Wikileaks on the fourth estate

From: 
To: volunteers[at]lists.wikileaks.org
Cc: Wikileaks News Releases <news[at]lists.sunshinepress.org>
Subject: [WL-Volunteers] [WL-News] The hidden curse of Thomas Paine
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:26:28 +0100 (BST)

Wikileaks on the fourth estate:

The hidden curse of Thomas Paine.

In 1789 Thomas Paine, American pamphleteer, philosopher and
revolutionary, compared the sun to the truth: "[S]uch is the
irresistible nature of truth," Paine declared, "that all it asks,
and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."

Thomas Paine, author of 'Common Sense' and 'The Rights of Man' was
wrong. Paine gave away his copyright to 'Common Sense'--allowing
printers, who also took the role of publisher and distributor in
Paine's day, to pocket the authors fee.  Printers, happy with this
state of affairs, preferenced the production of 'Common Sense' over
other works.  Thomas Paine discovered the essential economic play
behind the modern press release: blessed plagiarism.  Paine's
irresistible truth appeared not only because of its coherence but
because Paine subsidized its production above competing ideas with
his own wealth.

In the same way the printers of 'Common Sense' were happy to not
split proceeds, the fourth estate must have at first seen the press
release as a boon, for it made certain ideas more profitable
without making other types less. Yet once electronic cut and paste
diminished friction, the press release and similar content subsidies
proliferated.  When the system of ideas regained its economic
equilibrium, unsubsidized words became unprofitable and were
eliminated. The consequence has been a great shift from words pulled
out of writers by reader demand, to words pushed out of writers by
special interest subsidies.

Print media, including Internet media, should not be looked to as
a content production industry, but rather, as a lobby selection
industry, which matches subsidized content with reader interest.
In this manner it is analogous to the legislative economy which
balances subsidies from political lobbies with electoral credulity.

In the last two weeks, the English Wikileaks has obtained and
released over 50 individual or collected, original, unreported,
confidential, classified or censored documents, books, photos or
films.

You may have heard of some of them, for instance:

 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_Chinese_weapons_shipment_documentation_%282008%29

 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=105191

But if you did it was because Wikileaks lobbied for their uptake
and like everyone else had its writers bribe everyone with subsidized
copy. Take a look at the material, at least one part in 4 is worthy
of reportage somewhere and ask yourself why none has been reported
without our intervention.

In the last six months Wikileaks has exposed a lot of important
stories, which have produced results from swinging the Dec 2007
Kenyan election to press conferences by the Iranian leadership, but
every re-reported revelation has been the result of our staff
lobbying other venues and providing content subsidies in excess of
the source material.

For example, there has been no reportage about our release of this
approachable, beautiful, and region defining leaked intelligence
book on North Korea:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_North_Korea_Country_Handbook_%281997%29

Or this 2007 classified UK/US spy plane compendium and tasking guide,
with plenty of approachable pictures and released in violation of
the Official Secrets Act:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_ISTAR_intelligence_handbook_%282007%29

Or this detailed classified manual on JDAM, the most strategically
significant U.S. military development in the past 15 years.  A
single B2 stealth bomber is capable of releasing 80 pre-targeted
JDAM fitted bombs and leveling all the critical infrastructure of a
medium sized city in one overflight.  Most bombings in Iraq are now
JDAM.

http://wikileaks.org/US_Air_Force_JDAM_Tactical_Manual

Wikileaks has not yet pushed this material into press release form
because it has limited resources. Last week we focused, successfully,
on reforming the prison system in western Iraq.

Any journalist, any blogger, any academic, and indeed any human
being who could set aside a cumulative half a day to read and make
a few phone calls could say something worthwhile, original and
interesting using these documents.  Professional journalists won't
without intervention because it doesn't do anyone a favor that can
be called in later and few can break even without plagiarism. In
addition the respected press obtains its own power by mediating the
conversation of competing powers--making sure each attack on a power
group is supported by another power group. Secret documents from morally
incensed secretaries upset this process. The Internet media certainly
won't help--with few exceptions, it has relegated itself to revealing
the mood of the amateur commentariat.  Its members primary motivation
is to demonstrate in-group loyality on the issue de-jour; consequently
it slavishly copies from the very professional press it maligns,
rarely adding more than is necessary to advertise peer value
conformity.

What does it mean when only those facts about the world with economic
powers behind them can be heard, when the truth lays naked before
the world and no-one will be the first to speak without a bribe?

Wikileaks' unreported material is only the most visible wave on a
black ocean of truth rotting in draws of the fourth estate, waiting
for a lobby to subsidize its revelation into a profitable endeavor.

The truth is the only guiding beacon civilization has at its
disposal. If we are to flourish we must ultimately use it to chart
our course. To do otherwise is to drift aimlessly in the dark,
decoupled from the world and hearkening to every imagined wave.

But I leave you with a quote from Paine:

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Analysis_requested

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