Picking and Choosing Which Journalistic Outlets to Treat as Journalistic Outlets
Tuesday, Philip Shenon reported that Wikileaks wanted the Defense Department’s help reviewing the next batch of documents it will release for names that should be redacted.
Julian Assange wants the Pentagon’s help.
His secretive WikiLeaks website tells The Daily Beast it is making an urgent request to the Defense Department for help reviewing 15,000 still-secret American military reports to remove the names of Afghan civilians and others who might be endangered when the website makes the reports public.
[snip]In a phone interview Tuesday with The Daily Beast, Schmitt said the site wanted to open a line of communication with the Defense Department in order to review an additional 15,000 classified reports in an effort to “make redactions so they can be safely published.” Schmitt said that these reports also relate to American military operations in Afghanistan.
It was a good play from Wikileaks, as it would place Wikileaks in the same position as newspapers like NYT and WaPo which occasionally spike information the government says is particularly sensitive. However, the government chose to pretend it doesn’t have this kind of conversation all the time, and also to pretend that it doesn’t regularly do FOIA reviews for this kind of information.
Instead, DOD spokesperson Geoff Morrell, doing his best Agent Smith imitation, “demand[ed]” that Wikilieaks return all the documents it has received, repeating “do the right thing” over and over.
Of course, no other journalistic outlet would do what Morrell called “doing the right thing.” (To the credit of some of the journalists covering Morrell’s Agent Smith show, they seem somewhat dubious of the claims logic.)
Meanwhile, DOD has also revoked Michael Hastings’ permission embed in Afghanistan, claiming the unit in question does not trust Hastings (though the move appears to be retaliation for Hastings’ refusal to cooperate in a DOD IG probe of Hastings’ article).
The government is not supposed to license favored press in this country. But what DOD is doing is choosing only to play ball with those outlets with which it is chummy enough to largely influence the coverage of.
Which I suppose makes it different than a license. It’s like a membership in a secret tree house that you’ve got to know the secret password to belong to.
A secret password?
Oooh!! Oooh!! I know!!
Rosebud!
(Am I in?)
Nah.
Try: “Aspens… connected at their roots.”
I’m not sure ANY government spokesperson knows the difference between right and wrong anymore.
Boxturtl (But I’m confident if they DO know, they don’t care)
The Washington Times (forgive me) reports that the Pentagon is barring personnel from visiting Wikileaks:
Memories of Joshua Claus.
Popeye can’t believe it. Swabbies can always visit Wikileaks as long as they keep their eyes closed.
They’re planning to have the justice dept charge every American who accessed that site. Except former Bush officals.
Boxturtle (They want us to inform on each other)
Do you think they get even madder at us when they know that we’re laughing at them? Sometimes I worry about that, so I try to stifle the giggles.
Don’t worry about it.They genuinely don’t care what anybody who doesn’t send them money thinks.
Boxturtle (Unless we get in their way)
Oh, I think getting belittled really burns ’em. It usually does with that type.
(Love that treehouse figure, EW! Someone should use it to make up a twisted kiddie show.)
As bmaz said on the previous post (Joshua Claus) @ 18:
“It is a response play to Assange boxing them with the request to help redact the next release.”
Wonder what the next step, er swing, will be.
O/T, from Scott Horton (full report is accessible by sub only):
More on the CIA’s Torture Doctors
LINK.
NPR and other news outlets described Hastings’ article as “causing” the termination of General McChrystal’s long career. Surely, Shirley, it was Gen. McCrystal’s own behavior that did that, a distinction a reporter that’s gone through more than one pair of soles should have tatooed on the back of his hand.
Hastings was not a player between McChrystal, the military and the President; he was a fly on the wall. Hastings hasn’t been sued for defamation, for getting his facts wrong; he’s been demeaned and ostracized for getting them right and for informing the public about an important point. That’s something too many in the MSM no longer consider their job.
What’s at stake here is *Access.* DFH’s and rogue websites like Wikileaks are not supposed to have access. Good and proper establishment news organizations like the NYT and WaPo are given access in exchange for compliance with Administration apron strings. Its the same deal with the Washington Cocktail circuit (what kind of tasty treats were the cocktail circuits that used to be frequented by Karl Rove supposed to be? I’ve forgotten already): If you don’t comply, you don’t get invited.
Bob in AZ
Cluster-Fox does NOT QUALIFY under any definition that can be produced or invented.
EW – check this out:
Look how David Rockefeller’s JP Morgan Chase entraps city governments using local school board officials in this case, and look where that decision maker winds up (the US Senate) as quid pro quo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/business/06denver.html?_r=1&hp
Now that the generals are trying to wipe out every trace of war which they thought they had conducted in secrecy it is more important than ever before to make your self a hard copy of the released documents and videos.
Picking and choosing journalist? This is exactly what Nazis did! Fascist fucking bastatrds………..
Speaking of “picking and choosing” journalists.
Interesting story about Digg breaking…
The GOP want to censor what you read. Funny, they do not realize liberals will never become conservatives because of “controlling the citizenry” actions like this censorship effort.
Everyone should go read this article. It is quite interesting.
No doubt the influence of corporations seeking to “condition minds!” Pavlov’s dog and spinning of lies and twisting of minds, into profit?
“Black eye for a Tarrington?” or “Walk a mile for a Camel?”
It really “does get old” as one gets older! Brainwashed minds suck…..
Now you have got it boiled down to what will fit on a bumper sticker
The D-I’s still haven’t filed their appeal. I can’t wait to read that.
Boxturtle (I suspect there’s a procedural issue, as federal courts don’t accept filings written in crayon)