"The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment"
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"The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment"
With all the cluck-clucking on this side of the Atlantic, it's not shocking that the best, full-throated defense of the new Wikileaks release comes from the UK:
The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment. If American spies are breaking United Nations rules by seeking the DNA biometrics of the UN director general, he is entitled to hear of it. British voters should know what Afghan leaders thought of British troops. American (and British) taxpayers might question, too, how most of the billions of dollars going in aid to Afghanistan simply exits the country at Kabul airport.
The Guardian's Simon Jenkins adds:
Clearly, it is for governments, not journalists, to protect public secrets. Were there some overriding national jeopardy in revealing them, greater restraint might be in order. There is no such overriding jeopardy, except from the policies themselves as revealed. Where it is doing the right thing, a great power should be robust against embarrassment.
Seriously. To those who say there was no good reason to publish this information, I would argue there was no compelling reason not to. The elites and the powerful have been lying to the American people and to the world about too many things for too long, and we've all seen how they've screwed things up -- so the more light we shiine on their activities the better, right?. Unless you think that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Co. are doing such a whiz-bang job that we uninformed and unimportant peons should just blindly let them take care of our business. If that's your opinion, then, yeah, I could see why you'd be troubled by the Wikileaks release. And also if that's your opinion, I'd love to hear from you.
Apparently Obama 'prefers to look to the east and doesnt care about Europe', Ok fair enough how about he gets some of his middle eastern allies to take over in Afganistan from the Brits.— PAEnglish- The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment...... Anybody else see the irony of Bunch posting that?.— PAEnglish
PAEnglish...Do not look to Bunch for logic. He is an intellectual of such high magnitude that he thinks on a level that transends logic. We are not worthy.— abnrgr- abnrgr... You mean he's a liberal therefore puffed up with his own self importance, and beleives anybody who dares disagree with him is doing so out of nothing more than ingnorance.— PAEnglish
- We're Americans, by definition, all that we do is right and just.— gee1971
- What a hoot. The same idiots who blather about putting our troops in danger don't seem to have a problem with the apparent beginnings of groundwork-laying for another war - this time to help our Saudi sugar daddies and our great "ally" Israel. Yeah, keep believing that the US soldiers who dies in Iraq actually died for something, which they did not. Maybe that helps you sleep better at nite as you "pray" for our soldiers. Maybe you ought to see that they die for something worthwhile. Thanks, Wiki, for doing the work our news media is too afraid, and too bought-off to do.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- I would hope this PFC Manning is in the brig awaiting court marshall and execution for treason and it is beyond me why this founder of wikileaks has not been neutralized (taken out) as of yet.— phillysgone
I am troubled by these leaks because we have too many people in harms way around the world.— Les Ismore- PAEnglish...You are much more eloquent than I.— abnrgr
- @abnrgr, it is hard to fathom that someone with the rank of PFC could have had access to all of this info. Most if not all enlisted personal in the intelligence field with this rank have only a 'Secret' clearance. There have to be more people involved here.— junethe4th
- So, it is OK to release all info held by the gove because we have a right to know. Does this mean that the press no longer has the right to withold info such as source material? We do have a right to know.— abnrgr
- CiceroSpuriousDeodatus... "Thanks, Wiki, for doing the work our news media is too afraid, and too bought-off to do." N.Y.Times article last month regarding the founder of WikiLeaks... "But now, WikiLeaks has been met with new doubts. Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have joined the Pentagon in criticizing the organization for risking people’s lives by publishing war logs identifying Afghans working for the Americans or acting as informers." Once again CiceroSpuriousDeodatus, you show what a bitter, waste of a human being that you are!— Catch22
Comment removed.- Junethe 4th. I am not aware of any rank restriction to clearance access. A PFC certainly isn't involved in the decision making process but he may have some clerical or technical expertiese that allows access. I believe the sharing of information by all divisions of the govt after 911 is partly to blame. I'd just like to know what happened to fire walls and need to know.— abnrgr
- Comment removed.
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