Man Without a Country, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #104

November 30, 2010 Arthur Tebbel 2 Comments

Dear Art,
We may have really done it this time.  Following my organization’s release of diplomatic cables showing United States diplomats in an embarrassing light there have been calls to deem my organization a terrorist organization.  Some have even suggested that I be tried for treason.  Those would be people unaware that I’m not an American citizen.  Has my organization really crossed a line?  Are critics overreacting?
-Julian Assange, Founder, WikiLeaks

Julian,
This is hard to answer because the answer to both questions is yes.  What you do isn’t really journalism; it’s an information dump.  You don’t do any real amount of reporting you seem content to just air dirty laundry.  Some of it has real value, I don’t think anyone disputes that, but all you do is open that material up for serious journalists.  You’ve destroyed the concept of sources.  Whatever you have wouldn’t pass muster for a real news organization but by releasing it you give them license to report on it by reporting your release of it.  You’re like Cliff Notes for journalists; I would prefer they do the damn reading themselves.

That said your critics have pretty much gone completely insane.  Making WikiLeaks a terrorist organization would open people who donate money criminals.  Considering there are groups that actually support killing people in this country that don’t rate that designation it’s hard to support it for you guys because you embarrass the powerful.

That said maybe you should chill out a little bit.  You’re already facing arrest in your homeland and have been placed under arrest in absentia by Interpol.  You probably won’t be welcome in the U.S. after this stunt.  You don’t want to end up living in banana republics that keep you around because of how you embarrass the big boys.

I’m not trying to WikiLeaks has no value.  There’s an awful lot of value in the documents you’ve made available.  Your upcoming release of documents from “a major U.S. Bank” has me waiting quite anxiously.  With the sorry state of journalism these days it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that if you weren’t here doing this this stuff would just remain unknown.  But there is very little groundbreaking in these cables.  It reveals malfeasance that I’m pretty sure every country with diplomats is engaging in on some level or another.  You get a news cycle of attention and nothing changes.  The next time you have something truly astounding, like another disturbing video of the Iraq war you come pre-discredited.  Pick your battles.