Jay Rosen has posted a smart video about Wikileaks. Here’s the key point:
The main reason why Wikileaks causes so much anxiety with our journalists is that they haven’t really faced the fact that the watchdog press they treasured so much died under George Bush. It failed, and instead of rushing to analyze this failure and prevent it from ever happening again, instead of a truth-and-reconciliation-commission-style effort that would look at how could this happen, mostly what our journalists did, with a few exceptions, was they just went on to the next story. The watchdog press died, and what we have is Wikileaks instead.
He also points out that Wikileaks’ success is driven by the sources putting more trust in Wikileaks than the press.
In more Assange-free analysis, Robert X Cringely, the tech writer, has an interesting perspective on how the press leveraged leaks before Wikileaks.
If we can ever get past the Assange distraction, the big Wikileaks story is how it is a response to the failure of mainstream journalism, and how mainstream journalism in the US is engaging in some significant self-hate when they demonize Wikileaks. A key indicator that I’m watching is whether any mainstream media outlet will editorialize against Amazon’s decision to pull the plug on Wikileaks.
chopper
it’s funny. when the internet started coming of age, all these people in journalism was talking about a new ‘golden age’ of journalism allowed by the free and instant flow of information.
instead we ended up with lazier mainstream journalists and a bunch of shit head bloggers.
El Tiburon
About the only thing the press is good for is to laugh and make fun of.
Fucking die already.
I for one applaud Assange for what he is doing, regardless of his motives or foibles.
Out government has basically declared war on its own citizens. If Wikileaks is the first opening salvo in breaking down the structure to getting our country back, then so be it.
BTD
This is a great insight.
Ezra Klein’s discussion of the matter really missed this point.
geg6
Nah gah happen, mm. That would necessitate that the msm is in any way self-aware.
I’m on Assange’s side in this. He saw how captured by the PTB the press is, saw an opportunity to get information out, became a trusted outlet for leakers, and is getting information out to the public. I applaud it.
I’m with El Tiburon. The current media in this country must die. Literally or figuratively, I really don’t give a damn. They are traitors, right there along with their GOPer overlords, and I knew that Election Night 2000. And nothing since has changed my mind; in fact, it has only strengthened my conviction. I thank the FSM my mother, an actual journalist, wasn’t alive to see it happen.
Disgruntled Lurker
I agree with everything you said, except for the implication that Amazon did something wrong by not continuing to host wikileaks. If you had the largest online marketplace in the world, would you host a DOS attack magnet during your busiest month?
Full discolsure: I make my living as a 3rd party Amazon seller.
Jack
“Watchdog press” died under Wilson. Bush was a necrophiliac, with a hundred year old corpse.
matoko_chan
let us try this one more time, mistermix.
the oligarchs are misdirecting onto Assange because that is all they can do. They failed twice at stopping a release.
this is Assanges mission:
that is the ultimate cyber-war. Assange and wikileaks are cyber-insurgents on their own turf, and they are going to kick americas ass just like the other insurgencies we stupidly and unjustly involved ourselves in, Iraq, A-stan, and Vietnam.
And Assanges religion is not islam or communism……it is hacking, information transparency.
Perhaps you can read this article better than Douthat did.
I found Douthats NYT piece on Assanges intentions to be astonishingly dishonest and/or sloppy.
Although he links the Bady article (which i saw at the dish and found fascinating), he ignores the conclusions Bady draws (ie the results already show success), and deliberately distorts Assanges intentions.
The US system is the field lab experiment for Assanges design of a paranoia frag bomb on the US closed classified data systems, not on our security system.
The beauty of Assanges system killer (if it works) is that the more unjust a regime is, the more vulnerable it is to this attack.
The defense is simply, dont be evil.
I am unsure if Douthat is stupid or lying in his opinion piece.
perhaps both.
if this works on the US……it could work on all closed regimes– China, Russia…..and Iran.
it is a quite brilliant mashup of Information theory, systems theory, and SNT (social network theory).
Instead of trying to hunt Assange down or smear him with fake rape charges, we should be offering him a fucking job.
Of course, that would mean we actually believed our own bullshytt about the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Why are we fucking terrified of information transparency?
Because we are evil.
El Cid
Given that major stories by, say, the New York Times, which were too centrally challenging to the Bush Jr. administration could be delayed a year just because the administration asked says a lot about the reduced to zero value of the press in sorting investigation (if done at all) from propaganda when it’s needed.
