Governments Have A Long History Of Calling Journalists 'Traitors' When They Publish Embarassing Materials
from the a-little-history-lesson dept
It's been somewhat incredible to watch government officials try to claim that reporters covering the NSA revelations from Ed Snowden's leaked documents are somehow "traitors." Last week, in the UK, the head of MI5, Andrew Parker, made a fool of himself going around telling other newspapers that The Guardian had somehow helped terrorists. However, as Amy Davidson at the New Yorker reminds us, when the government suddenly starts calling journalists "traitors," it pays to be skeptical, because it's most likely that the government is just very embarrassed about some news that makes them look bad.Davidson relays the story of "the Spiegel Affair" from 1962, in which German officials went completely insane in attacking Der Spiegel for supposedly "putting lives at risk" by revealing 41 "highly classified state secrets." Officials also claimed that the publisher and the reporter were fleeing the country and needed to be stopped and arrested. The publication's offices had to be raided. Of course, it all later turned out to be almost entirely bogus. The report was certainly embarrassing to German officials -- highlighting how ill-prepared the country was in the case of an attack, because a simulation had resulted in fifteen million West Germans dead. Many of the official claims were outright lies (like the publisher skipping town to Cuba, which never happened). While that doesn't mean that reporters can't sometimes reveal too much, it's a good reminder that when the government flips its lid in situations like this, it pays to take the claims with a very large grain of salt.
The key paragraph from Davidson makes the point clear:
The professional secret-keepers are phenomenally bad at distinguishing between the threat of terror and their terror at being threatened—or worse, as with Strauss, at being humiliated. They need the press not just to shake them up but also to keep them from being destabilized by their own weaknesses and vanities.We've discussed at length the overclassification problem in the government, and this is all a symptom of that. The government likes to overclassify things that may embarrass government officials -- and thus they tend to overreact when those things eventually come out. This is, in part, because of the embarrassing information, but also because of the attempt to cover up the embarrassment, which only makes the whole thing worse.
Either way, this historical example is good to remember as we continue to see government officials make fanciful claims without any evidence to support them about how much the Chelsea Manning or Ed Snowden leaks have "harmed" our safety.
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Filed Under: germany, governments, journalism, leaks, traitor, uk, whistleblowers
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8 page letter explaining the government point of view.
I (redacted) don't (redacted) trust (redacted) government. As you have read from this 8 page letter of explanation. (Redacted)
(Redacted)
Capt (Redacted)
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Re: 8 page letter explaining the government point of view.
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Reason is the first victim of strong emotion
FRANK HERBERT, Dune Messiah
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Re: Reason is the first victim of strong emotion
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Nothing to see here, move along.
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ZOMG THINGS WILL BE WORSE BECAUSE OF THIS!!!!
When, once upon a time, there were a few brave congresscritters who dared to question what was happening in the wake of 9-11. They were labeled terrorist lovers, and quickly shut the hell up. Stirring up jingoistic, xenophobic, and racist feelings wasn't that hard in a country where people are told your life is worse because of 'bad people'.
Now years later the terrorist lover trope isn't nearly as powerful, because the average person is mostly aware that many of the knee jerk reactions are theater meant to line the pockets of contributors.
Now when anyone shows wrongdoing, they are traitors selling us out to the terrorists!!! We have our representatives allowing people to lie to them, and repeating lies as facts to support a narrative that keeps the campagin funds flowing.
Maybe it is time to consider that the real traitors are those who are lying to our faces. That they are exploiting the imaginary fears they created in citizens to keep control.
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Re:
(self fulfilling prophesy)
gov stooge: "See - I was right!" pats self on back
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Re:
As for considering that the one lying to our faces are the real traitors, I've long ago accepted that as fact.
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You know...
As the saying goes: One man's traitor is another man's patriot.
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My wife is from the UK
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Re: My wife is from the UK
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Re: My wife is from the UK
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And Cameron took orders
1) MI5's Andrew Parker did an attack on the free press making vague claims.
2) The fake-press under MI5's thumb, did their propaganda piece repeating the vague unsubstantiated claims.
3) The comments section of those papers were deluged with death threats to the Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden, re-inforcing Parker's attack.
4) Prime Minister Cameron was forced to back Parker.
I suspect the comments are astroturf, because the claims were weak and not backed by any common sense. Who has strong views about weak claims? Only PR men and astroturf.
I suspect it was coordinated with Parker's comment, and maybe even Parker knew about it because of its timing. Companies need hiring, staff prepped, refer to HBGary Wikileaks from 2011. That leak also showed HBGary wanting to attack Glenn Greenwald.
So what we have is a spook in a free country driving government policy to attack the free press.
Parker has no business doing this. Nobody elected him.
He doesn't dispute the truthfulness of the crimes reported by the Guardian, he has made no prosecutable allegations to the police.
He needs to resign and apologize.
Techdirt article of HBGary attack on Glenn Greenwald from 2011. Parker is siding with this attack by acting as an agent to achieve it:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110209/22340513034/leaked-hbgary-documents-show-plan-to-sprea d-wikileaks-propaganda-bofa-attack-glenn-greenwald.shtml
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Re: And Cameron took orders
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130927/17175624683/helping-build-surveillance-state-is-go od-business-palantir-gets-196-million-more-funding.shtml
Just think the same tools that can be used to spy on people, can be used to create illusions of wrongdoing.
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That's why the US wrote treason in to the constitution
A dictator's favorite weapon for dealing with anyone they don't like, such as trouble makers, is to brand them a traitor and have them jailed or executed for treason.
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True treason
Most real traitors are funneling secret information for money or because of other loyalties. The information they are sending is usually highly technical such as keys to codes not internal gossip.
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Thanks, USA. Making the entire world proud...
... again.
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So in short...
As of this posting I have not received a US National Security Letter or any classified gag order from an agent of the United States
Encrypted with Morbius-Cochrane Perfect Steganographic Codec 1.2.001
Monday, October 21, 2013 12:44:31 PM
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