Wikileaks exposes everything that's wrong....with the American media
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Wikileaks exposes everything that's wrong....with the American media
The Wikileaks saga is a hard one -- for me there's been something that's been bothering me about the episode from Day One but -- as inarticulate as I've been lately -- I unsurprisingly couldn't quite articulate it. That's why God invented Glenn Greenwald, who of course wrote the uber post on the American media sticking up yet again for the powerful instead of speaking truth to power:
Nonetheless, our government and political culture is so far toward the extreme pole of excessive, improper secrecy that that is clearly the far more significant threat. And few organizations besides WikiLeaks are doing anything to subvert that regime of secrecy, and none is close to its efficacy. It's staggering to watch anyone walk around acting as though the real threat is from excessive disclosures when the impenetrable, always-growing Wall of Secrecy is what has enabled virtually every abuse and transgression of the U.S. government over the last two decades at least.
In sum, I seriously question the judgment of anyone who -- in the face of the orgies of secrecy the U.S. Government enjoys and, more so, the abuses they have accomplished by operating behind it -- decides that the real threat is WikiLeaks for subverting that ability. That's why I said yesterday: one's reaction to WikiLeaks is largely shaped by whether or not one, on balance, supports what the U.S. has been covertly doing in the world by virtue of operating in the dark. I concur wholeheartedly with Digby's superb commentary on this point yesterday:
My personal feeling is that any allegedly democratic government that is so hubristic that it will lie blatantly to the entire world in order to invade a country it has long wanted to invade probably needs a self-correcting mechanism. There are times when it's necessary that the powerful be shown that there are checks on its behavior, particularly when the systems normally designed to do that are breaking down. Now is one of those times. . . . .As for the substance of the revelations, I don't know what the results will be. But in the world of diplomacy, embarrassment is meaningful and I'm not sure that it's a bad thing for all these people to be embarrassed right now. Puncturing a certain kind of self-importance --- especially national self-importance --- may be the most worthwhile thing they do. A little humility is long overdue.
Of course, some would say that the real threat from the Wikileaks' disclosures was another blow to American exceptionalism, the new hot-button issue of 2012. Perhaps. But that's not the media's job to worry about that, only to worry about that truth. A fully functional press -- now that actually would be exceptional.
Comments (45)
Isn't fundamentals still blaming Bush for all the country's woes? What a hack! I guess fundamentals is against private property, as he's genius enough to be able to tell people what to do and who to serve on their property. Of course, we all know the CRA ended racism and discrimination, right?— RG- Isn't RG the one who believes discrimination should be legal. lol....what a dope!— The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
- Scissors, knives, and cars are all unsafe. Should we hold their makers "accountable"?— RG
- ===]]] In the meantime, why it G-d's name should a corporation be accountable to you if you aren't a stakeholder? [[[===
Puts RG's philosophy in a nice little nutshell. Corporations have no accountability to society in any way. Why the very idea is blasphemy.
Making profits from poisoning people? Making unsafe products? What does it matter as long as the shareholders are happy.
You're hilarious, RG. Just hilarious.— Talking point sleuth - Lady McConnell got his grandma panties in a bunch over no "new" taxes. Well dummy, the Bush tax cuts were temporary. Nice to see the fiscal conservatives advocate for the top 1% of America while saddling the remaining 99% with more trillions of debt. They sure paid for themselves....to a tune of 0 jobs!— The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
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and here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9bsNJ6ZoMQ&feature=player_embedded
Like I said, this is your stupidest man in America!— Les Ismore- Here is a Republican Senator John Shadagg. My nomination for the stupidest man in America. Check out this exchange:
BARNICLE: What about the fact that unemployment benefits pumped into the economy are an immediate benefit to the economy? Immediate…
SHADEGG: No, they’re not! Unemployed people hire people? Really? I didn’t know that.
BARNICLE: Unemployed people spend money Congressman, ’cause they have no money.
SHADEGG: Aha! So your answer is it’s the spending of money that drives the economy and I don’t think that’s right. It’s the creation of jobs that drives the economy…Actually, the truth is the unemployed will spend as little of that money as they possibly can. Job creators create jobs.
