Comment

Wikileaks and War; Context and Common Cause

22
Obdicut (Now with 2% less brain)12/09/2010 8:25:25 pm PST

re: #21 Barrett Brown

Okay. I made multiple assertions, so I’m not sure which one you’re referring to when you say that my assertion is false. I’m going to assume that it’s my assertion that the scale of the document dump is the main reason why the individual stories contained are not getting the publicity they deserve.

I fully agree that the mass majority of the media are not in the least bit interested in reporting on issues of significance like Shell. I definitely stated it badly when I said that Assange was front-page news instead of Shell, as if Shell would have been front-page news without him. Shell would have been front-page on a few publications, not very many. The old media wouldn’t have responded well. Murray Kempton is dead and ain’t coming back no more.

However, I stand by my assertion that Assange’s philosophy of taking down governments by increasing their conspiracy is something that interferes with Wikileaks actually drawing attention to any story in particular. Sure, the old media wouldn’t pick it up for the most part, but it would have higher visibility if it were one of a few coherent stories released, rather than a mass.

You appear to be arguing that Wikileaks is an example of an institution to replace the old media; to me, Wikileaks is a good example of what not to do to replace the old media. It’s a way the new institutions could be just as untrustworthy and fickle as the old.

Man, I miss Murray Kempton. And I never even knew him.