And that is putting aside a rational focus on ‘failure’ of the billion dollar media wrt Iraq; it wasn’t a failure, it was a complete willingness to collaborate on a propaganda campaign.
It’s an insult to reasonable citizens to call the media’s constant collaboration with warhawk and Republican PR some sort of ‘failure’. Negligence at best.
Svensker
Kevin Drum via Andrew:
“Bloviating aside, though, we should be focused not on Julian Assange, but on figuring out how to keep anyone from providing this kind of information to him in the first place. That’s more boring, but much more effective.”
So, no, it seems unlikely that the MSM will be editorializing against Amazon for pulling Wiki, when folks like Kevin Drum are trying to figure out how to plug the leaks. We are all Pravda, now.
cleek
i’d say the press is very much alive. but, it is used by the conglomerates that own the majority of it to keep things safe for those conglomerates. it’s not about informing the public so much as maintaining the public’s support of the establishment.
it’s not dead, it’s just harnessed – as it has been for a long long time.
Southern Beale
YES to that. 100%,
Not sure I agree with that. Maybe I don’t understand what you mean? I think mainstream journalism is just pissed off that some asshole has stepped on their turf. They don’t get what a spectacular fail they are. They think it’s all the fault of foul-mouthed bloggers and the interwebs making dead-tree media obsolete. They don’t get that the problem is THEM. I think the American media still believes it’s own “Woodstein” mythologizing.
scav
OT OT oh soooo OT, but if you need a laugh, you cannot miss the fact that Nigeria is going to charge Dick Cheney (and Halliburton) in a bribery case. And they’re not even asking for anyone’s bank information to do it! Better Better Better still “An arrest warrant for Cheney ‘will be issued and transmitted through Interpol, ‘”
I’m dying here and I can’t get up
Cat Lady
@geg6:
I suspected it – the whole calling Florida for Bush by his cousin before anyone else did without the attendant shit storm that a failed Arkansas real estate deal engendered made me crazy. However, I didn’t understand the scope of the problem until I found out how many tens of thousands of protesters were lining the inauguration route, and I found that out from Michael Moore. If the press won’t cover a coup occurring in their own country, well, that’s all you need to know about our FAIL media.
Taylor Wray
Second to what Chopper said initially.
Also, THANK YOU Juan Cole for coming around to the view that all of the smart people finally seem to be coalescing around – WikiLeaks IS JOURNALISM. We’ve forgotten what it looks like for the fourth estate to literally check our federal government.
As a 24-year old foreign policy junkie with a government degree from Georgetown, I’d sign up to work at WikiLeaks today if possible, despite/especially because the State Department has recently discouraged applicants from involving themselves with the organization online.
I realize this comment itself may preclude me from serving my fellow citizens in the government in the future, and that fact depresses me, but at the same time, it inflames my passion to ensure that WikiLeaks is recognized and appreciated for the service it has begun to provide in lieu of a failing American media.
jh
Somewhat on topic,
Has anyone else working in general areas of gov’t gotten the oh-so-serious “don’t browse or link wiki****s” emails from their respective IAM (Information Assurance Manager) or is just people working in the national security apparatus?
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: Press may be alive but it is not free, it does not speak truth to power. Members of the beltway media are more like courtiers rather than watchdogs to the powerful.
The Moar You Know
@matoko_chan: This is an interesting variation on the idea that “if you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about”.
I agree with your statement, BTW.
I’m not sure I’m so supportive of Wikileaks’ basic concept. So far they’ve been a good actor, just dumping info and literally saying “we report, you decide”, but samzidat always worries me as it is so vulnerable to manipulation by malign actors. Samzidat played a not insignificant role in dissolving the Soviet Union. It also played a not so insignificant role in making the Russian Republic such a hostile area to Jews that you take your life in your hands walking in public in Moscow if you’re dark-haired and any darker than fishbelly white.
The oligarchs are going to find a way to manipulate Wikileaks, either by feeding them false information, or information distorted in such a way as to help insure a certain outcome. It will then be rendered valueless.
ChrisWWW
@The Moar You Know:
“The oligarchs are going to find a way to manipulate Wikileaks, either by feeding them false information, or information distorted in such a way as to help insure a certain outcome. It will then be rendered valueless.”
