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The Hypocrisy of the Media
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The role of the media, the role it must adopt if society is to function in a practically and morally coherent way, is to reveal power, to pester power, to hound it with questions. Because power cannot be trusted. The fact that many columnists see fit to attack WikiLeaks is evidence of how severely they have misinterpreted their mission statement. It is an indictment of the British media that its response to WikiLeaks is one of condemnation rather than troubled inner scrutiny. Its general outlook is so conservative, its relationship with the establishment so cushy, and its interests so scurrilous that it now condemns those who do their jobs properly.

The only difference between WikiLeaks and other news organisations is that Wikileaks is doing its job properly. This is not a symptom of its greater intelligence, merely its ability to comprehend the ramifications of new technology. WikiLeaks is like a symbol of globalisation. WikiLeaks represents the birth-pangs of a new media, one that cuts out the middle man to reveal the documents in full. Perhaps the media feels things moving away from it, to a world of citizen journalists and information freedom. That is an eventuality which would be far less likely if the traditional media did its constitutional duty and held the powerful to account.


http://www.politics.co.uk/printerfriendly.aspx?itemid=21385948
Filed under: Information Journalism MSM Media WikiLeaks
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