In regards to media news, the latest trend has been describing classified documents on WikiLeaks. In my research a quick definition of WikiLeaks, is a non profit organization that publishes documents from anonymous sources. The interesting concept of WikiLeaks is the controversy of its controversial news. One can say it is the new way of investigative journalism. The question to ask and analyze is will WikiLeaks be a positive form of news, which will allow true investigative journalism.
The first amendment provides us with freedom of speech. Many of us believe that our society has freedom of speech, but the reality of the matter is false. Freedom of speech is something that is not a reality for a few member of society. Individuals who work for government agencies have a higher standard to maintain confidential information private. According to WikiLeaks it might be these few individuals that transmit the confidential information. Every American citizen deserves the opportunity of freedom of speech after all it is in our constitution.
WikiLeaks is bringing awareness to controversial news. In a time of war, controversial news can bring hostile situations to our service men. The last thing our country needs is additional tension and more casualties to our service men. The concept of confidential data is to protect others. The others are usually members of society. The public deserves to know the truth; however what are the benefits that will be gained.
Investigative journalism is not what is used to be in the past. The old days of discovering the truth and bringing it to the publics’ attention, has been altered to what is politically correct. Journalists are unable to provide us with real breaking news, in order to protect others. Would WikiLeaks exist if our current media was not censured? The answer is complicated, I think every government controls and monitors news information. Maybe WikiLeaks is demonstrating that members of society want to expose the real truth.
Personally, I thank that this whole WikiLeaks scandal is getting blown out of proportion by the media. The information getting leaked is not information that will change what the public thinks of the government. Largely, the public knows that there are certain statistics that the government may say that they don't have (referencing the civilian casualty report leaked). We also know that just because someone says something publicly doesn't mean that it is true. WikiLeaks is also not totally uncensored either. The government sat down with WikiLeaks founder and discussed documents that will be released. Certain documents were held back because they could compromise foreign intelligence. That being said WikiLeaks is not feeding us groundbreaking conspiracies either. There are documents released that let us know the government is not being 100% truthful, which honestly everyone already knows. It even includes petty name calling, which is hardly necessary for the public to know about. It hardly lives up to the “911 of American Diplomacy” name that Pat Buchanan called it. Unless we start seeing some truly shocking information leaked I think this website will lose steam after the initial shock blows over.
ReplyDeleteI would like to print an immediate revision, I meant "think" not "thank"
ReplyDeleteThe media is pissed off at Wikileaks because it demonstrates their irrelevance. It shows how bankrupt their claims of integrity and ability to conduct investigative reporting are.
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