It's a real problem in this day and age of "fake news". Used to be a Daniel Ellsberg would steal state secrets and then be protected for a while by being an anonymous source of a powerful member of "the fourth estate." Now the fourth estate can be any one with an internet connection, including Russians trying to bring down the west. Further complicating that whole thing is that the most powerful country in the world has a leader who has co-opted the whole "fake news" plaint, implying that most remaining members of what was once powerful "fourth estate" are the fake news and the partisans on his side furnish the real news.
I knew and dreaded instinctively that, when during the Bush years the new left blogosphere picked up and pushed the right's meme that the "MSM" was crap if not evil, and that citizen journalism would save the day and tell the truth, that it would not end pretty. I couldn't imagine the extent of the resulting anarchy, though.
Either you agree to have a government that's going to need to keep some things secret or you don't. Everyone can't leak everything....Assange's theory of transparency uber alles working is bullshit...you will always have Facebook's and Amazon's just filling in the gap (at least Bezos put money into shoring up having a professional fourth estate by supporting Washington Post, I'll give him that.)
Even with Assange the transparency wore off and became "who sent you?" Newspapers have biases we understand and factor in. Random bloggers have wide variance and unknown unknowns.
When I first heard about wikileaks I knew that wasn't going to end pretty either. He was calling for high school hackers to steal information and send it to him. I knew that would bring out the hackers for fame and glory without any sense or proportion. And I knew the freer nations would be most easily hacked. He claimed he would redact it as necessary. But information is power and power corrupts. I knew eventually he would use the information for personal goals.. It would take a saint to run wikileaks without causing harm and Assange is no saint.
I saw the general trend it would follow but I would never have predicted the details. Colluding with Russia to harm the US and Hillary to help Trump.
World leaders, ministers, diplomats, military officers and policy experts are attending the annual Munich Security Conference, the premier global powwow on foreign, defense and security policy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are among those taking part in the conference in the southern German city. Follow POLITICO's live blog for the latest news and analysis from the conference, which runs from Friday to Sunday.
A man armed with a handgun entered the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, Ill., on Friday afternoon and killed five civilians, officials announced at a news conference. Five police officers were also wounded.
Police Chief Kristen Ziman said the gunman, identified as Gary Martin, 45, was killed in a crossfire with officers. She said, in a second late-night news conference, that the gunman was a 15-year veteran of the company who was being terminated Friday [....]
We all knew McCabe would take aim at Trump in his book, but his contempt for Sessions is staggering. Depicts him as addled, fixated on immigrants, racist. My review of the McCabe book in WaPo https://t.co/nEMmQXvJ07
House Democratic leaders have a rebellion in their ranks. And there’s no easy way to quash it.
House Democrats have repeatedly faced surprise Republican floor attacks since taking control of the chamber, part of a bid by the GOP to target their most vulnerable members and fracture the party. Just six weeks in, the GOP effort has been an astonishing success — dividing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top deputies and pitting members of the freshmen class against each other.
The House voted Thursday night to approve a border security deal that prevents a new government shutdown in a 300-128 vote.
The vote sets up President Trump to sign the legislation — and to declare a national emergency as a way of getting more federal funds for his wall on the Mexican border.
Comments
It's a real problem in this day and age of "fake news". Used to be a Daniel Ellsberg would steal state secrets and then be protected for a while by being an anonymous source of a powerful member of "the fourth estate." Now the fourth estate can be any one with an internet connection, including Russians trying to bring down the west. Further complicating that whole thing is that the most powerful country in the world has a leader who has co-opted the whole "fake news" plaint, implying that most remaining members of what was once powerful "fourth estate" are the fake news and the partisans on his side furnish the real news.
I knew and dreaded instinctively that, when during the Bush years the new left blogosphere picked up and pushed the right's meme that the "MSM" was crap if not evil, and that citizen journalism would save the day and tell the truth, that it would not end pretty. I couldn't imagine the extent of the resulting anarchy, though.
Either you agree to have a government that's going to need to keep some things secret or you don't. Everyone can't leak everything....Assange's theory of transparency uber alles working is bullshit...you will always have Facebook's and Amazon's just filling in the gap (at least Bezos put money into shoring up having a professional fourth estate by supporting Washington Post, I'll give him that.)
by artappraiser on Sun, 11/18/2018 - 7:01pm
Even with Assange the transparency wore off and became "who sent you?" Newspapers have biases we understand and factor in. Random bloggers have wide variance and unknown unknowns.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/19/2018 - 1:25am
When I first heard about wikileaks I knew that wasn't going to end pretty either. He was calling for high school hackers to steal information and send it to him. I knew that would bring out the hackers for fame and glory without any sense or proportion. And I knew the freer nations would be most easily hacked. He claimed he would redact it as necessary. But information is power and power corrupts. I knew eventually he would use the information for personal goals.. It would take a saint to run wikileaks without causing harm and Assange is no saint.
I saw the general trend it would follow but I would never have predicted the details. Colluding with Russia to harm the US and Hillary to help Trump.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 11/19/2018 - 2:35am