From Sarah Palin to the Times readers who grilled Bill Keller over that paper’s right to publish information contained in 250,000 diplomatic cables leaked this Sunday, there has been plenty of outrage over the latest WikiLeaks dump. In a Q&A with Keller, Jill Abramson, and Andrew W. Lehrer, reader Brian Chrisman summed up the concern:
It is not up to WikiLeaks, The New York Times, or any other entity to determine whether confidential United States government information should be shielded from the public. We elect leaders who, along with their trusted appointees and officials, analyze data and make such decisions. By subverting that process, The New York Times and WikiLeaks are undermining our entire electoral process.
Resorting to “somebody will do it anyway” rationalizations is pathetic.
Legal? Perhaps. Wrong? Definitely.
Senators have weighed in as well, and now, the Post reports that the Justice Department is conducting “an active, ongoing criminal investigation” into whether WikiLeaks has broken any laws.
People are clearly upset—even as they pore through the sometimes gossipy details and wonder, just what do Putin and Berlusconi talk about when they get together.
But whom are they upset at?
If the WikiLeaks dump, and press’s decision to use it, has riled you, tell us why. Why wasn’t it the right thing to do? And who exactly are you angry at? Manning? Assange? WikiLeaks? The press? The government, for not corking up its leaky holes sooner?
And if you believe publishing on WikiLeaks’s cables was right—tell us why, too.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.