As I’m sure we’ve all done before, I was beginning to procrastinate on some of my homework last weekend when something on the television caught my attention (and furthered my procrastination, yet at the same time it spawned this blog post idea). My parents were watching 60 Minutes, a popular CBS television newsmagazine. As the ticking of a watch sound synonymous with 60 Minutes subsided, Steve Kroft came on the screen interviewing Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, a very controversial website that essentially “leaked” information deemed confidential by government officials from throughout the world. I watched part of the interview and couldn’t help but relate the American values associated with Freedom of Speech/Press with what was being discussed on the program. This is an excerpt from the interview between Kroft and Assange:
Kroft: There's a perception on the part of some people who believe that your agenda right now is anti-American.
Assange: Not at all. In fact, our founding values are those of the U.S. revolution. They are those of the people like Jefferson and Madison. And we have a number of Americans in our organization. If you're a whistleblower and you have material that is important, we will accept it, we will defend you and we will publish it. You can't turn away material simply because it comes from the United States.
I find it very interesting that Assange would publically call himself a person with American values at heart. Perhaps it is simply a public relations stunt and he is trying very hard to appease to his adversaries, many of who are American. Although Assange has been commonly referred to as an anarchist and as Kroft puts it, “an anti-establishment ideologue with conspiratorial views,” I understand what his argument is as it relates to Freedom of Speech. From the interview Kroft narrated that Assange, “believes [that] large government institutions use secrecy to suppress the truth and he distrusts the mainstream media for playing along.”
There seems to be a discrepancy between what we as the public should be allowed and should not be allowed to know. U.S. officials are infuriated at Assange for leaking out information not intended for public attention and still he sticks by his ideals, according to the interview. In my journalism class here at school, we actually had a discussion recently about truth and to what lengths a journalist should go to uncover it. We took, for instance, the Watergate Scandal. Was is the journalists who uncovered this scandal's job to bring forth the truth from muddied waters? Or is it better to stick with the old saying, "ignorance is bliss" with issues such as this? The controversy regarding Assange caused me to further ponder a few questions that I’ve had much trouble answering: How much should ordinary people know about governmental issues deemed as confidential? Also, to what extent should one go to find the truth, and should the people as a whole see this truth?
This entire controversy is, for the most part, about whether people have a right to know what goes on behind the scenes of the government. Originally when I had just finished reading your post, my reaction was to watch the entire 60 Minutes episode. However, when I was looking for the correct video in my search results, I began to wonder if I wanted to be aware of the back-alley transactions out government plays a hand in. Considering the idea that ‘ignorance is bliss’, I have now realized that I would be much happier not knowing all that goes on with our government, all the time. As long as everything is semi-reasonable and does not interfere too much with my day-to-day lifestyle, I don’t have any reason to be unhappy with how the nations authority is functioning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CRosen. I do not think that Assange has an argument that he is fighting for free speech/press. By withholding confidential documents, the government is not limiting our right to free speech. Also the government is not violating the freedom of the press. If the documents were confidential then the press wasn't going to write about them in the first place. Finally, I have to believe that the government is only trying to protect us, citizens of the U.S, by withholding documents. We can't expect the government to be able to completely protect us from outside forces if they are telling everyone exactly how they are going to do it.
ReplyDeleteI love this connection, Matt. The only thing I would ask for is a specific instance from Assange's actions that your readers could more directly respond to.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Bolos, I'll try to add that into the post for future readers.
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