NYT Reporter Defends Publishing WikiLeaks Cables (NPR)

[struggle4progress]

Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has suggested that The New York Times should be investigated for publishing classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks ...

On today's Fresh Air, David Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, responds to Lieberman's remarks and explains why the newspaper decided to publish the cables ...

"The Times knew that this material was going to be out there anyway. We didn't get the initial leak," he says. "If we had done nothing — if we had ignored it — I think it would have looked strange. I think that also would have been irresponsible. It is the responsibility of American journalism, back to the founding of this country, to get out and try to grapple with the hardest issues of the day and to do it independently of the government." ...

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/08/131884250/nyt-reporter-defends-publishing-wikileaks-cables

[snot]

1. Heard this. Generally good, but p.o.'d me when he said Wikileaks' work is not journalism --

as far as I'm concerned, they're far better journalists than most.