Censoring stories, partially or entirely, is standard operating procedure.
The most egregious example is when the New York Times delayed publishing revelations of unlawful wiretapping until after the US elections of 2006, on request of the White House. [1] There was no legitimate editorial reason for that decision.
That behaviour has not changed, and the Guardian is no better. According to ACLU attorney Ben Wizner (self-described "chief legal advisor" to Snowden) the New York Times, the Guardian -- and every other publication which got access to the leaked documents -- did not publish a single document without first consulting with the US government. [2,3]
Personally I don't trust any tax-paying organization to publish information the government does not want published.
[2] "The journalists who Snowden gave the information to, have in every single case, gone to the government before they have published something." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs3mFZ4UWME#t=53m (At 53:00.)
[3] "The Guardian has not published a single story that has included NSA classified documents, without consulting with the US government. The same is true for Glenn Greenwald, and the same is true for every foreign journalistic partner. In fact, they put it into their contract, with all of those other publications around the world, that they are not to publish any secret document without giving the US an opportunity to weigh in." http://ww3.tvo.org/video/199289/sentencing-snowden (At 9:40.)
The most egregious example is when the New York Times delayed publishing revelations of unlawful wiretapping until after the US elections of 2006, on request of the White House. [1] There was no legitimate editorial reason for that decision.
That behaviour has not changed, and the Guardian is no better. According to ACLU attorney Ben Wizner (self-described "chief legal advisor" to Snowden) the New York Times, the Guardian -- and every other publication which got access to the leaked documents -- did not publish a single document without first consulting with the US government. [2,3]
Personally I don't trust any tax-paying organization to publish information the government does not want published.
[1] http://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/the-scoop-that-got...
[2] "The journalists who Snowden gave the information to, have in every single case, gone to the government before they have published something." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs3mFZ4UWME#t=53m (At 53:00.)
[3] "The Guardian has not published a single story that has included NSA classified documents, without consulting with the US government. The same is true for Glenn Greenwald, and the same is true for every foreign journalistic partner. In fact, they put it into their contract, with all of those other publications around the world, that they are not to publish any secret document without giving the US an opportunity to weigh in." http://ww3.tvo.org/video/199289/sentencing-snowden (At 9:40.)
Edit: found a better link to the TVO interview.