WikiLeaks has been around for a while, but this year—beginning in April, when the site posted a video showing the death of two Reuters employees in a U.S. helicopter attack, through November, when mainline journalism organizations began releasing stories based on a trove of some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, stories that are still rolling out—the world took notice. Is WikiLeaks a boon to transparency and freedom of information or a threat to U.S. interests? Is it a journalistic entity or something altogether new?
In a new Columbia Journalism Review podcast, CJR’s Joel Meares talks with deputy editor Clint Hendler about how WikiLeaks is upending American assumptions about journalism and free speech.
Listen to the episode below, and be sure to check out the CJR podcast homepage on iTunes, where you can listen and subscribe for free. The first two episodes are up now, with many more to come.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.