Freedom Of The Press Foundation Sets Up Shop To Help Fund Journalism Disruptors Like Wikileaks
from the good-to-see dept
This is cool to see. An absolutely awesome group of folks have set up a project called the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which is raising money to donate to various online projects that (you guessed it) help create a more free and open press. Part of the idea is that by funneling money through a foundation like this one, projects like Wikileaks can more easily get funded, without risk of being cut off individually (a la Wikileaks being cut off from most funding sources). Of course, it's not just Wikileaks, but sites like Muckrock, which we've used for a while to help with our Freedom of Information Act requests and some other "citizen journalism" sites.Among the high profile folks behind the site are Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers fame, some EFFers, including founder John Perry Barlow and activists Trevor Timm (who's the executive director of this new project) and Rainey Reitman. Then there are people like journalists Glenn Greenwald, Josh Stearns and Xeni Jardin, and filmmaker Laura Poitras (who is working on a film about Wikileaks and internet freedom, and has been "detained and interrogated about her work at the U.S. border over 40 times.") And also actor John Cusack -- whose name appears a bit out of place, but he's been active in these kinds of issues.
I hope the project works out well. It's something that is clearly needed.
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Filed Under: daniel ellsberg, eff, foundation, funding, john cusack, journalism, rainey reitman, trevor timm, xeni jardin
Companies: freedome of the press foundation
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RIGHT?! Unless they want people to think they have double standards or something...
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Second, it's nice to see a group that has no potential ties to funding any sort of terrorism. These people are funding journalist disrupters, not the likes of Wikileaks. If you want a good and ballanced disrupted to media, one has to look for a character named April Oneal. Disruption causes a ripple and should never cause an explosion that empties the pond of water. Wikileaks tended to do the latter.
Third, this website which you run Mike Mansick, is steeped in disruptive journalism. I'm glad you at least grasp what Assange couldn't in terms of exposure of the truth.
Simply put, exposure of truth does not include releasing classified data, it's about disruption from what others are trying to cover up, and exposing situations to the public for what they really are. Assange failed to grasp that basic concept through Wikileaks.
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Cut it for a couple of months and the foundation might dry up itself...
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Destruction of the Tenth amendment was the start.
The progressives and the government are working to destroy the 4th, 5th, 2nd and 1th.
Where it says "The Right Of The People" that means you and me.
If you sit there reading this and do not believe it we have already lost.
May God Have Mercy On The Republic.
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Not to be rude, but that sentence doesn't make any sense. Exposure of truth, as a statement in the English language, means bringing to light that which was previously unknown. Also...why are you trying to protect "classified data"? You say it's about disruption of what Corrupt Politician X is trying to cover up, but that if the data is classified, then no, it's off-limits?
A few more things. First...April Oneal? The only April Oneal I know is the reporter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a fictional character.
Second, your analogy of emptying a pond doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What, did Wikileaks threaten to stop the publication of all news for all time?
Lastly, " it's nice to see a group that has no potential ties to funding any sort of terrorism." Really? Why are you hinting that Wikileaks was related to terrorist groups? Do you have any proof?
Wally, I've read your posts before. Most of the time, you do posit good arguments, and are able to debate fairly well. But this...this is like bob or Out_of_the_blue. This comment has little relation to reality.
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@Wally
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More importantly, should we call the NYT a terrorist organisation for the deliberate leaking of classified documents? Because if not, then that's just hypocritical.
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Re: @Wally
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Do you have a point that is on topic?
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Also Troma Entertainment and I would be interested in doing pro-bono (Not to be confused w Cher's late husband) work for this cause.
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I should clarify and extrapolate a bit on what I said.
True journalists will always go out of their way to risk their lives and their careers, at times, to expose corruption in the system. Techdirt is a disruptive media source at times, and the difference I see between how things are reported from Wikileaks vs Techdirt is that the Techdirt staff go out of their way to give you why they report what they report. In no way was my statement attacking Mike Mansick and those who contribute to Techdirt. I am commending them for not being a bat shit crazy organization that Wikileaks is.
As for the classified information that should not have been exposed. Some people in certain regions outside the US do not like this nation, its people, or for the freedoms the average US citizen has...most fail to understand them. When you release Estimated Times of Arrival for dignitarys in extremely unstable regions if the world, that's where my line was drawn for Wikileaks. My problem with Wikileaks lays in the fact that the US's global representatives' lives are in danger when that information is released. The current US presidency is a huge pansy for covering up minor diplomatic mistakes for which everyone, including the president himself, should be able to laugh with. Wikileaks released the embarrassing stuff too, but the intent was clearly to demoralize and defame the US further than it already has done itself with this current administration.
My disagreement was not towards the group funding disruptive media. I condone it. I would not be reading here if I didn't. It's the fact that somehow Wikileaks seems to fall in that category of beyond reasonable reporting. That's all.
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Sometimes releasing classified data is the only way to reveal truth.
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But Wikileaks didn't do that. They actively solicited the US and major news organizations to go through the data to remove the stuff that would endanger lives. They didn't just plop the whole collection out there.
What they did do was release stuff that needed to be publicly aired, evidence of governments engaging in various nefarious activities. In the eyes of governments, that's an even greater sin than putting lives at risk -- and for the sake of freedom we need a lot more of it.
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Pentagon Papers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXHDyNyXYY8
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For those who don't know, it gives the court the power to unseal classified documents involving workers' compensation in classified US military projects. The case that pushed Bill Clinton to not only create it and sign it in after ratification was one where workers at the Groom Lake facility in Nevada were permanently injured due to improper toxic waste handling.
But yes John, finding ways to get a document declassified to reveal the truth is a part of journalism.
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