I am not sure if there is a more effective method of spreading the knowledge however. If it was all dumped at once very few people would be able to absorb it and understand it in a timely fashion and many would probably give up and move on. Yes they benefit by drawing it out, but the same technique seems to elicit deeper impact on the public.

If you were reporting on these leaks like Greenwald, wouldn't you have a dead man's switch? What does it say about a reporter's job that they would have to fear for their very lives?

Reporters are now protagonists since states spy on them and use dirty tactics to prevent them from doing their jobs. I don't think many of them wanted that role when they started.