This is not an example of bad reporting. This is the whole quote that you put out of context.
To be fair, the man revealed a massive program of surveillance run by the US government and is now living in exile in Moscow as a result. If the US government was keeping secrets about aliens and UFOs in Area 51, surely Snowden would have been the one to find out.
Their point was that Snowden would know if the US was hiding stuff about aliens he would likely know. They didn't go into depth about what Snowden was exiled for because that wasn't the purpose of the article. The article isn't reporting on whether Snowden's exile is justified, literally only conspiracy theories that he said were probably not true and why he is a credible source to say that.
Hurr Durr.
Gotta slurp on Snowden's traitorous ass and bash on CNN tho! ---