Blazing a trail for new concepts is always difficult and Julian Assange’s efforts to create a protective firewall between whistleblowers, people who have access to possibly damning information about corporations or governments, and the media who present said information to the public is proving problematic. Hoping to avoid some of the perceived pitfalls of exposing ‘assets’ in the release of the Afghan war logs, Wikileaks first sought help from the Pentagon and once rebuffed, to work with establishment media to help responsibly disburse the mountains of data in its possession to the public.
To that end, in possession of thousands of US diplomatic cables, Wikileaks sought out the assistance of The Guardian, El Pais, Der Spiegel and indirectly, via The Guardian, The NY Times. The NY Times wrote 200 articles based on the cables and its editor, Bill Keller, admits to allowing the Pentagon to vet each one.
Wikileaks relationship with both The Guardian and The New York Times is strained and now it seems the Times, after reaping the benefits, is ready to throw Wikileaks under the bus.
