Writer's Block: The more you know

[fae_boleyn]

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Absolutely not. I'm a journalism major with great respect for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the public's right to know, but like all rights, these have to be exercised with caution. The sort of thing Assange did goes against basic journalistic ethics, not to mention all traditions of war reporting. There's a reason journalists embedded with the military don't talk about everything. It's dangerous. The last thing we need is for the opposing side to get ahold of this information and use it to hurt more of our soldiers. In most things, I support transparency, but not when it endangers lives like this.

The corporate stuff, though, yeah, sure, leak that. You're not getting anyone killed that way.

Comments

[vidstudent.livejournal.com]

May I have permission to use this for a college writing assignment?

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sure, no problem.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

With the military stuff, are you referring to the leaked video of the helicopter attack that killed two journalists? Or are you referring to leaked diplomatic cables?

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

I was actually speaking more generally, concerning leaking confidential plans. I mean, there's reasons for it to be classified, and if revealing it could pose a danger to soldiers or civilians, then it shouldn't be spread.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I agree that some of the stuff they've leaked poses has really endangered anything other than the less-than-stellar reputation of the American military. Particularly in the case of the leaked video. After all, the civilians were already dead, and none of the people who perpetrated that particular crime had been held accountable.

(Is it okay to open this discussion on your journal? If not, that's totally understandable. I legitimately want to hear your opinion, not bait you.)

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

I just feel edgy about the mentality that Wikileaks seems to have, which is that everything goes, and that good journalism is just spilling everything they find out without thinking it through. I confess to not being aware of the particular incidents, but I do know that a military officer was giving classified information to Wikileaks, and I can't help but find that a troubling precedent if nothing else.


I don't mind and I don't think you're trying to bait me. In fact, this kind of discussion is good for me, as a journalism major who will have to decide, to some extent, on my own ethical code.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

(Okay, good. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be stepping on your toes if I blurted out a diatribe here.)

I harbor a good deal of distrust towards the American military, or rather, towards those directing them. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, was founded on a financial/political agenda (revenge for 9/11 + large oil reserves) and bad intelligence that borders on deliberate misdirection. It's so far cost hundreds of thousands of people's lives: good people, bad people, civilians and soldiers.

Wikileaks, on the other hand, has cost the military... what? So far as I know (not having researched it, so correct me if I'm wrong), the release of these videos and cables hasn't cost any soldiers their lives. It has forced the military - and several politicians and diplomats - to defend themselves to the public, which they should be doing anyway.

Obviously, they're still doing some things wrong. Wikileaks has led at least one source to be imprisoned indefinitely by the American military. Julian Assange is quite possibly a deranged rapist, who is still running from his charges. I agree that their laissez-faire attitude regarding freedom of information is problematic, but I also think it's the product of the last fifteen years of global politics, which has become increasingly polemic. I think, in some ways, that's what's needed. People are paying attention, and maybe learning to seek out alternative sources of information.

Imma step away from the soap box now.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

I think you have valid points, and as long as revealing information isn't going to get people killed, I'm all for exposing lies and corruption. But once lives are in the balance you have to be careful. That's all I'm saying, and what worries me is that if someone doesn't blow the whistle on Wikileaks soon, that's the next thing that will happen, because they appear to have no sense of balance.

As for the military... Agreed, it's those directing them, but it's the guys in the field that I'm worried about. The people in charge need to be dumped en masse, because it's been a decade since Afghanistan (that was in 2001, I believe) and seven years since Iraq, and WTF is going on, because nothing good has come of it.

One point. Colin Powell, who I have respect for, resigned from Bush's administration because he felt he had been made to lie to the U.N. Something fishy was going on.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Personally, I believe that allowing a military free reign with what it does or doesn't divulge to the public is more harmful. Going back to 2003, I was recently watching a news piece about the source for the claims of Saddam Hussein's WMD factories. The source, as it turned out, was one guy. ONE single guy, who was slightly off his rocker, and was considered an unreliable witness in Germany, where he applied for asylum. (Your man Powell was recently calling for an investigation into why the CIA and DIA allowed this to happen. As far as politicians go, he's all right.)

