For any corporation, country, or politician, a WikiLeaks news article about them will inevitably prove the phrase “there is no such thing as bad publicity” wrong. WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization which releases important world news, both private and classified information to the public. This website was launched in 2007 by Julian Assange and The Sunshine Press Organization with a database of 1.2 million leaked documents in the first year and the number has grown exponentially since the launch. This media organization relies heavily on volunteers who would submit highly classified documents anonymously. Although such acts can have significant legal consequences, WikiLeaks has triumphed against legal and political attacks though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a large team of lawyers, and a solid system of security.

WikiLeaks have released many articles which have created a number of front page news items. The most notable one was a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs released in October 2010. Included in these documents were first hand accounts of the Iraqi occupation told by soldiers in the US army and is considered the biggest leak in the military history of the US. These logs exposed a discrepancy in the Iraqi civilian death numbers, orders to kill civilians who came to close to checkpoints and the lack of investigation in reports of torture, abuse, murder, and rape by the Iraqi police and soldiers. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State condemned the leaks on the basis that these leaks “puts the lives of US and its partners’ service members and civilians at risk. The Prime minister of Iraq and an influential Iranian politician also dismissed these claims made by the US government to incriminate their forces.

A notable person in the Iraq War Logs is Bradley Manning, a soldier who was suspected to have provided a video showing the killing of civilians and several classified documents. Bradley now faces 22 charges and has been in severely punished through military jail and has yet to be tried. Several websites and groups have formed in protest of his unjust and brutal treatment in prison and for his release including www.bradleymanning.org.

A question was raised in class today asking if WikiLeaks should be considered a journalistic organization. In my opinion, I believe so as WikiLeaks does produce news articles to inform the public just like any other journalistic organization. They also claim to have a system of verification of any information that is brought to them to ensure that the public will receive the true story. In addition, many major news organizations such as BBC and the New York Times have used WikiLeaks as a source for news stories. I think that one of the reasons why WikiLeaks may not be considered as a journalistic organization is due to the controversial articles that they produce. Many of their articles expose holes in governments and corporations which are also the very institutions that can influence other major journalistic institutions and the stories that they produce. Although I personally do not follow WikiLeaks very often, I appreciate their existence simply because they make us remember that the very institutions that govern our lives are not always just and should not be fully trusted.

For those who wish to learn more about the Iraq War Logs, here is the WikiLeaks Press Interview after its release: WikiLeaks Iraq War Diary Press Conference

Have a good weekend everyone!

Having never heard of this scandal with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, I was surprised to learn that a senator would still have the audacity to make comments with such racist implications.

At the birthday party for the retiring Senator Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott was quoted saying: “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years.”

To provide some background context, Strom Thurmond ran his campaign in 1948 based on a pro-Segregationist platform. This meant that Trent Lott was essentially branding himself and his state as pro-Segregationist as well. This statement did not just brand himself as a pro-Segregationist, but also seemed to imply that segregation would be the solution to many current social problems.

Unfortunately for Trent Lott, a young “off-air” reporter for ABC News in Washington, Ed O’Keefe, was in the room when this statement was made. He knew about Strom Thurmond’s campaign and found this statement shocking and offensive. He then brought the story to ABC News in hopes that they would report on it, but they refused to do it because they thought that was no “on-camera action” and the story wouldn’t take off. However, O’Keefe did not give up and posted it on “The Note” which is a blog-like portion of the ABC News website. “The Note” allowed it to be spread to other websites and blogs which provoked a response from the public. This controversy remained on blogs for about a week before mainstream media caught wind of it and the story built up from there ending with the force resignation of Trent Lott.

This story is a prime example of how blogs and other social media can have an effect on politics and mainstream media. When this story was posted on a blog, it allowed for an easier way to share this story and gave way for a bigger audience. Although social media cannot replace national press as a news sources, it can influence which news stories will be reported or will receive more coverage time.

Blogs have the ability to debate, correct, and sift through news, thus further refining the news itself. Although this blog ended the career of a politician, many other campaigns have begun based on social media such as the It Gets Better Project and Occupy Wall Street. Barack Obama actually used social media in a large part of his campaign to win his presidential race. In fact, one of the in-class presenters, Kirk LaPointe, also maintains a blog called The Media Manager which discusses a variety of political topics.

To end this blog post on a lighter note, here is a Madtv spoof of Trent Lott.

Madtv – Reality Check w/ Trent Lott

Have a good reading week everyone!