“Journalism”

[gcrumb]

[Updated slightly to fix the facts around the policy more accurately reflect reality.]

Jillian York, in her rather timid defense of WikiLeaks, states that she[*] some people ‘got off the bus’, metaphorically speaking, shortly after the release of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video. Describing her personal ambivalence about the latest leak, she draws a

Comments

You Talkin' to ME?

[anonymous]

Just who are you callin' a 'student of the Enlightenment", buster? Not you, because the Romantics were, and are, a reaction against too much Enlightenment. Not me, because you know that my attitude is to curse them all with pox -- and don't annoy me, buddy, cause my curses are retroactively effective. At least two of those suckers were as poxy phyiscally as they were mentally.

And, for your gedankexperiment, don't think much would change, really. Secrets don't travel by themselves. Someone would still have to sort through all the information and decide which bits would draw the most advertisers, then send off someone else to get more of the *right* filler to pad out the story. The content might change a bit, if we all got bored enough of the standard tittle tattle, but even then I am not sure. Unless one also posits a change in human nature, certain kinds of information always has more salacious appeal than others.

Me, I'm reminded of Dogbert's idea for the standardised newspaper: the stories and photos are all preprinted, and just the names are left to be filled in according to the day.....

Humph. Student of the Enlightenment, my @55.... mumble, grumble, kvech, mutter....