Wikileaks

I am of at least two minds regarding Wikileaks. Firstly, the previous leaks of classified information were absolutely criminal and probably damaging in ways that we have not yet seen.

Secondly, even though I think the recent leaks are not good for the country, if I had more time I would be all over those cables. This might be better than anything Harold Robbins ever gave us. The Saudis wanted us to bomb Iran? Qaddafi digs blonds? The Karzai brothers waddle around with $52 million and they still wear goofy hats? This is tabloid material for the extra-ugly.

Thirdly, I would muster some respect for our vapid commander-in-chief if he said or did anything at all. Anything. Pro. Con. Beer summit with Assange. Anything. Sorry about the fat lip, big guy. Hope you heal real soon. Was there a theme song to "Being There" ???

Fourthly, we need to reconsider our policies on acccess. Many of these cables are not classified and hundreds of thousands of government employees could have access to them. Once more, "is there a president in the house?"

Fifthly and most importantly, we need to compare and contrast the mainstream media's coverage of these purloined cables with the hijacked East Anglia emails. Sometimes the constant, the chronic, the continuous is harder to see than a moment frozen in time. Sometimes a snapshot is more powerful than a truckload of video. The once reputable "New York Times" has devoted substantial resources to report on the Wikileaks cables. One year ago, they boldly announced that they would not publish the East Anglia emails because "they were not meant for publication."

The ongoing video shows the NYT constantly engaging in selective truth, if not overt falsehood. But the snapshot of their East Anglia coverage (an empty backdrop) placed side by side with the snapshot of their Wikileaks coverage (the following link credits 12 reporters on the case) provides what our commander-in-chief might call a teachable moment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29cables.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1
From my perspective, the bigger story now, as always, is Big Media's influence on information. Wikileaks good. East Anglia bad. What more do we need to know?