Allowing a military to act without accountability gets people killed. Most media outlets have become increasingly monopolized over the past few decades, and very few dissenting voices were given any kind of platform. This is changing, I think, with the advent of Twitter and social networking/citizen journalism ventures, but I feel like Wikileaks truly steps up to plate. They're not exactly honorable, and they're definitely fighting dirty. But lives are already in the balance, and if Wikileaks can make someone think twice before giving an order - or accepting one - I think Wikileaks is doing something worthwhile.

Oh god, did I say I was gonna step off the soap box? Because I could probably talk about this forever. I have a whole other spiel about personal privacy vs. public scrutiny that I'll save for later, unless you actually want to hear about it.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

As long as people aren't put in danger as a direct result of this information being divulged, fine. All that means is that they need to think, and consider the consequences - which is what they should be doing anyway. Again, it's back to ethics, and that is the key question. What effects will this information have, and am I willing to live with the potential bad ones?

As a journalism major with a sociology minor, I'm pretty well aware I'm going into a flawed system, though I challenge you to find one that isn't, really. I'm hoping to do political and investigative work, though, to blow the lid off things. We'll see how I do.

I don't mind soapboxes, or any kind of conversation like this. I like this kind of discussion and I get to indulge in one far too rarely. I feel like we were just talking about privacy in one of my classes - I distinctly remember saying I don't want my government deciding something for me, but I can't remember the subject. Damn it all.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

No, there's not a flawless system. Sadly. And I'm not enough of a nihilist to think that humanity should stop trying to improve. I think the thing that I dislike is that the default always seems to not inform the public, mostly because public debate and dissidence is, for some reason or other in America, frowned on. To the point where there was a call for trying to get Assange tried for political treason under a hundred-year old spying law. D:

I applaud your decision to go into investigative journalism. I will root for you from the sidelines of cultural commentary, magazine writing, and fiction, which is what I'm trying to work towards.

I think it was in the NYT that I saw this interesting op-ed about Wikileaks and privacy. It made the point that even while personal privacy has eroded - mostly to people giving away their intimate details via friggin' facebook, but also with things like the TSA and increased NSA powers - transparency in the government had eroded as well. Wikileaks had forcibly aired out a lot of dirty laundry, particularly with the leaked diplomatic cables. Or was it Zisek that wrote that? I'm gonna see if I can go find the link.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

BAM, found it.

I love Slavoj Zizek. Who else can talk about democracy, Batman, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the paradox of public space in one essay? And have it make sense?

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Can someone be charged for treason if they're not a citizen? I thought Assange was British, if there is something treasonous he did, then that's for the U.K. to decide.

I have a pet peeve in the foster care system, but there are plenty of things I want to expose. Also I find politics riveting, in its way; I don't lie easily enough to be a politician so I will observe, learn how it works, and blow the whistle on them instead. It's interpersonal dynamics, on every level those fascinate me. Sociology minor, this is why.

People share too much on Facebook. I sometimes use my LJ for that kind of thing (when I just have to get it out somehow), but no one knows my full name or those of the people around me, it's anonymous to some extent. Never thought of the parallel, though. Hmm.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

That article was really very interesting, and the Batman analogy worked very well to bring the point home. I am impressed.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Isn't he great? I think I might be a Zizek fangirl.

I'm not sure about the particulars of the law - all I remember is that it was created in 1910's in response to either the first world war or the Bolshevik revolution. I'm fairly sure that it applied to foreign born 'traitors' as well as domestic spies.

Lol, my cousin is double-majoring in journalism and poli-sci for the same reason. I'm probably going to be calling him a lot next year to interpret the elections for me, and possibly talk me down from a few rampages. (Politics - on the national scale anyway - tend to infuriate me. Possibly because I belong to several of those problematic demographics that the Right loves to hate on and moderates wish would go away.)

