Monday, December 6, 2010
NYTimes asked US Govt for Editorial Help w/ Wikileaks
Here's Editor Bill Keller admitting that he cleared the WikiLeaks stuff with the Government before printing.
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Here's Editor Bill Keller admitting that he cleared the WikiLeaks stuff with the Government before printing.
3 comments:
The fellow who is not Bill Keller says that "right and left have lined up in the US to attack Wikileaks". I think he means "republican and democrat", but if he meant that he should've said "far right and right". The Left is resolutely behind Wikileaks in the US. If the Democrats aren't it's because their priorities are not those of the Left. Whereas Left politics have to do with fighting imperialism, Democrats seem committed to defending it.
I'm not so sure the Left should line up behind the WikiLeaks cables, aside from a general pro open government position. These leaks largely embarrass and tie the diplomatic hands of the Obama administration, and make a more compelling case for a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities (depending on who you talk to). I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that although the cables run form 1966-2010 what's conspicuously absent are the years 2000-2003, when the Bush administration was making the case for war against Iraq. I'd be really curious to see the "diplomacy" of this time period.
Yes, the political upshot of the recent cable leaks is unclear. The scatter-shot approach seems less clearly effective than the previous leaks re: the Afghanistan war. This seems like mostly gossip. I would stop short of saying that the info should not have been leaked... but I do think the upshot is lukewarm from a Left perspective. But at the very least, anything that makes Washington squirm is probably good.
So let's get the info on the wars and on the dirty dealings of wall street! That's the stuff the public needs.
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