: Yes, but arranging to be at a specific place at a specific time just has too
: many choke points. ONI finds out on the way; ONI leans hard on the studio
: at broadcast time (I bet this happened; we have no reason to believe the
: files weren't auth-stamped properly, and the timing of the Biko
: announcements is suspicious...) ONI picks him up and covers up the story
: afterwards...)

: Remember what Snowden did. First, give everything away; then, wait for news
: media to share; then, come out; then contact/seek asylum with hostile forces.

not quite-- he wasn't specifically aiming to stay with hostile forces, and he moved to Hong Kong while the information exchange was still in the early stages if not before it even it started, long before anything became public-- which makes more sense for both him and Ben than the order you said

: Pentagon Papers, Watergate... this is a well-established
: procedure. Petra knows this - but then again, she's an actual journalist.

: Maybe I'm just trying to taper over some indignation, but for someone who's
: spent his career working for ONI, Ben is quite clueless. Maybe that's why
: ONI gave him the assignment; if he found out the truth, they knew he'd botch it.

I still think he was supposed to find out some stuff and leak it, and then be discredited, to make people not believe those leaks and whatever else might come out