Image: Flickr
“I completely agree with these whistleblowers,” NSA whistleblower William Russell told Edmonds. “This is a major conflict of interest and highly convoluted. Omidyar has billions at stake if the details of his cooperation with government is ever exposed. So this guy pays $250 million and buys out the 2 journalists who have the entire cache?! Simply outrageous!”Though NewCo has yet to publish a single piece, Edmonds is already speculating what the company might preferentially hold back based on these alleged conflict of interests, citing a tip from a former NSA official that Snowden’s leaks contain “extensive documentation of PayPal Corporation’s partnership and cooperation with the [NSA]”. Indeed, the public would have a right to be incensed if no documents detailing the activities of the largest online payment service never come to light—but again, right now that's only speculation.Aware that peripheral and circumstantial evidence is ultimately unconvincing, Edmonds highlights “documented evidence” undeniably tied to the man himself that illustrates his “historical attitude and position on publishers, reporters and whistleblowers who publicize incriminating government documents”. What’s more direct and incriminating than their Twitter feed?Conceivably, what we are witnessing isn’t necessarily the capitalist corruption of some supposed whistleblower pact, but the execution of cunning partnership.
It looks bad at first, which is how Edmonds presented it, in screenshot form, along with a link to a WikiLeaks tweet that also shares an image of Omidyar’s alleged ideology toward altruistic truth-seekers. Perhaps its Edmonds’ background as a whistleblower that she values raw information over proper context. If she had provided the actual tweet in question, and it’s unclear if she ever saw it firsthand, she and her readers would know that the Silicon Valley executive was referring to the criminal hacking and publishing of Twitter’s confidential business model—not government secrets or evidence of corporate wrongdoing.Meanwhile, NewCo isn’t unique in its sugar daddy business model, considering Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of the Wall Street Journal, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ recent $250 million acquisition of the Washington Post, and the arrival of Qatari-backed Al Jazeera America. Countless organizations, many of sound integrity, are by definition owned by billionaires. And for a man worth $8.5 billion, Omidyar’s history is relatively untarnished, what Reuters columnist Jack Schaefer describes as “close to being a clean slate”.But for Edmonds, there’s also the issue of Omidyar’s friends, who, unsurprisingly, also happen to be billionaires, like Yelp founder and PayPal board member Max Levchin, who recently told Charlie Rose that he supports the NSA's mission. For idealists like Edmonds, it’s a stance that implies an inherent disdain for civil liberties, even if that doesn’t quite make sense, at least according to the fallacy of the converse. It is possible, after all, to be simultaneously in favor of more restraint, accountability, and oversight while staying philosophically in favor of a digital intelligence agency.@loic I said ystrdy: [@techcrunch]( https://twitter.com/ TechCrunch ) and anybody else who pubs stolen info should help catch the thief. Shldnt pub in the 1st place.
— Pierre Omidyar (@pierre) [July 16, 2009]( https://twitter.com/ pierre/statuses/2666071620 )
[@sibeledmonds You're actually too stupid and/or crazy to even know your own accusations. That's actually sad. I'm sorry I bothered with you.]( https://twitter.com/ sibeledmonds )
[— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald)]( https://twitter.com/ sibeledmonds ) [December 12, 2013]( https://twitter.com/ ggreenwald/statuses/ 410925002901303296 )