Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations January 2018 Snowden Is (not) A Whistleblower: An Analysis Of Ideographs And Anti-Democratic Rhetorical Strategies Within The U.s. Government’s Response To Edward Snowden Joshua Guitar Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Guitar, Joshua, "Snowden Is (not) A Whistleblower: An Analysis Of Ideographs And Anti-Democratic Rhetorical Strategies Within The U.s. Government’s Response To Edward Snowden" (2018). Wayne State University Dissertations. 2100. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/2100 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. SNOWDEN IS (NOT) A WHISTLEBLOWER: AN ANALYSIS OF IDEOGRAPHS AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC RHETORICAL STRATEGIES WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO EDWARD SNOWDEN by JOSHUA L. GUITAR DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2018 MAJOR: COMMUNICATION Approved By: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY JOSHUA L. GUITAR 2018 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to those who daily assume the mission to combat injustice. Regardless of scale, your commitment to equity and progress is both invaluable and inspiring. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without question, this dissertation is most heavily indebted to my advisor, Dr. Patricia McCormick. Your dedication to me and to this dissertation never wavered, and for that I am unendingly grateful. I am amazed at how you have cultivated my scholarly writing. Thank you for your time, your patience, compassion, and your candor, especially when my drafts were more suitable for kindling than reading. I am confident in my work because of you. I also extend my genuine gratitude to my dissertation committee: Dr. Kelly Young, Dr. Ronald Stevenson, and Dr. Frederic Pearson. I am sincerely appreciative of the expertise and perspective each of you provided for this dissertation, and my academic progression as a whole. I thank you immensely for your feedback and support along the way. As well, I offer my humble gratitude to Wayne State University and the Wayne State University Department of Communication for the support and mentorship. I am particularly grateful for the general guidance provided by Dr. Pradeep Sopory, Dr. Bryan McCann, Dr. James Cherney, and Dr. Kelly Jakes. I also extend my gratitude to my mentors and colleagues at Adrian College, particularly Dr. Sheri Bleam, Dr. Christy Mesaros-Winckles, and Dr. Stephen Shehan. As well, I would not be where I am without the endless support of my incredible family. To my parents, Charlene and LeRoy: For as verbose as you know I can be, there are no words to express my gratitude for your unwavering encouragement. You are the groundwork to all of my achievements. To Natalie, my teammate and partner in life: I cannot begin to fathom how you have endured this process with me. As grueling and tiresome as this process has been for both of us, you have nowhere near exhausted your faith in me. The completion of my doctorate has taken as much dedication from you as it has me. Thank you for being my best friend and for believing in me. To my siblings, Erica, Nathan, and Megan: As the eldest, I’ve always led you to believe iii that your individual and collective greatness comes from me. While I am not officially conceding that point (okay maybe), please understand from the depths of my existence, I admit that you have always been a primary source of my motivation. I only hope I have been the role model that you all deserve. To my amazing niece Breanna, you know there is a special spot in my heart for you. To my awesome nephews Jacob, Nicholas, and Jaxon, I love you all as well. To all of my family, friends, colleagues, and cohorts: As per the nature of these things, there simply isn’t enough time or space to thank you all. Please recognize that my relationship with you has positively influenced my life, and I am grateful for you. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not thank my writing companions Gigi, Luna, and Kitty. It may seem laughable for me to thank you here (okay maybe it is), but I acknowledge the importance of your companionship. The road to a Ph.D. is long and lonely, and requires a forced solitude. Regardless of where I’ve chosen to sit down on my laptop, you’ve been there lying by my side. You’ve kept me smiling on my toughest days. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication.……………………………………………………………………………………...…ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………...........1 Chapter 2: Literature Review of Theories of Democracy and Whistleblowing………………….8 Introduction………………………….…………………………………………………….8 History of Democracy……………………………………………………………………..8 Democracy Conceptualized……………………………………………………………….9 Elements of Democracy…………………………………………………………10 Citizenship…...….…………..……………………………………………10 Equality……………………………………………………………..……11 Liberty……………………………………………………………………11 Paradoxes of Democracy…………………………………………………...……12 Radical Democracy………………………………………………………………15 Surveillance and Security………………………………………………………………19 Surveillance, Security, and Democracy…………………………………………20 Legalism…………………………………………………………………………21 Espionage Act……………………………………………………………22 PATRIOT Act……………………………………………………………24 Surveillance and National Security………………………………………………26 Surveillance and Civil Liberties……….…………………………………………27 Whistleblowing…………………………………………………………………………27 Case Studies…………...…………………………………………………………29 v Daniel Ellsberg………...…………………………………………………………30 Thomas Drake……………………………………………………………………31 Chelsea Manning…….…………………...………………………………………31 WikiLeaks………………………..………………………………………………32 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………33 Chapter 3: Methodology: Ideographic Criticism………………………………….....…………35 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………35 Formulation of the Ideograph……………………………………………………………39 Ideology……………………………………………………………….........……39 Rhetoric…………..………………………………………………………………40 The Intersection of Rhetoric and Ideology…………….…...……………………41 Elements of the Ideograph…………………………….…………………………………43 Ideographs as Artifacts……………….……………….…………………………………47 Analysis of Artifacts……………….………………….…………………………………48 Applications of Ideographic Criticism………..…….……………………………………51 Evolutionary Applications……………………….………………………………………52 Application to <Snowden>………………………………………………………………53 Artifacts of Study……………............………………...…………………………54 Analysis of <Snowden> Discourse………….……...……………………………56 Chapter 4: The <Snowden> Ideograph…………………………………………………………59 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………59 Constructing <Snowden>………..………………………………………………………61 Political Regularity………………………………………………………………61 vi Ambiguity……………………………………………………………..........……62 Culturally Bound…………………………………………………………………67 Warrant of Power…………………………………………………………...……70 <Security>………………………………………………………..………71 <Liberty>………………………………………………………...………74 <Freedom>……………………………………………………….………76 Justification………………………………………………………………78 Summary………………………………………………………............…………80 Synchronic Analysis………………………………………………………......…………80 <Snowden> on Trial…………………………………………………..…………80 <Snowden>, <Security>, and <Justice>……………………............……………81 <Snowden> and <Democracy>……………………………….............…………86 <Snowden> and <Terrorism>………………………………………........………91 Discussion…………………………………………………………......................………94 Chapter 5: <Snowden>, Whistleblowing, and <Democracy>…………………………………100 Introduction………………………………………………………………......................100 Whistleblower Legislation……………………………………………………………...101 U.S. Legislation .………………..…………………………………...…………101 Comparative Analysis……………………………..……………………………102 U.S. Whistleblower History……………………………….……………………103 Snowden and Whistleblower Protection…………………..……………………104 Whistleblowing and the Ideograph……………………………………………………107 The Classification of Snowden…………………………………………………107 vii Phase I: Refrain……………………………...…………………………………108 Phase II: Denounce………………………….…………………………………111 Phase III: Purge………………………………………………………………...115 Synchronic Analysis……………………………………………………………………116 Phase I: Refrain…………………....………………………………………..… 116 Phase II: Denounce…………………………………………….………………117 <Terrorism> and <Security>………………...…………………………117 <Liberty>, <Freedom>, <Privacy>, and <Democracy>………..………122 Legalism………………………………...………………………………125 Phase III: Purge………………...………………………………………………130 Discourse……………………..…………………………………………130 Legalism………………………………………………………………...130 Whistleblowing and <Democracy>…………………………………………………….132 Whistleblowing and Ideography………………………………………...……………..134 Discussion……………………………………………...…………....................………135 Chapter 6: Conclusions…………………………………………………...........………………140 Appendix A: Artifacts……………………………………………….............…………………144 Appendix B: U.S. Officials ……………………………………….....………………………...165 References……………………………………………………................................……………166 Abstract…………………………………………………………………....................................177 Autobiographical Statement……….……………………………………………………………178 viii 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This dissertation constitutes a rhetorical criticism