i think the wikileaks story is interesting and fun.
there may even be a hollywood movie in the making in it.
i love a good spy vs. spy story!
and--the very first full scale information war
is unfolding before our very eyes.
interesting times indeed.
however--will it change anything long term?
yes and no.
while govt transparency is critical to the health of a nation,
this is not the way to do it. i think on the positive side it is
changing the face of journalism and media. it also raises
the question of how we recognize and uphold our freedom
of expression rights. these are good things.
yet, whistle blowing and a massive deluge of a ton of unsorted
information is not the same thing. additionally it will put the lives
of countless intelligence agents in danger.
nevertheless documentation of corruption that needs to be exposed
may be a beneficial outcome. time will tell.
what i fear most however is that it will create an opposite effect
"backlash." it scares me that freedom of speech and freedom of press
will be carefully chipped away and that the govt will in turn become
*more* secretive not less so. again this is not effective whistle blowing.
to me the entire thing seems to have an environment of a personal
vendetta or retaliation from a few individuals that now involves the world.
your thoughts?
there may even be a hollywood movie in the making in it.
i love a good spy vs. spy story!
and--the very first full scale information war
is unfolding before our very eyes.
interesting times indeed.
however--will it change anything long term?
yes and no.
while govt transparency is critical to the health of a nation,
this is not the way to do it. i think on the positive side it is
changing the face of journalism and media. it also raises
the question of how we recognize and uphold our freedom
of expression rights. these are good things.
yet, whistle blowing and a massive deluge of a ton of unsorted
information is not the same thing. additionally it will put the lives
of countless intelligence agents in danger.
nevertheless documentation of corruption that needs to be exposed
may be a beneficial outcome. time will tell.
what i fear most however is that it will create an opposite effect
"backlash." it scares me that freedom of speech and freedom of press
will be carefully chipped away and that the govt will in turn become
*more* secretive not less so. again this is not effective whistle blowing.
to me the entire thing seems to have an environment of a personal
vendetta or retaliation from a few individuals that now involves the world.
your thoughts?
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
Wondering if Wikileaks planned financial disclosures have anything to do with derivative markets, automated high-frequency trading (which has been implicated in the May 6th mini-meltdown), or just generally how the finance sector has been running wild for the past two decades.
The first is outright false. WL has only released less than 1% of their info, all of which has been carefully selected and released through major journalism sources first. Second, nothing has been released that endangers anyone except the powerful people embarrassed by the leaks. Once again, everything that has been released was checked over with this in mind, and 99%+ of what they have is still unreleased.
I find the traction that these non-arguments got in the media quite depressing. There is almost nothing left of real journalism that pursues truth and challenges authority. And less left of people with critical thinking skills to even notice or care. The owners can now use their media machines to manufacture consent for almost anything.
Here's an interesting new story about how pathetic the media is in relation to wikilieaks. An interesting leak that shows what a bizarre mirror-house of lies goes on in secrecy is picked up by nearly everyone and taken at face value as a story about Cuba, because no one was smart or competent enough to check facts and understand the context:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/viva-wikileaks-sicko-was_b_798586.html