Bill Keller vs Wikileaks: Goodnight, Julian Assange, And Bad Luck

[Robb]

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/30/bill-keller-vs-wikileaks-goodnight-julian-assange-and-bad-luck/">Bill Keller vs Wikileaks: Goodnight, Julian Assange, And Bad Luck

I’m loathe to write again about Wikileaks, or about its http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Animal_Farm#Chapter_10">pig-to-man founder, Julian Assange. Not because I’ve run out of things to say, but because the response is so predictable when I do.

Within minutes, the Assange fanboys – the Wikiliebers, if you like – will swarm into the comments, accusing me of unfairly slandering their hero. “He’s sticking it to The Man!” they’ll cry, “he’s disrupting the mainstream media!” they’ll holler, “it was a honeytrap!” they’ll protest, until inevitably someone will accuse me of being in the pay of the US government and the whole thing will descend into farce.

No forest of http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/02/the-guardian-201102">Vanity Fair and http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian?currentPage=all">New Yorker profiles or http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/07/julian-assange-denied-bail">unrelated criminal allegations or hubristic statements about having http://www.examiner.com/syracuse-political-buzz-in-new-york/julian-assange-says-he-wants-to-end-two-wars-here-is-how-he-could-do-it">“two wars I have to end” will convince the Wikiliebers of the truth: that Assange is an arrogant computer genius who began Wikileaks with the best of intentions but has since lost sight of his principles in the relentless pursuit of personal celebrity. (I say that like it’s a bad thing)

But if I take some flak for my relatively inconsequential badgering of Assange, I can only imagine how much http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Keller">Bill Keller must be getting right now. After all, Bill Keller is the man who is about to put Wikileaks out of business http://www.nytimes.com/opensecrets/">once and for all......

Read More: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/30/bill-keller-vs-wikileaks-goodnight-julian-assange-and-bad-luck/

[jaxx]

1. That was a good read.

[snot]

2. I.m.h.o., this is a hit piece that mischaracterizes many facts and chooses to focus

on the imperfections of a hero rather than on the much more important failings of those he's helped expose, including those of the NYT, which has repeatedly PUBLISHED leaked "info" that they could and should have determined was FALSE (see, e.g., https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Iraqi_aluminum_tubes ) and WITHHELD info that was true and important (e.g., http://rawstory.com/news/2005/New_York_Times_admits_it_held_1215.html ), in order to support the powers that be.

[nxylas]

4. Assange, like everyone else, is a flawed human being

Big shock there. It doesn't diminish the value of what he's done.

[Diana9]

6. Strange...

but we're not seeing hit pieces against Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who is ten times more flawed as a human being than Assange.

As a billionaire he's the corporate darling who gets the "honor" of Time's "Person of the Year."

Go figure.

[molly77]

10. Never did read WikiLeaks from the NY Times

They are too compromised. Always went straight to the Guardian. The comments are as interesting as the articles as an added benefit.

[BobbyBoring]

11. Agreed

And here's one part that really displays the intent:

Every single page of Open Secrets reminds us of how much value professional journalists bring to the table, and how little is offered by Wikileaks and Assange.

IMHO we have a severe shortage of "Professional journalist. Or at least a publishing shortage. With the exception of Palast and a few others, no one is doing their job which is reporting TRUTH!

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. The article linked is nothing but a ridiculous hit piece on Assange

IN short, the author desperately tries to paint Bill Keller as some larger than life paragon of virtue without ever once bringing up Keller's CENTRAL role in foisting the likes of Judith Miller and all the other LIES reported in the NYT over the last years in regard to the Iraq War.

Also, nowhere in this laughable editorial does the author ever bring up the actual crimes revealed by Wikileaks. The deaths, murders and illegal activities exposed are much less important to the author than his hatered for Assange.

[Blue_Tires]

5. the blogger in the OP missed the point by a country mile...

[nxylas]

9. Awesome sig line n/t

[yurbud]

7. you can smell the flop sweat when they have to resort to ad hominem attacks like this

it means they can't win on the central issue.

[decidedlyso]

8. What a boring article.

[bemildred]

12. Assange himself has stated that the purpose of Wikileaks is to make Wikileaks unneccessary.

So it looks like we are there.