As Washington Post staff listened to the fantastical stories being woven by Edward Snowden, our leaker du jour, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t greet his tales with a healthy dose of skepticism. Surely the memory of Bradley Manning, the private who cried wolf, couldn’t have been distant in their minds. For all the grand claims of U.S. malfeasance that Manning made, when his stolen database of secret diplomatic cables was finally out for all to see, there was very little that appeared out of the ordinary. Now the confused youth sits in a maximum security prison, discredited among all but a few small groups that still misguidedly regard him as a cause célèbre.

An article in last Friday’s issue of The Tech on MIT’s highest compensated employees previously had an incorrect headline. Susan Hockfield was not the highest compensated individual at MIT in 2010. She was the highest compensated only for 2011, receiving $1,199,877. In 2010, Seth Alexander was the highest compensated, receiving $1,316,463 compared to Hockfield’s second-place $1,006,969.

There aren’t many people to look up to in the public eye nowadays, but Edward Snowden is one. The 29-year-old former analyst is responsible for leaking details of the NSA’s massive citizen surveillance programs, including PRISM, a secret program collecting masses of personal data from all channels of digital communication. Snowden did not wait to be discovered, but instead revealed himself in a thoughtful and inspiring video interview with The Guardian.