Of course, we learned many things from the content of the documents released by WikiLeaks (see the link in the post below for some of those), but there was also another important reveal in this process: the mainstream media rearing its subservient head. The rhetoric regarding this latest round of leaks has been astoundingly vitriolic. It has been, depending on your mood and ability to find humor in institutional idiocy, either very funny or very sad or very infuriating. (Or you could just be indifferent, I guess. But, in that case, why are you here? It's been a year now, you really should've just cut your losses and headed on over to Ashton Kutcher's twitter by now.) We've seen a number of journalists refer to WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange's "treasonous" acts (Assange is Australian), calling for Assange to be murdered by the CIA, and nearly unanimously parroting the claim that WikiLeaks has "blood on its hands" (which even the Pentagon has admitted is a baseless charge). We also have Sarah Palin asking her Facebook followers why the Obama administration is not pursuing Assange with the same level of determination with which they pursue Al-Queda.
Where is all of this anger coming from? Why is it coming so unanimously and fiercely from our nation's journalists? Take it away, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller:
Ah, right. The media is so outraged at WikiLeaks because they are doing the job of a free press, a framework in which our prestigious media outlets such as the New York Times clearly do not see themselves as operating within. Recall what Keller said in the above video, as well as the general, reflexive outrage among journalists and ask, how would a state-sponsored media behave?
Exactly the same.
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