Here we go again with another deliberately misleading article on the NSA, this time at Der Spiegel, where Glenn Greenwald’s collaborator Laura Poitras is happily leaking away: Privacy Scandal: NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data.

OMG! My selfies aren’t safe! [run around screaming…]

Oh, uh, wait. I just read to the end of the article — and you know what? The government doesn’t really seem to be interested in what’s on my iPhone after all.

Once again, the ability to do something is being conflated with the act of doing it.

The material viewed by SPIEGEL suggests that the spying on smart phones has not been a mass phenomenon. It has been targeted, in some cases in an individually tailored manner and without the knowledge of the smart phone companies.

In other words, as with every other NSA story, they’re burying the exculpatory information as deep in the article as they can, far from the overheated, misleading headline. The NSA is only spying on cell phones used by terrorists, but the Axis of Greenwald sure wants you to believe otherwise.

Do I need to point out that this in no way qualifies as any kind of “whistleblowing?” The only purpose for revealing this information is to harm the United States.