Greenwald said via e-mail that he spoke with NBC, and “very preliminarily” with ABC, about a Snowden interview.

He wrote: “The reason we didn’t do it is three-fold: 1) I don’t want to distract attention away from NSA spying and the substance of the disclosures by re-focusing attention on Snowden; 2) Snowden agreed with my suggestion that doing an interview at this time was not productive for the same reason: he wants media attention on NSA spying, not on himself; and 3) I saw no real value in the interview — it would be used just as crass entertainment — and so didn’t want to be involved right now.”

Greenwald said the only fees ever discussed were $25,000 if he was hired as a correspondent to do the interview or a $50,000 “licensing” fee. The latter would mean that whoever produced the interview — Greenwald himself, most likely — would bear all the expenses including travel, hotels, hiring film crews, editing and lighting.