Even without gunfire, it was not short of drama. The mere sight of the
heads of Britain’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, MI5 and
MI6, along with the director of its listening post, G.C.H.Q., was
spectacle enough. This was their first joint appearance in public,
addressing a parliamentary intelligence and security committee whose
hearings had, until now, always been held behind closed doors. (Indeed,
little more than 20 years ago even the names of the intelligence chiefs
were a state secret.)
That fact alone guaranteed coverage on the evening news. Which meant a
rare focus on the topic that provided the session’s most electrifying
moments: the Edward Snowden affair. Rare because the dominant British
reaction to the revelations provided by Mr. Snowden, the former National
Security Agency contractor, has been a shrug of indifference. The
Guardian helped break the story — that the N.S.A. and G.C.H.Q.
(Government Communications Headquarters) have engaged in mass
surveillance of American and British citizens online — and has covered
it intensely, but the rest of the British media have largely steered
clear. In Parliament, a few maverick individuals have raised concerns
about civil liberties and privacy. When others have mentioned the
subject, it’s mostly been to accuse The Guardian of damaging national
security, rather than to ask whether the intelligence agencies have gone
too far.