“President Barack Obama mentioned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden by name on Friday as he criticised his “unauthorised disclosures” but acknowledged that they had sparked the public debate over US surveillance capabilities. The president had largely avoided namechecking Snowden his previous speeches on the NSA revelations which began on 5 June last year when the Guardian published details of the agency’s collection of all US phone records. On Friday, Obama limited Snowden to two mentions in a more than 5,000 word speech…”.* John Iadarola (host of TYT University and Common Room) and Ben Mankiewicz (co-host of What The Flick?! and TYT Sports) break it down on The Young Turks.

*Read more here from Adam Gabbatt / The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/obama-acknowledges-edward-snowden-nsa-reform