The scary turn in whistle blowing.

[LAS14]

Up until this week I had kind of a naive (I've now decided) benevolent attitude toward Wiki-leaks. I associated them with the good that comes from a free press. But now that the neutrality has obviously been destroyed, they become really scary. How can we frame our laws to come down hard on this sort of behavior? It seems like a really tough problem.

tia
las

[leftofcool]

1. There is whistle blowing and then there is revealing Government secrets

Whistle blowing should always be commended. Treason should be punished.

[Adrahil]

2. "It's complicated"

I have been suspicious of Wikileaks for some time. Their "transparency" seems very focused on one actor. That raises suspicions, IMO.

I'm not sure that I favor any new laws restricting the press. I do, however, think that a foreign national actively pursuing classified information to "leak" may be covered by other laws that already exist.

[LAGC]

3. I don't really see what the problem is. Wikileaks is just the middle-man.

If government agencies (and political parties) didn't resort in nefarious behavior in the first place, there would be no "dirty laundry" to air, nothing to expose.

I'm not saying Russia didn't play Wikileaks to get them to help hurt the reputation of the Democratic Party leadership for their own political reasons, but I'm sure U.S. government agents (e.g., anonymous CIA feeders) have leaked more than a few items to Wikileaks in the past to embarrass certain other foreign state actors as well...

[LAS14]

5. I saw an article somewhere about...

... Assange admitting that the timing was their responsibility. The article went on to describe the long standing animosity between Assange and the Obama admin. Sorry I can't post a link.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. So - it's a grudge?

He owns the timing

Assange admitting that the timing was their responsibility. The article went on to describe the long standing animosity between Assange and the Obama admin. Sorry I can't post a link.

Nice. I suppose if someone hates Obama they really appreciate this male.

[treestar]

6. But then they should do it equally

If they are going to expose some people and not others, it could lend to their agenda. We should not let them influence us in that way when it comes to our votes.

And people are willing to see "dirty laundry" in everything, and exaggerate pursuant to their agenda. No entity could come out unscathed, there is always someone who did something, people are human. Or they just don't understand how imperfect the world is. People think they are perfect and that it's easy for a large organization to be.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Exactly

They have zero credibility with me and don't get my respect. When I see him go after someone awful like Marine Le Pen then I can reconsider if I will respect him or not.

[still_one]

4. Just reading the OPs title, I thought this was about the person with the stupid wolf whistle

yesterday at the Convention.

Sorry, my initial take was on a different context.

Your OP actually brings up a very good point which in my view doesn't have any easy answers. In some respects, it might have to be on a case by case basis.

For example, the release of data that would actually result in the loss of life, is a lot different than the release of data that exposes corruption

[BobbyDrake]

9. WikiLeaks is nothing but Assange's weapon, aimed at whoever he doesn't like.

The fact that he announced that he "timed" a release of information to inflict maximum political damage reveals that his whole supposed dedication to openness and accountability doesn't matter more than his personal vendettas. Now he's nothing but Putin's useful idiot.

And also an alleged rapist.