Perhaps even more impressive than Glenn Greenwald’s CNN appearance yesterday was his written follow-up about the lamestream media’s institutional targeting of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange (and, by default, his alleged source Bradley Manning) for doing something investigative journalists do — or at least hope to do — all the time: reveal government secrets that can positively or negatively impact Americans and their interests for the sake of democracy. GOD GLENN IS SEXY WHEN HE THROWS DOWN. (His best line, emphasis ours: “Maybe CNN doesn’t do this, but good investigative journalists work their sources all the time to convince them to give them classified information to inform the citizens of the United States about what the government is doing. That’s what journalists do.) And how did Fox News handle the latest round of Assangeness?
Just as irresponsibly as CNN. But this time the ire was aimed at Manning, the gay private first class who apparently deserves to be imprisoned under inhumane conditions besides not being convicted nor charged with a crime.
[bottom video via Mediaite]
Daez
This coward has already admitted to committing a crime. He also would not survive gen pop because of endangering American troops. Ther is most likely a list of people waiting to finish him.
The other dude getting rich off of the whole thing is sad. In the end, this whole mess benefits no one and risks harming innocent Americans.
Anderson
The difference between WikiLeaks and CNN (and Fox News occasionally) is a little something called Journalistic Ethics. When a journalist is pumping/working their sources for information, they are looking for evidence of wrong doing or pieces of information that tell a story contrary to the one generally accepted in the public. Bradley Manning is not a “Whistleblower” in this instance because there was no purpose or specific instance of wrong doing that he was exposing. A shot gun approach of Data Dumping does not suffice when you are potentially putting peoples’ lives at risk. To equate CNN and Wikileaks or imply that CNN should be jealous of the “investigative journalism” skills of Wikileaks is absurd!
Devon
“I demand openness and transparency from my government! Wait, someone is actually helping to expose what the government is doing when I’m not watching? TORTURE HIM HANG HIM HE’S A TRAITOR TO MY FREEDOMS!!!1!”
Never change, America.
Kev C
Glen is right on the all issues, and a good zinger too. Leaks from Wikileaks, from the Pentagon Papers, or from the NYTimes or WaPo have never harmed national security, but have embarrassed a lot of people who abused their power.
Obama DID say DADT would happen on his watch... (John From England)
@Daez: @Anderson:
Get a grip you two.
In other news, am I the only person who already knew all the leaks from wiki? Are humans really that goddamn stupid?
Pip
@Daez: ut oh bill oreillys goin mad on queerty. i hope george bush gets to personally torture mr. assange live on Fox News! GO AMERICA!!
Ronbo
@Daez: Truthful information will “harm” the troops? When the truth becomes harmful, we need to change our government. Are you saying that war crimes are to be protected? Are you advocating government secrecy?
We need transparency in government to keep our government in check.
Daez, advocating torture is repugnant. I thought that you were Christian. Is that body still in your freezer? Bury it before the FBI investigates. Sexual Molesters don’t do well in prison.
Daez
@Ronbo: My dear sir, you would be shocked at the amount that has been hidden, mostly for good reasons, since the founding of this country, especially during war times. I don’t think we figured out that the Pearl Harbor attack most likely could have been prevented well before the war ended.
Such knowledge, while true, undermines the troops morale, and that is dangerous to do during a time of war. If this had happened after a time of war, I would most definitely have a different take on it. During a time of war; however, I do not believe it is in the best interest of the population to know every single underhanded exploit of a deeply flawed American war machine.
Also, solitary confinement is not necessarily torture. Sure, its not necessarily the best way to allow someone to keep their senses, but throwing this guy into general population would pretty much be signing his death certificate, and then we would all bitch about how he wasn’t protected.
Plus, no religion condones torture as much as Christianity does. Hell, if a man is lying or bears false witness you get to cut out his tongue under Christian law. In the Bible, traitors were executed and their heads were served up on silver platters to certain queens. It really is a gruesome book.
Mitch
I’ll tell you how the media is NOT supposed to work:
Like this:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/12/wikileaks_may_employ_an_antise.html
But I guess we are supposed to take the word of Wikileaks, an ultra-secretive organization of computer hackers with no research experience, as the voice of transparency and the future of journalism. It’s mind-boggling that no one in the media has even questioned if any of the leaks are faked? And it’s amazing that we haven’t seen one leak about the million plus murders of innocent Iraqi civilians by insurgents. Those cables must have been thrown away because they wouldn’t fit in with their narrative that the “US is evil”, I guess.
Franky
@Daez:
Maybe if the war were justified then that would matter, but unfortunately the war isn’t justified and has been going on for far longer. I’m pretty sure getting engaged in a senseless war for this long already has troop morale fairly low. If it’s not that then the lack financial aid the troop’s families get while they’re away will help with that.
Everything that was “leaked” is information that was already available to anyone that cared to look, this just but it all in one place at one time so it made a bigger splash than any of the leaks did individually.
Transparency in government is necessary. Otherwise the government will do what they want, and hide it all saying that it’s for the betterment of the country. They can hide anything they want if they just throw that excuse out there. There’s only one leak that I don’t think he should’ve released but everything else was good.
Solitary confinement generally isn’t torture. It does become torture however when the conditions aren’t even remotely comfortable. He’s not allowed to read/watch the news. He only has one visitor. The “bed” isn’t barely even that. The bedding scratches him if he even moves. He isn’t allowed any clothing other than boxers since he’s on suicide watch which makes the whole bedding situation even worse. There’s a light constantly shining in his cell which can get quite bothersome when you’re trying to sleep. He’s barely able to do exercise in his cell. I’m pretty sure those conditions aren’t exactly wonderful. Are they even merited since he hasn’t even been formally charged with anything? I’m fairly certain that they’re not.
Christianity is quite a gruesome religion. I don’t understand how there are followers that aren’t crazy. The ones that we regard as crazy are the ones that are actually following the bible. The moderate ones just pick and choose what they believe. Wouldn’t that be considered blasphemous?
David Ehrenstein
Christianity’s gruesomeness shoudln’t be surprising in that concerns the worship of a flesh-eating zombie.
David Ehrenstein
This Townsend cunt should be tossed in the slammer.
cassandra
Thank you, David Ehrenstein, for proving by example that atheism is just another ugly and reprehensible prejudice by which people with severely low self-esteem exalt themselves at the expense of others.
Homophobes tell lies about GLBTQ people, atheists tell lies about Christians.
Pip
@cassandra: lol wut? i dont think youre even in the right website dear.
justiceontherocks
@Cassandra – there’s no need to tell lies about Christians. The truth about them is bad enough.