>> i was personally involved in the snowden material, and with dean bakai, "the times" fantastic editoring manager. "the guardian" were partners in the reporting off of the nsa material. we personally went and pain-stakingly made preparations about how we would handle the material. >> is that unusual? >> unusual for the executive editor to be involved? >> yeah. >> not when something is -- >> this big? >> where the reputation of "the times" could be at stake. there aren't that many stories of that nature, but when they are it's usual for the top editors to be directly involved. >> is it comparable to the pentagon papers? >> it's hard to say. i mean, the pentagon papers and in that situation, obviously, daniel elsburg was the source for that material coming out of the pentagon. that material exposed really terrible, terrible official lies but the u.s. government. lies about the progress of the vietnam war, and that made that material so consequenceal because of that. in this case the material has, you know, provided a window onto like the scale of eavesdropping and all kinds of troubling thi