Wikileaks is NOT Journalism

Fox News is NOT Accurate

and Other Things

By Hank Silverberg

There were a lot of items in the news this week that I could write about, but three stand out. The arrest of Julian Assange, Fox News distorting poll results, and the President’s attack on “sanctuary cities.” They are all troublesome. So, let’s take a look: 

Sorry, Julian Assange. You do NOT get to hide behind the First Amendment.  The arrest of the Wikileaks founder this past week in London has presented many questions. And it has sparked some debate among journalists on whether or not they should be defending his actions.

What did he allegedly do? Well, first, in a separate case, he could face rape charges in Sweden now that he has left the protection of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He had been holed up there for the last seven years.  But the main charge in the United States, which had been pushing both Ecuador and the U.K. for the arrest, was Wikileaks' distribution of sensitive military information that had been stolen by a hacker.

Bottom line, journalists in a free society like the United States do NOT steal. On occasion, like the Pentagon Papers case in 1971, they do get ahold of stolen material from other sources and then debate whether to print or broadcast it.  Then they consider the impact. Is the information accurate?
                                                         Does publishing the  

information serve the public interest? 

Assange used Wikileaks to disclose classified material obtained from former Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning. She was later convicted at a court martial for violating the Espionage Act. She spent seven years in prison before her 35-year sentence was commuted by President Obama.  

Had Wikileaks just published the information, like the New York Times and Washington Post did in the Pentagon Papers case, Assange would probably not be facing charges today. But the government says he actually encouraged Manning to send more material that Wikileaks knew was stolen and helped her hack into military computers to get it. That is stepping over a line that legitimate journalists should not and do not cross.   

 The courts have ruled that journalists may not break the law in an effort to obtain such materials, and it has rarely happened. To be clear, doing so would also violate the spirit of the ethics codes of both the Radio and Television Digital News Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, though stealing is not specifically mentioned. Those professional groups have no authority over journalists, but they do set the tone, and most respectable news organizations adhere to these rules. 

https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

https://www.rtdna.org/content/rtdna_code_of_ethics

It could be argued that it may be necessary to break the law in order to expose government corruption or covert operations that might also violate the law. But that is not what this case is about. If the government is correct, and it still must be proven in court, Assange, who is not an American Citizen,  encouraged a member of the United States armed services to betray her country. That is not something journalists should be doing.

Of note, Manning is back in jail now for refusing to testify to a Grand Jury that is investigating Wikileaks.  It may take some time for this to play out in the courts, and any decision will be studied and talked about for decades, just like the Pentagon Papers case. Assange, meanwhile, faces extradition from Great Britain to the United States.  

Also of note this week, a big faux pas at Fox News.

 The actual poll (link below) shows the President’s UNFAVORABLE rating remains steady at 55%, while 59% of those polled worried about an economic downturn. I would like to think that somebody just misinterpreted the results, but at Fox News where mistakes are frequent and bias is evident, I just don’t think so. 

http://politics.georgetown.edu/in-the-news/poll-58-percent-of-voters-approve-of-president-trumps-handling-of-the-economy/

And that may explain this graphic, which Fox News initially put up and quickly took down when show host Howie Kurtz actually saw what it said. Not a mistake, he told the media later, just out of context at the time.  

I think this poll, conducted by Monmouth University, is about right. 

And finally, this week a bizarre threat from the President of the United States. Mr. Trump has suggested that asylum seekers and others who have been detained at our southern border for illegally crossing, should now be sent to those cities in the U.S. which have declared themselves “Sanctuary Cities.” Chief among them is our historical long-term melting pot Port of entry, New York City. Mayor Bill Deblasio said his city “will always be the ultimate city of immigrants –the President's empty threats won’t change that.” The Big Apple’s Mayor said the policy was rooted in cruelty, but one of the city’s tabloid newspapers, the Daily News, probably expressed it better with this front page:                                                              

And Congress? While all this was going on, they argued over who was more uncivil as they insulted each other and did nothing. Both the left and the right are getting a bit out of hand on Capitol Hill. Maybe there is someone up there, who is not running for President, who can calm things down. 

Just another week passes in Donald Trump’s America.

             (Your comments and suggestions are welcome) 

                (My book "The Campaign"  can be purchased on line at Amazon.com, BN.com or hanksilverbergbooks.com. Or send me an email at HankSilverberg@gmail.com to find out how to get a reduced price signed copy)