If the Fourth Estate is the guardian of our democracy, we're in big trouble. I just read
Army Private Admits Giving Trove of Military Data to WikiLeaks
By CHARLIE SAVAGE, Published: February 28, 2013 in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Below are the paragraphs that really struck me.
“I believed if the public — in particular the American public — had access to the information” in the reports, “this could spark a debate about foreign policy in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan,” he [Manning] said.
[snip]
At first, Private Manning tried to give the information to a newspaper.
He said he first called The Washington Post and spoke to a reporter for about five minutes, without going into detail about what he had. He said he decided that the reporter did not seem particularly interested because she said The Post would have to review the material first and a senior editor would make the call.
He said he then tried to reach out to The New York Times by calling a phone number for the public editor, an ombudsman who is not part of the newsroom. An automatic answering service routed him to voicemail, and he left a message that no one returned, he said. He also considered visiting the offices of Politico, but was deterred by a snowstorm.
So Manning tried to peddle his story first to the Washington Post, then to the New York Times. At the Post, which gave us the Watergate story a generation ago, he didn't get past a reporter who'd have to get permission of a senior editor to commit journalism. That reporter had a Pulitzer offered to her on a silver platter (well, on a CD) and she punted it away.
Then Manning tried the Grey Lady, the Newspaper of Record, that gave us the Pentagon Papers. Nobody returned his call. That's like dropping the ball and never bothering to pick it up.
If anyone doubts that democracy needs outlets like WikiLeaks, this proves the point. Our conventional media are fat, dumb, and happy.