Then the worst thing that can happen is a return to the status quo.
THE
@matoko_chan:
I don’t know. I think if there was any sign in China of something like Wikileaks getting out of hand, the government would simply modify the Internet protocol inside China, so that every communication had to have a digital signature.
Then they would block all unsigned communications. Every user would have to apply to the information ministry for a personal digital certificate.
Not sure. I suspect Assanges system may be vulnerable to being spoofed, if governments start to deliberately feed it with carefully-crafted disinformation for infowar purposes.
mistermix
@Southern Beale: The self-hate part is when they tsk-tsk about how awful it is that Assange takes stolen (gasp!) papers and distributes them. You’re right that it is probably motivated by jealousy, but it’s still self-hating for them to complain about someone doing pretty much what they do on a regular basis.
soonergrunt
@jh:
Only with respect to government owned computers on the government network.
The fact is that most of that stuff wasn’t classified anyway, but all it takes is one classified item on a non-classified machine, and it doesn’t matter how it got there, and boom, you have a real shit-storm on your hands.
DecidedFenceSitter
@The Moar You Know: I’ll agree that it is an interesting variant on the ““if you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about” concept. However, I’m perfectly okay with a citizen to say “Fuck you, you don’t need to know”; while the state being far more transparent.
Mostly it is a case of which entity works for whom.
And I fully agree that there are things that should not be generally disseminated; however, I do feel that U.S. government has gotten over happen with the use of FOIA-exempt and security classifications.
The Moar You Know
@soonergrunt: Got that right. After you emerge from your week-long interrogation by OPM and any other relevant agency, explaining that you didn’t steal this classified info, but simply browsed it off wikileaks even though you knew that you were violating need-to-know, you can then look forward to watching your entire network – boxes, laptops, remote machines, switches, routers and all of it – get thrown into an industrial-sized woodchipper and then getting presented a bill for all of it, and probably getting handed a bill for all the work that was performed on it.
Which you will pay, or you will never work again.
matoko_chan
@THE:
but that would mean Assanges paradigm was working. the paranoia frag bomb would have caused ossification.
its kinda like a DDOS attack on closed system (secret) information…it doesnt create denial of service by packet numerics overlead, but by making the packets infinitely dense in security protocol.
matoko_chan
@THE:
but closed regimes cant get cyber-insurgents to defend their ice. that is why the US should hire Assange.
:)
soonergrunt
@The Moar You Know: I saw one single classified document get inadvertently emailed to an entire military unit distribution list.
100+desktops, and two servers, and myself and another tech had to deal with it.
I’ve never had to destroy equipment secondary to a classified breach, but I know guys who did.
matoko_chan
@The Moar You Know: please read Bady, and not Douchehats lying take on Bady.
Assanges strat is a system killer for conservatism too.
that is what Douthat really hates about it.
Fox and the conservitard sites are all bragging on STUXNET. its 20 year old tech, a fucking worm. dated.
Wikileaks scares the everliving crap out of them.
its something new, and if it works, conservatism is deader than the dinosaurs.
THE
@matoko_chan:
I don’t think so. I think once a certificate is installed on your computer then browsers and email clients etc, could handle it automatically.
At any rate, they could create plug ins that would handle the mechanics transparently to the user. Mostly you wouldn’t know the certificate was there.
Just like you use encryption and digital certificates if you communicate with your bank. You scarcely know it other than the little symbol in the corner.
Mojotron
We’ve already seen how an asshole can use an “unfiltered” document dump to forward their agenda; “Climategate” (ugh, that name) might have offered transparency and an interesting glimpse of how scientists try to reach consensus, but we all saw how it was actually used.
THE
@matoko_chan:
Dearest, you may be unaware of this but the Chinese internet community contains some of the most rabidly nationalistic fanatical Sinophile communities on earth.
They are hair trigger nationalists. They went berserk when the protesters were protesting the Olympic Torch. Some of the backwash hit our local media.
Poopyman
@soonergrunt:
Which is why we were also warned not to visit WL from our home computers because “doing so may affect your [email protected] or your ability to obtain a [email protected]”.
So really, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, or else some bad shit will go down.
soonergrunt
@Poopyman:
I haven’t seen anything like that. Just the standard warning not to introduce classified information into a non-classified government system. I suppose some asshole overbearing infosec guy could go the extra distance, and they could look at your home computer for a while without a warrant (thanks, PATRIOT act!) but that would be a hell of a lot of extra work.