— Les Ismore - A day is not complete until Bloated Billy Atkins unloads with his usual anti-semitic bile.— Les Ismore
- "To add a little bit to what Jon Chait has to say about Rep John Shadegg the whole notion that you drive the economy forward by directing more money into the hands of “job creators” (i.e., rich people) makes basically no sense. A job creator is basically a businessman with an idea. If it’s a good idea, a business based around his idea will attract customers. And if it attracts customers, he’ll hire employees to serve those customers’ needs. This is where growth comes from."
What we have been saying all along.
— Les Ismore 
"What Wikileaks revealed is that the arab states want us to bomb Iran" . . . . LOL, yes, they're marching in the streets of Riyadh demanding that right now.- "but they seldom own up to their costs to the country when their slants hurt the common good." . . . . . Why should they, when they're protected by the 1st Amendment? If the Right can't compete in the freee marketplace of ideas, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
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- What Wikileaks revealed is that the arab states want us to bomb Iran, yet all we here is that doing so will bring forth the mythical arab street.
- "I say, why not?" Whats the matter, when you Google your name do you find some unflattering results and want to hold the company accountable?— RG
- "In the meantime, why it G-d's name should a corporation be accountable to you if you aren't a stakeholder?" . . . . Heck, that's what I was wondering. Maybe Mr. Smith can tell us? I just think it's an interesting idea that they should be held to the same accountability we desire of our public institutions - you know, the same ones that gave corporations their "personhood" in the first place. I say, why not?
- "Private corporate entities being held to the same standard as government, in terms of accountability to the public." The government wasn't held toa standard. These documents were leaked and they are procsecuting the suspecting leaker and may go after Assuange. In the meantime, why it G-d's name should a corporation be accountable to you if you aren't a stakeholder?— RG
- "Had the press not protected Obama like a liberal protects his own wallet we wouldn't have an empty suit in the WH right now." . . . . It's still a free press, right? Are you suggesting the Right can't compete, despite FoxNews, Limbaugh, Beck, et al.? Perhaps you should attack your own messengers.
- For all you infrastructure lovin people who want to spend OPM on high speed rail. The Chinese Academy of Science is now asking the gov to reevaluate if China's rail system is practical and sustainable. Looks like Attytood libz like hsr even more than Chinese citizens who actually have it. "Some local media have reported recently that the recently enabled Wuhan - Guangzhou high-speed rail is currently running an average daily attendance of less than half capacity, while the newly opened Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed rail attendance is even lower." http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/should-china-rethink-high-speed-rail/67282/— RG
- "the Daily News should set the standard and release all emails." . . . . . Interesting thought. Private corporate entities being held to the same standard as government, in terms of accountability to the public. We might be onto something.
- "So nations or parties who are vulnerable to retaliation or destruction for cooperation in a greater good/responsible action are not allowed to have any expectation for a confidentiality that would protect them?" . . . . . . If they're too chicken to openly stand up for what is right, then they have no business being nations. Let their citizens decide.
Does this Wikileaks story read like a cheap spy novel to anyone but me?— Hamlet- conservative anger towards bunch. always silly and funny.— slanted and enchanted
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- JOIN THE WINING TEAM - FIGHT CORRUPTION USA!!!
Http://www.Facebook.com/FightCorruptionUSA - Comment removed.
- "and the willingness of American "conservatives" to sycophantically attack" Because Obama and his admin welcomed the leaks. Riiiiiight.— RG
- Great song. Great group.
===]]] ...always-growing Wall of Secrecy [[[===
Not sure how Greenwald gets that. That wall of secrecy was built long ago and well-maintained all along - and the willingness of American "conservatives" to sycophantically attack as "unpatriotic" anyone who tries to tear down that wall remains intact as well.— Talking point sleuth - Comment removed.
