Thread by @kgosztola

Sharing live commentary on this segment with NSA whistleblower Reality Winner from @60Minutes as it airs.

Thread.

https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1467589594896113664

Reality Winner didn’t commit espionage. She was found guilty of violating the Espionage Act. That’s an important distinction that responsible broadcast journalists should make for viewers. #60Minutes

Rather condescending opening as #60Minutes dwells on her name and says that may not be the most baffling aspect of her story

Reality Winner says she was concerned about the high number of civilian casualties caused by US military drone program. #60Minutes

The Election Action Commission responded to Reality Winner’s disclosure by calling for the release of more “security intelligence.” #60Minutes suggests her whistleblowing helped ensure election security in 2018 elections

Reality Winner reveals she was planning to commit suicide while in jail in Georgia. This was unknown to her mother, Billie Winner-Davis, until she overheard during her daughter’s interview for #60Minutes

With tears running down her face, Reality Winner opens up about the moment during COVID lockdown in Carswell, when a chaplain said “nobody gives a fuck about you,” and she started getting high. She was binging and purging and cutting herself. #60Minutes

#60Minutes notes the disparity in cases. How, for example, someone like David Petraeus received probation for leaking highly sensitive secrets to his biographer (with whom he had an affair), and Reality Winner received the longest sentence ever for the unauthorized disclosure

It takes a lot of courage to open up on national TV and share demons with viewers, many who are likely to be insensitive to the suffering brought about by the US government. But it’s important everyone knows what this government does to people like Reality Winner. #60Minutes

Generally good segment from #60Minutes. But honestly it’s 4 years since the world was introduced to Reality Winner, and the writers/producers of this institution are still making comments about her name that display a level of immaturity reserved for junior high school students

That aside, this is the kind of media segment which could go a long way toward helping to push powerful people in Washington to give her a pardon, or even commute her sentence so she is no longer on probation #60Minutes