Washington Post and transparency: total strangers

[Jefferson23]

Friday, Jul 9, 2010 07:10 ET

By Glenn Greenwald (updated below)

Earlier this week, I noted -- with multiple illustrative examples -- how media outlets crusade for the virtues of transparency while frequently exempting themselves. Establishment news organizations are, ironically, among the most opaque institutions. Recall how most television news outlets refused to provide anything but the most cursory comments in response to David Barstow's inquiries about the fact that they had employed numerous "military analysts" with multiple, undisclosed conflicts of interests and hidden participation in a Pentagon propaganda program, and to this date, have simply refused to tell their viewers about those revelations, let alone account for what they did.


The Washington Post has helpfully illustrated this dynamic with another glaring example. As I've written several times, one reason the case of accused WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning is so mystifying is because journalists such as Wired's Kevin Poulsen obtained and selectively quoted from, but stubbornly refuse to disclose, the unedited chat logs between Manning and Adrian Lamo, in which Manning allegedly confessed to these leaks. In addition to Wired, it seems clear that The Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima -- judging by this June 10 article she wrote -- also has some or all of those logs, and I thus wrote her this email on Tuesday:


Hi Ellen - I'm writing a piece on media transparency and original source material and wanted to ask about your June 10 article on Bradley Manning: did you obtain the full chat logs between Manning and Adrian Lamo from which you quoted? If so, did you consider publishing them in full, or at least with minor redactions to protect privacy and the like, rather than merely selecting bits and pieces to quote? Now that Manning has been charged, would you consider publishing those logs in order to allow your readers access to read them?



Thanks - Glenn Greenwald


Here's the reply I received yesterday from Kris Coratti, Director of Communications for the Post:


Hi Glenn, I was passed along your e-mail. Thank you for your question -- we don't discuss the details of our newsgathering.

Thank you again,

Kris Coratti


http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/09/transparency/index.html

[Lost4words]

1. After Ben Bradley and Kathrine Grahm the post changed

to just another puppet propping fish wrapper, I was a subscriber for 27 years!

[Jefferson23]

2. Yes, big changes, and not for the good. n/t