I think the author makes a good point about how the media and the government manipulate the story via narrative. As far as US citizens are concerned, Snowden's story matters very little compared to the information that he revealed. It seems clear that the NSA stores vast amounts of private information about US citizens, likely indefinitely. I grew up in the 80's. At that time, we were told that repressive regimes like the Soviet Union and East Germany spied upon their citizens. We were told that the US was different, because we valued individual liberty, and that politicians and government officials served the public, not the other way around. We were told that the limits we put on government were critical to the liberty that we enjoyed. That is a narrative that has waned. I worry that the millennial generation in the US has grown up with a new normal. In my narrative, Edward Snowden is a hero, because he exposed a machine that belongs in a State like the USSR, not the US.