Another Globe story on Wikileaks and Sen. Kerry

[TayTay]

The short version: "In Kerry’s case, there did not appear to be major embarrassments. The cables, written by State Department officials present at Kerry’s meetings, used a dry, diplomatic tone, and at times it is difficult to determine whether the full context was included. In most instances, Kerry signed off on the typed message."

Sen. Kerry is an official of the US government. (Duly elected and sworn) He HAS to officially condemn these leaks. It would not be proper to do otherwise, given that he is Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.

There is a lot of noise on DU right now about the Wikileaks release. Most of it is content-free and involves choosing sides on whether it was right or wrong. I have mixed feelings on that, as I have written elsewhere.

Most of the press coverage of this has been speculation on whether or not the gossip contained in the leaked documents is embarrassing. This is the least interesting part of the discussion. I don't care about the gossip parts.

I do wonder if the incoming House Republicans will try to pass legislation to restrict the freedom of the press, even global press, to print leaked information. (The next Wikileaks bombshell, scheduled for next year, allegedly involves banks and financial institutions.)

I wonder if the current corporate press corp is so corrupt and lazy that this type of wholesale leakage of secret documents is how information is going to come out in coming years. There are reams of information out there on corporate American and on the government that the press has not written about. And there are many, many people, more and more each day, with a grudge against institutional power who have access to secrets.

I think this is just the beginning of a fundamental shift in how investigative journalism will work in the future.

EDIT: Good discussion on this on DU General board