Edward Snowden committed the act of whistleblowing by reporting negative practices about his employer to the public in 2013. He reported his employer, the United States government, of violating the rights of public privacy by leaking NSA surveillance programsto the media. The governmentthenaccused Snowden for espionage but he was believed to be serving public justice and somemembersof the public agreedwith the opinion. This research focused onhow two leading news media in the United States publishedthe event and what attitudethey portrayedto the public. This research analyzedthe communicative rationality of Snowden’s action as conveyed in the media and whether they were in accordance with the U.S. constitutional values. The result showed that the two selected news media haddifferent approaches towards the case: with Voice of America preferredthe perspective of the law and the government while USA Todaydisplayedmultiple perspectives even asupholding these values.

Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, news media, language and power, communicative rationality, political idealism, Edward Snowden, whistleblowing