Poopyman
@soonergrunt: I’ve seen it from our corp and something similar from a friend’s employer, both large def. contractors. I find it “interesting” that the threats are so barely concealed.
Brachiator
Damn spot on.
But the press won’t learn. On the one hand you have Rupert Murdoch expanding his venal empire and on the other you have an inexorably shrinking news media oscillating between conservative echo chamber and empty-head circus.
Annelid Gustator
Off topic: FUCKING QATAR gets the 2022 World Cup Final. This is serious ass.
matoko_chan
@THE: yes but Assanges strat is to switch on the stealth hackers within the system….the embedded moles. people that got access with demonstrated loyalty. that is why the managed interval between releases, the embrace of publicity, the intial attack/experiment on the US– to MAXIMIZE exposure. Assange is trying to remotely activate the embedded demodynamic nanotech.
doesnt every human want freedom and justice?
:)
serge
This reminds me of Jon Stewart’s bullet montage of maybe a dozen cable show fartknockers, to a one, cutting off the discussion, never asking for substantiation of what might have been interesting otherwise, with the vacuous “…we’ll have to leave it there.”
When embarassed, the feds always make some outrageous shit up about someone – Assange, Scott Ritter, even Spitzer – and the press eats it up without ever seeing the pattern.
Cat Lady
Too bad Jay Rosen looks and sounds like Wally Shawn. The only way to cut through the media filter with important information like his, and FWIW all Dem messaging, is have it delivered by a hot chick doing a striptease on camera – kind of a cross between Democracy Now and YouPr0n. The Truth Revealed! or some such thing. It would get some attention.
The Moar You Know
@matoko_chan: I have. I live in this world. I am not convinced by his arguments.
matoko_chan
@THE: but what if the banks auto-immune response system (security system) went crazy? and began to wall off parts of itself for fear of infection?
i cant wait for the banking wikileaks doc drop.
THE
Matoko. There is nothing that Assange can create that the CCP can’t penetrate with their moles. Even the russians have spies that can bend men’s minds. Yes.
And Assange has already shown he is deeply vulnerable to this fearsome weapon. (scroll down)
matoko_chan
@The Moar You Know: by Bady’s?
he is just analysing Assanges OWN WORDS on his intent.
Douthat says Assanges strat cannot work.
Bady says it already has.
I say it may not work….but we dont know yet.
it is a field lab experiment involving information theory, systems theory, and SNT.
matoko_chan
@THE: /giggles behind hand
then you DO agree that Assange was set up for the fake rape charges!
i knew it!
azlib
@matoko_chan:
I agree. Most elites do not want transparency. And it is because they are evil. We see this on Wall Street. I am waiting the rumored B of A leak by WikiLeaks to confirm it. Ironically, the “free market” folks should be embracing Assange. Transparency is a key to markets working as successful economic organizers. We will find out more of the details of why Wall Street does not want free markets – because free markets cannot be gamed when all players have the same information.
This is also why Elizabeth Warren scares the hell out of the credit card folks. She really believes in transparency and free markets for goods and services. The big lie of the Right is they parrot the “free market” line when it is convenient for them, but they really do not believe it because in their heart of hearts they want to game the system for their own personal advantage.
Annelid Gustator
Back Off Topic sorta: can Wookieleaks please, please, please go after FIFA?
Caravelle
I’m reminded of back when blogs started getting big people worried that newspaper journalism was becoming obsolete, and everybody said that although blogs were good for commentary they could never do the kind of in-depth reporting newspapers did.
Apparently Wikileaks is plugging yet another hole in the Internet’s capacity to do good journalism.
The Moar You Know
@matoko_chan: You naiveté is astonishing. People want power, not justice.
As for this:
There are a lot fewer of them than you might think, and we’ll see how brave they are when they see what is going to happen to that PFC who dropped the dox. Didn’t take much to partyvan him and drop him in a cell with Bubba, did it?
It’s easy to steal. It’s REALLY hard to cover your tracks. Even the best hackers always miss something.
The Moar You Know
@soonergrunt: Seen it happen. The aftermath in terms of lost project time and shattered careers is not funny, and as you note, it can be from one email sent by mistake.
benjoya
can someone post a link to the bady article? also, this:
the big Wikileaks story is how it is a response to the failure of mainstream journalism
just so, mm.
jrg
There’s been an “information wants to be free” ethos among hackers since hacking began: well before the 1990s, when I became aware of it.