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Thank God for sockpuppets like Greenwald, who have the uncanny ability to feign righteous outrage at the drop of hat. Bush lied, although the rest of the world's intelligence community agreed with the US assessment. Indeed, the US assessment was built with intelligence shared by the world. And heaven forbid that countries act in their own best interests, spying on other countries. How evil we must be to carry on a practice thousands of years old!! Much ado about nothing. The last "leak" probably will get Afghans killed. This lead embarrasses people. Which one is drawing more attention? Yes, shame on the liberal media.— rudytbone- HandNik, of course the wankers are complaining. How can they peddle their global islamo-socialist conspiracy theories without government's diplomatic cloak of secrecy intact? As for Bunch's thesis, he again misses the forest for the weeds. The old journalism was always compromised by the traditional costs associated with disseminating the news. From printing presses to sattelite feeds, journalism had to rely on advertising dollars and a marketplace in which money is the only thing talking truth to power (i.e., talking to itself). Truth isn't a commodity, anymore than the air we breathe is a commodity. That's the lesson of Wikileaks.
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- correction... should read underthinking and International. (It's much too early for this stuff.)— Catch22
- I guess those overly emotional and underthing HandJob and Cicero know better than Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty Internation, where both organizations condemned WikiLeaks. Keep it up, Professors!— Catch22
- Haha. All "support the troops". Here, Karzai is freeing the bad guys fast as those soldiers of ours who aren't dead can catch them. Nice. Way to spend a trillion. And Wiki is the problem. Talk about neanderthal.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- HandNik, when are you going to answer me? What is racist about enforcing immigration laws lol?— texas.troubadour
- So nations or parties who are vulnerable to retaliation or destruction for cooperation in a greater good/responsible action are not allowed to have any expectation for a confidentiality that would protect them?
The only ones who will be hurt by this are the weaker participants, which completely disagrees with your clumsy opinion, but b/c you are totally unable to step outside your polarized perspective the mental diarrhea keeps spewing from your brain.— notojm - Anyone else find it funny that the party who complains that the progressive government is secretly trying to bring about a socialist movement is also the ones complaining about Wikileaks? Poor schizophrenic conservatives have no idea what they want till the talking heads start babbling.— HandNik
I suppose every memoir, auto biography of previous presidents, secretaries of defense, state, ex Pentagon brass, generals, etc should all be considered leaks. Recounting history, the truthful information about how decisions were made, upon what factual basis, and for whose benefit, all published year in and year out, but unfortunately too late for current debates, is precisely why wikileaks is important. But having someone a whistle blower can go to and not be worried about being hung out to dry, is really the problem. The 60 Minutes fiasco, as recounted in the Al Pacino film, THE INSIDER, shows that even if you try to do the right thing for something as apparently bad as cigarettes, you can't count on even CBS to get the story out without being intimidated. There will always be great risk in exposing the fraud, the criminality and the lies of business, government, the church, the media or any other powerful institution. Wikileaks is the medium, the active receiver of powerful material that lets a democratically controlled republic have access to its own government, its own society and its own destiny. The people who choose to come forward and expose what they know, are even bigger risk takers. Now, a too big to fail bank is in the cross hairs of transparency. People need to go to jail over what will be revealed, because it will independently confirm what is spilling out into the courts under sworn testimony, the total break down of the rule of law, the lack of due process, the concentration of financial power into nothing short of a cartel that controls the entire economy, from the levels or employment, to the formation of the amount of business enterprise, to the taxes that are the life source of our social order. The republicans have fox news, the rest of us have wikileaks.
So, just murder a couple hundred million dissidents, and we'll be right back on track, Archie?— Mr. Smith- I learned about our Central America policies and the Mexican War while in high school and have never felt "my country right or wrong" made sense since then. Nothing in the current Wikileaks should be much of a surprise. Of course, we did hope that America was an exception to the hidden agendas of other, lesser nations, but that part of American Exceptionalism does not seem to work. Certainly as the first true democratic republic (Athens a democracy, Rome before Empire a republic) the United State has led the way. Furthermore, we prospered by welcoming immigrants from all over the world, or at least we did once in the past. The American seemed to be a different kind of human. The nation led the world and tried to police it. But another country might also claim to be the exceptional leader. China has a history reaching back as far as history reaches back. It contributed at least two major philosophic movements. Although it dropped the ball of world leadership, it is certainly trying to pick that ball up again. So I wonder and worry about Chinese Exceptionalism.— Archimedes
- So when are you giving up the treasure trove of "phillynews" emails sent and received by every editor, journalist, and staff member from the DN and Inky? Puncture your self importance. WE DEMAND TRANSPARENCY FROM PHILLYNEWS!— Mr. Smith
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