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

My other minor is actually poli-sci... :)

I consider myself closer to a moderate than anything, but I don't wish anyone would go away, everyone has a right to speak and something to contribute.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't happen to be a 25 year old kid named Mario, would you? Or his girlfriend? Because AWKWARD. :)

I meant more in that my opinions are unpopular in America, and often come from a pretty visceral place - things that might be academic for others, like abortion/family planning choices or poverty alleviation or queer and trans rights are actually all things that directly affect me or the people I love, or have in the past. As much as you can make a generalization about any political group, oderates, to me, in general seem to have maintaining a status quo, or improving the situations for the middle class, as their main goal. This bewilders me, because the status quo kind of sucks. Am I wrong? I hang out with mostly anarchists, socialists, and weirdos, so it's hard to tell.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Oderates = moderates, since I fail at typing.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

No, I'm a 20 year old named Kate. :)

I never really looked at it that way. I always referred to myself as a moderate because there are some things that I just can't agree with the more liberal stance on - partly from personal experience stuff - but I am not a conservative, just no.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

What things in particular, if you don't mind my asking?

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Well, mostly I have a certain amount of issue with welfare - as I know people who would absolutely take advantage of the system, so I think it needs to be carefully designed so people can't just use it as the "free handout" the conservatives lambast it as and mucked around with it to try and stop that. For the record, I don't think that was the right way to go about it either.

Also... Well, abortion. I am personally so against it it's not even funny, I couldn't choose that because I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I've changed my opinion over the years over whether or not I support efforts to repeal Roe v. Wade, but today I don't for practical reasons. I just don't think it would happen, and such energies are better spent promoting alternatives, which has a better chance of a positive effect than fighting and being labeled as anti-women and various other epithets.

Otherwise as far as I know I'm closer to the liberal side. I don't know, really.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Lol, those are my hot button topics too, and also for personal reasons. I've calmed down a lot about them in the last few years - pro-life/pro-choice debates used to send me into some baaaaad places in particular. Like, trigger/emotional shut down territory. Talk about welfare used to prompt a lot of self-righteous tirades and probably some TMI stories from my childhood.

Don't worry, I will definitely spare you both, unless you want to hear them.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Oh that's... ironic. Then again, I imagine they're hot button for a lot of people. I'm quick to snap on the opposite side when it comes to the gay marriage debate; one of my best friends is gay and I would like to see him be able to get married if he so chooses.

It's up to you, although my LJ is public, so... You might not want to.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Nah. I won't dump my TMI on someone else's journal. Maybe I'll post something later on my own journal.

Oddly enough, I'm lukewarm on the gay marriage debate. I agree that it needs to happen, but a lot of other LGBTQ issues get sidelined by it. Like, I would really like it if my trans friends weren't so heavily discriminated against, and I would like there to be better support for gay youth and their families so they stop killing themselves, being forced into homelessness, or taking drugs as coping methods.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

This is true, I guess people are afraid that the effort won't be as strong if it has to be divided. There's some truth to that idea, but that doesn't make it less of a shame.

I belong to an LGBTQ discussion group, as an ally who may possibly have some bisexual tendencies (I'm not entirely sure of myself at this point), so I am starting to get an idea of the huge amount of issues out there. And the suicides that were in the media lately...

Not a Rutgers student, but I go to college in Philly, which is close enough that we were all thrown for a loop by it. The worst of it, the only reason there's publicity now is because one boy's suicide was dramatic enough to make a good story. (Just because I want to be in the media doesn't mean I don't know the score. I get why - if you don't go for what draws attention, you lose a following and you die out, but...)

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

There was actually a teen suicide in my hometown a couple years ago, at the middle school that I went to. I think it shook up a lot of people in Vermont, which is pretty much a small town masquerading as a state, and likes to think of itself as ahead of the curve on being progressive.

Re: things being 'newsworthy'. I think this is why I prefer magazine writing over newspaper journalism. Newspapers need to distill information into what will instantly grab people's attention. Features give you a different scope, and a different way of building a story. I like the idea of using depth and layers to give something resonance, rather than just immediate relevance.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

That kind of thing does tend to shake people up.

I actually want to do television work, but I hope to eventually get on one of the news magazine shows, as they call them, because like with paper magazines, you get more space and time, and can go more in-depth with your work. Documentaries work for that as well, and getting a rep in the broadcast world would help me get the word out if I ever made any.