As much as I’d like to blame our shitty, half-assed journalism for Wikileaks, I think we’d still be seeing this problem if the press was actually doing it’s job.
matoko_chan
@benjoya: http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-and-the-computer-conspiracy-“to-destroy-this-invisible-government”/#
Nutella
Only DFHs like GG will editorialize against Amazon’s decision to pull the plug on Wikileaks. The people who should be editorializing against it are the people pushing cloud computing as a platform for all apps. I know I won’t host any apps on Amazon from now on, but are all of the ISPs and cloud platform vendors going to do whatever Joe Lieberman asks?
That’s the weak point in the ‘Information is free because of the open internet’ argument.
Catsy
@matoko_chan:
But where is he going to get the dilithium crystals to power it?
benjoya
thanks matoko
azlib
FYI, Wikileaks may have a competitor:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,732212,00.html
Omnes Omnibus
@azlib: This is an interesting development. Conceptually, they sound as though they are pushing the info wants to be free line. We’ll see how it all works out.
ET
The Hardest Part of Addiction Recovery is Admitting Your Problem
Journalists need to admit to their problem and then maybe hey won’t be so whiny with regards to WikiLeaks and bloggers. They need to treat both like sources instead of competitors. It doesn’t need to be an either/or proposition, though it could if they force the issue (and it won’t necessarily work to their advantage).
Alien-Radio
@benjoya:
To massively simplify. Success is built on having a nice open functioning OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop. When A paranoid system adds layer after layer of security, bluffs, FUD, etc. at increasing strength as the core of the system is approached, Information flow across the entire system is compromised, and the OODA loops of the component parts start getting more and more out of whack,they respond to information more and more slowly, make decisions slower, or worse always make the SAME decision etc. This is how non linear information systems collapse.
If you can complete your OODA loop faster than your opponent you will win.
Quite aside from what else Wikileaks accomplishes it’s an elegent hack.
maus
@cleek:
It’s alive like Terri Schiavo was “alive”. Rotting slowly inside and with no possibility of spontaneous regrowth of brain tissue.
matoko_chan
@Catsy: its powered by essence of humanity, cudlip.
matoko_chan
@Alien-Radio: that is quite correct.
i finally understand the “maximize exposure” mantra of wikileaks. it is to let a thousand
flowersleaks bloom in all the closed information systems of all the global autocracies.Assange couldn’t do China or Iran first, even tho they are moar evil than us, because that would minimize exposure, not maximize it.
wikileaks press round up.
i just sent a mail to O. i told him to hire Assange and that i was donating my xmas present to him to wikileaks.
:)
i have to wonder if the US will drop its keystone cops routine when Assange moves onto the bankstahs.
polyorchnid octopunch
@matoko_chan: Not a chance. Given the clear predilections of your elites, that will greatly intensify their routine; after all, the State cables are embarrassing, but the bank stuff might actually hit them in the pocketbook.
Really, I think wikileaks is just trying to complete the circle to completely finish off the oligopoly in charge of journalism. Blogging and the Internet have destroyed the control of the means of distribution; having all those sources online destroys the control of the means of creation; anybody can take a look on in there and write about their analysis of what it all means. This is almost certainly why the msm in the US are so up in arms… it makes them irrelevant. It shows just how bad they are at their job; they can no longer even do a decent job of keeping the inconvenient facts hidden anymore. It underlines that they’re even incompetent at being incompetent.
Arclite
It may have died under Bush, but it was pretty ill under Clinton. Remember them breathlessly chasing every Repub-manufactured scandal?
John Smallberries
So the whole Wikileaks thing is nothing more than real world validation of season 5 of ‘The Wire”?
maus
@Arclite:
Ah, but that’s due dilligence!
@polyorchnid octopunch:
I don’t believe they are, but wish *someone* would.
IveGotLightsInMyBrain
The corporate media is horrified by Wikileaks. A heathen has entered the realm. The whole idea that only the trusted media gatekeepers have access to “classified information” has been circumvented by an organization who is actually antagonistic towards it’s sources. Rather than groomning trusted relationships Wikileaks has chosen to do the unthinkable and side-step the Beltway culture of priviledge.