As long as the programs are 1) targeted against actual threats and 2) controlled by judicial oversight, I don't think there is a problem. The reason people are

As long as the programs are 1) targeted against actual threats and 2) controlled by judicial oversight, I don't think there is a problem. The reason people are reporting on it is probably because there is currently little to no reason to believe 1 and 2 actually occur in practice when it comes to the NSA. Right now, it is absolutely in the public interest to reveal the shrouded capabilities of an agency that has in so many respects gone totally rogue in their pursuit of absolute security for themselves and their elite patrons. Their purported ends definitely do not justify their excessive means. Milton Friedman was onto something when he said this: >To deny that the end justifies the means is indirectly to assert that the end in question is not the ultimate end, that the ultimate end is itself the use of the proper means. Desirable or not, any end that can be attained only by the use of bad means must give way to the more basic end of the use of acceptable means. In a free society, such a means must withstand the test of Constitutional, Congressional, Judicial, and ultimately, Popular review. When they rebuild their credibility with some actual accountability and transparency, then they can expect to see the decision making calculus in editing rooms change.