Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths

The Australian ^ | 12/7/10 | Julian Assange

[SmithL]

IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."

His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.

I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.

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These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories...

[fours]

Wow: this is great stuff, thanks for the info! I truly underestimated Assange's background.

I still think, though, that Wikileaks is merely the latest (and not the last) product of our current world, where instant & worldwide digital publishing is basically available to everyone. Whether it's the latest Spiderman movie or State Dep't memos, any content can remain online if enough people are interested in keeping it there.

Millions of people have "secret" clearance and 854,000 people have "top secret" clearance. In most of this decade much more discussion was made about speeding up the security clearance process & eliminating the DoD's backlog, and the need to get all our agencies to share more information. Even if Assange is jailed & Wikileaks completely shut down, more leakers (and leak-publishers) will continue to proliferate.

As more of a libertarian I'd say that's the price you have to pay for freedom of speech online. I'd much rather have it this way than get a Chinese version of the Internet. (Perhaps that's a false choice.)

Thanks again for the info ... digging into the Cypherpunks archive now!

[LomanBill]

>>removes homosexuality from the culture

Removed on-screen, but not from the history that young viewers of the film will learn elsewhere.

With a little help from their progressive “teachers”, young viewers will associate the true homosexual nature of Sparta with the exciting and heroic aspects of what they observe and remember from the Hollywood propaganda.

[SnakeDoctor]

Sometimes a movie quote is just a movie quote. Let it go.

SnakeDoc

[LomanBill]

>>Sometimes a movie quote is just a movie quote.

 

And sometimes it's not.

 

Did you know your favorite greek hero-historian, also "reported" that there were Giant Gold-mining ants in India?

 

Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

 

Ooops.

[LomanBill]

If you want to get a glimpse into the bizarre underground, and slightly socio-pathological, Cyberpunk world - then read this:

http://www.amazon.com/Cyberia-Trenches-Cyberspace-Douglas-Rushkoff/dp/1903083249

Drugs, Sex, Rock and roll, techno-religion... and a whole lot more.

I picked it up in a Santa Cruz bookshop while attending a software conference back in the mid-90’s and, upon reading it, remember thinking, essentially - “Oh shyte, we are in for some serious cultural upheaval”.

And I was right. Welcome to the bleeding edge of the Techno-Anarchic “Utopian” future.

Remember the psychotic scene in The Wall where Pink has the bits of glass and shiney things arranged on the floor - well, it’s like that; their America, it’s like that.

Duuuudes, like, where’s the Republic?

[SnakeDoctor]

You mean ... you have internet links that back you up? Very impressive.

I really don’t care. That should’ve been clear from the statement “let it go”.

Let it go.

SnakeDoc

[LomanBill]

>>I really don’t care.

Obviously. Why little a little thing like historical fact get in the way of a good Comic-book fantasy, ehh?

[SnakeDoctor]

Why indeed.

SnakeDoc

[LomanBill]

Because idiots who base policy upon comic-book fantasy instead of historical reality have a tendency to repeat history instead of learning from it.

 

Like that time when...

 

"pre-World War II Germany and its quest for reviving and imitating a Hellenistic-paganistic idea of homo-eroticism and militarism.”

[SnakeDoctor]

Nobody suggested basing policy on a comic book. You’re arguing with yourself.

SnakeDoc

[Mr. Silverback]

Shoot him. Since this was an act of war, a trialis unnecessary.

[Mr. Silverback]

Though we can debate Major André's fate today, even Gen. Washington's fans would agree that the major was a far better man than this private.

Dang straight.

[Mr. Silverback]

Hey, moron...

The other day, at one of his preening press conferences, Assange was asked to comment on the possibility that his actions might prevent a diplomatic solution to a major international crisis, and thereby cause a war.

He refused to answer.

Your little hero couldn’t give a crap if thousands of people die because of his petty agenda. Apparently, you couldn’t give a crap either. Glad you got the zot...cram your opinion up into your sigmoid colon, useful idiot.

[LomanBill]

>>Nobody suggested basing policy on a comic book

"It is a comic-book adaptation"
--Snake Doc

You do you recall the comic-book adaptation that you posted here, on this very thread, right?

 

But now you're saying the policy shouldn't be to kick Assange down the well like your "adapted" hero was depicted doing to the "adapted" messenger... in what you've admitted is a comic-book adaptation - of a "History" that was recorded by a questionable "historian" -- who also, coinkidinkly, wrote a "history" about Giant Ants who mined Gold in India. 

 

Ok.

 

 

So let's make it clear:

 

Should Mr. Assange be kicked down the well in the manner depicted by the quote from the "comic-book adaptation" you posted -  YES or NO?

 

[LomanBill]

[Shoot him. Since this was an act of war, a trialis unnecessary.]

Evidently it’s more complicated than that...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2639732/posts?page=29#29

[SnakeDoctor]

Yeah. Let’s kick Assange down a hole. “Hyperbole” ... look it up.

This is honestly among the dumbest conversations I can recall in my twelve years here at FR. Everyone who has read it is now stupider for having done so. “I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” (from the movie “Billy Madison”).

Holy moly.

SnakeDoc

[LomanBill]

Policy based upon “hyperbole” and comic-book adaptations.

FAIL.

[IamConservative]

Shoot the PFC who provided the 1/4 million documents first. We’ll argue about this guy later.

For me, it's not about who leaked it, it's about it being leaked to him. All the outrage the politicians are directing toward Assange is just a distraction to keep the sheeple from discovering who the real culprits are. Espionage? Hardly.

[SnakeDoctor]

Did you hit your head recently? Nobody suggested any policy.

I’m done with this. I’m not entirely sure I can afford to sacrifice any further brain cells to this inane conversation. You get the last word, chief ... carry on.

SnakeDoc

[LomanBill]

>>I’m done with this.

Well buhbye then Captain Hyperbole.

Next time, bring something to the table other than cartoons and crayons.