The media’s reaction to Seymour Hersh’s bin Laden scoop
"No phrase has been bandied about more than “conspiracy theory” in describing Hersh’s reporting. Critics argue that he’s accusing “hundreds of people across three governments of staging a massive international hoax that has gone on for years.” How could that be possible?"The mass surveillance by NSA, GCHQ and the rest of the "Five Eyes" intelligence organizations involved thousands of people in several countries and was covered up for a long time, perpetuating the hoax that "the NSA only spies on foreign nationals". Then Snowden came along. Governments are pretty good at covering up their secrets.