SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Snowden Is a Hero, say 51% of Americans
Echoing previous survey, results of new poll show more than half of those in U.S. view Edward Snowden as more of a whistleblower than traitor
Oct 30, 2013
51% of Americans think whistleblower Edward Snowden is "something of a hero," according to results of a new survey.
The results of the Angus Reid Global online poll, which surveyed 4,500 Canadians, Britons and Americans, were released to the Huffington Post on Wednesday.
The poll asked respondents to choose between labeling Snowden as "something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that our governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten people's privacy" or "more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing security activities and threatening western intelligence operations."
Support for the whistleblower was much higher in the UK and Canada than in the U.S.; 67% of those polled in Canada and 60% of those polled in the UK identified Snowden as a hero.
The polling results follow similar findings from a Quinnipiac poll released this summer which revealed that 55% of those in the U.S. viewed Snowden as more of a whistleblower, not a traitor.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said of those results: "The verdict that Snowden is not a traitor goes against almost the unified view of the nation's political establishment."
_____________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
51% of Americans think whistleblower Edward Snowden is "something of a hero," according to results of a new survey.
The results of the Angus Reid Global online poll, which surveyed 4,500 Canadians, Britons and Americans, were released to the Huffington Post on Wednesday.
The poll asked respondents to choose between labeling Snowden as "something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that our governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten people's privacy" or "more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing security activities and threatening western intelligence operations."
Support for the whistleblower was much higher in the UK and Canada than in the U.S.; 67% of those polled in Canada and 60% of those polled in the UK identified Snowden as a hero.
The polling results follow similar findings from a Quinnipiac poll released this summer which revealed that 55% of those in the U.S. viewed Snowden as more of a whistleblower, not a traitor.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said of those results: "The verdict that Snowden is not a traitor goes against almost the unified view of the nation's political establishment."
_____________________
51% of Americans think whistleblower Edward Snowden is "something of a hero," according to results of a new survey.
The results of the Angus Reid Global online poll, which surveyed 4,500 Canadians, Britons and Americans, were released to the Huffington Post on Wednesday.
The poll asked respondents to choose between labeling Snowden as "something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that our governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten people's privacy" or "more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing security activities and threatening western intelligence operations."
Support for the whistleblower was much higher in the UK and Canada than in the U.S.; 67% of those polled in Canada and 60% of those polled in the UK identified Snowden as a hero.
The polling results follow similar findings from a Quinnipiac poll released this summer which revealed that 55% of those in the U.S. viewed Snowden as more of a whistleblower, not a traitor.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said of those results: "The verdict that Snowden is not a traitor goes against almost the unified view of the nation's political establishment."
_____________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.