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http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/dan_rather_supports_wikileaks_20130223/
Dan Rather Supports WikiLeaks
Posted on Feb 23, 2013
Veteran news anchorman Dan Rather gave a tentative endorsement to WikiLeaks on HuffPost Live on Friday, saying the controversial data-dumping group provides the country with a public service.
Overall in the main, I think the WikiLinks (sic) helped with something good because it deals with transparency, Rather told host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. As long as governmentsand they will forevermoretry to keep their secrets, that are not national security secrets, then we should be pressing to find out more and not less.
He also agreed that hackers could play a valuable role in investigative journalism by revealing government secrets that do not need to be hidden.
In another part of the conversation, Rather remarked that President Obama did promise more transparency, but has delivered less transparency on everything from whistle-blower laws, which are very valuable to the public and journalists in helping the public. Far less transparency. He hasnt met his promises about that, no question about it.
Warpy
(111,333 posts)and Wikileaks has done a fine job of it. It's a lot harder to hide mistakes and outright wrongdoing because of them.
I join Rather, for what it's worth. <plink, plink>
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)winning news media, which were first to produce this kind of transparency in response, originally, among other things, to China's oppression and censorship of news and after Tiananmen Square, the crackdown on dissent. Many of the original volunteers were from China.
And no one knows better than Dan Rather what the government can do to stop a journalist from publishing the truth about a leader whose created image was in danger of being exposed as a lie.
Good for him. He was always a good journalist which is why both Bush Sr and Bush Jr/Cheney, Rove et al, went to such lengths to try to discredit him.
Bush WAS AWOL no matter how they tried to cover it up and Rather was right to try to inform the American people of that fact.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Our democracy needs MORE Transparency,
not LESS!
tblue
(16,350 posts)What a mess. How I wish Obama would keep that promise.