

[George II]

28. It's not even an NBC poll, it was totally mischaracterized by the OP here.

[ProSense]

4. Ah, the Twitter battle

Overall through 9 a.m. ET Thursday, 59% of Twitter users are calling Snowden a #Patriot versus 41% #Traitor.

http://www.nbcnews.com/#/news/us-news/people-have-tweeted-snowden-traitor-or-patriot-n117096

[Progressive dog]

5. So he shouldn't be afraid to leave Moscow for

the USA and stand trial before a jury with 60% already believing he's a Patriot.

[think4yourself]

7. It's not the public

he would be standing before, unfortunately.

[grasswire]

9. please educate yourself on justice under the charges he faces.

Public opinion has nothing to do with the rules that stifle a defense.

[Leme]

16. hehehehe good 1 nt

[Dopers_Greed]

20. If you believe he'd actually get a fair trial...

You're as deluded as Karl Rove was on election night.

[MohRokTah]

8. A Twitter hashtag poll?

Holding that up as an example of public opinion is about as logical as holding up a poll on DU as to what the American people want.

[grasswire]

10. yak it up

Snowden really has you roiled today.

[MohRokTah]

11. HA!

I'm not the one pulling a twitter hashtag poll out to demonstrate how patriotic the criminal is. Seems like a move of desperation for somebody who has been demonstrated to be wrong about their opinion of their hero.

HA! times 100.

[uponit7771]

13. nah, just the traitor worshiping on DU...

[grasswire]

15. as an American, I resent your un-American characterization.

In my America, the presumption of innocence still prevails.

Your opinion of Snowden does not make him guilty of the charge against him....which is espionage, not treason.

[rtracey]

22. Would it be better

Would it be better if the government charged him with theft? I am zzzzzzzzzz out on the traitor, patriot thing....whatever he is, he IS a thief.

[grasswire]

27. it would be better for him, yes

But only as a matter of degree.

The administration would NEVER allow Snowden in an open court trial under federal rules of evidence. NEVER. It would be a huge risk for the government.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. You might not like the way he did it but you have to like the Beltway talking about privacy rights.

[grasswire]

14. absolutely

Snowden has achieved his goal: starting a national conversation about surveillance.

Whatever happens, he has done what he set out to do, at great risk to himself.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. It's like how Occupy got the 1% on the Beltway radar.

[grasswire]

41. yes

...and it cannot ever be stuffed back into the bottle.

[Maedhros]

34. Wow, Spitfire.

Yours is the first response showing (to me), and it's #12.

My ignore list is working overtime. The Swarm, indeed.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. I haven't really gotten into the bickering. Just the issue.

[Maedhros]

40. I'm trying to extricate myself from the bickering, hence the ignore list. [n/t]

[WillyT]

17. K & R !!!

[AverageJoe90]

18. He is anything *but* sincere and authentic, sadly.

And I find it unfortunate, that people are still falling for this facade he puts up.

No offense towards you, OP, but John Kerry was right. Snowden needs to come home and face the music.

[erronis]

21. Talking about facades?

Is there anything that the US Gov (or any other) presents that isn't a facade?

Did we hack the Chinese before they did us? Did the KGB infiltrate the CIA before we did the same?

Unfortunately the public is best served by first listening to any pronouncements from a government (US/other), analyzing for rationale, and then perhaps, evaluating content.

Kerry has become another mouthpiece of the apparatus. I had hopes for this set of executives but think they have been bought out (and I wonder what type of cash is used.)

[Logical]

23. LOL, keep acting like he changed nothing. nt

[pansypoo53219]

24. where was everybody in 2006 under BUSH when we LEARNED THIS 1ST?

[grasswire]

32. sorry, but that is yesterday's talking point. nt

[Maedhros]

35. You say that as if we're wasting our time discussing blanket surveillance,

the national security state and NSA abuses.

By your logic, we knew about Monsanto and GMO crops in the 90's so what's the big deal?

[gratuitous]

42. Quite a number of us were against it then, too

Can you elaborate on what your question means? Are you saying that because you haven't found anyone objecting to revelations of domestic spying under Bush eight years ago (Have you looked for those posts?) that objections now are irrelevant? Or that those objecting now prefer Bush to Obama? Or that it was very wrong under Bush but only sort of wrong under Obama?

I've posted for years about my unfortunate attachment to the superannuated language of our quaint old Constitution, and my inability to trim my ideals to fit this year's (or this administration's) fashion. I seem to recall that one candidate campaigned vigorously in 2008 on a message of "change," but eight years later, we find that in many areas very little has changed. Does that bother you?

[riverbendviewgal]

25. I am in the 60 percent

is there a video now to see the interview?

[grasswire]

31. sure

I think if you google Snowden Williams NBC you'll find a link to the interview. It's really worth watching.

And a big fat hello to you, eh.

[George II]

26. It's not an "NBC" poll, it's a poll on the Cleveland NBC affiliate's website...

...and one has to "log in" in order to vote. That's probably why they've gotten less than 3000 votes.

VERY unscientific.

Why did you misrepresent this "poll"?

[grasswire]

29. no, you are wrong

each affiliate has its own poll; there's one going on here in my town.

The numbers announced by NBC are a twitter aggregate. hashtag "Patriot" or hashtag "Traitor". That is the genesis of the ~60-40 response. About 10,000 respondents.

It's not a scientific poll, either way. It's a snapshot indication.

[George II]

33. I can't find that one anywhere, but I see that many of their affiliates are conducting their own...

...the Cleveland poll came up first on Google.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. I think that's actually pretty sad.

It shows how shallowly the public is actually following current events, that they can flip their opinion on a dime, given a single TV show. If people had been paying attention all along, you'd have thought they'd have been upset at being spied on all along.

[Maedhros]

36. It's not real until it's on TV [n/t]

[carolinayellowdog]

37. half empty half full cup when measuring public interest/concern

It is scary to think how anesthetized people are by usual media fare, that they haven't much cared what is being done in terms of surveillance now, or how it all goes back to the Bushes and 9/11. But it is encouraging that the American public, after being propagandized by both parties' leaders to hate Snowden, could wake up as much as they did overnight. Almost 6 million watched. TV still has a major role in a healthy democracy that neither print media nor the Internet can match, and the Snowden interview will be remembered for decades.

Kerry did not come across well at all, by contrast to Snowden, which I think contributed to this flip in public opinion. Other polls will tell us more about the impact of the interview.

[woo me with science]

43. K&R