Actor John Cusack gives the media’s coverage of the NSA leaks two thumbs down.

The movie star sounded off on a conference call Tuesday, slamming the press for focusing too much on whistleblower Edward Snowden and not enough on details of the NSA’s surveillance programs.

“And now these revelations of spying on every citizen and perhaps every human being on the planet, the end of constitutional rights and American privacy,” Cusack said. “These are not subtle facts. And yet what we hear about from the press is the alleged character defects of the whistleblowers. That’s the oldest bait and switch in the book. We have to say that we’re not morons.”

Cusack, who joined the call as a member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, questioned why the government and media are so “afraid of an informed public.”

He added that — no matter how the story is covered — the debate over public surveillance won’t go away.

“The questions that I think this NSA scandal raises aren’t going to go away, which is how long do we expect rational people to accept using terrorism to justify and excuse endless executive and state power,” Cusack said.