Both Democrats And Republicans Blame The Messenger When Leaked Emails Are Made Available
from the stop-it dept
Back during the 2016 election, when Wikileaks published John Podesta's leaked emails, Democrats freaked out and blamed Wikileaks, and even tried to lie about the validity of those emails. Many supporters of the Democratic party, to this day, believe that Wikileaks and/or Julian Assange should face legal consequences for publishing those hacked emails. Of course, Republicans cheered on that effort. Sean Hannity, who back in 2010 was screaming about how Assange was "waging his war against the U.S." by publishing the leaked documents from Chelsea Manning and demanding that Obama "arrest" Assange, is now seen as one of Assange's most vocal supporters even having him on his show.
But, of course, when the shoe is on the other foot, things change. Just recently, various news organizations started reporting on shenanigans by top Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, based on a leak of Broidy's emails. Broidy's not taking this very well, issuing a subpoena to the Associated Press to try to uncover the news organization's source for his emails.
No one is saying that it's okay to hack into someone'e email. But in both cases we're talking about those who are upset about an email leak going after the organization publishing the details of the leak and blaming the messenger. Just because documents are leaked or hacked or obtained through questionable means, it does not mean that news organizations can't publish them. Nor does it mean that they have to hand over the details of their sources. But it is worth noting that I don't see anyone who was screaming about Wikileaks now supporting Broidy's demands to the AP. Nor do I see those who were defending Wikileaks now defending the Associated Press against Broidy.
It's almost as if most of the people on either side of this political horse race are determining which news orgs to support based on whose side the revelations help. That's... bad. We should support a free press and condemn attacks on news organizations when they're revealing newsworthy leaked information, no matter whether the news helps or hurts "your" side. Treating politics as a "red team" v. "blue team" sport leads to bad outcomes for everyone's rights.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: elliott broidy, emails, john podesta, journalism, julian assange, leaks
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
"If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
yellow journalism
But it seems that the vast majority of White House leaks since the start of the Trump administration do not pass the "newsworthy" test. So much is just childish name-calling, silly gossip and 3rd-party rumors, often completely uncorroborated (and later retracted) but put out to the public anyway. There's no longer any difference betweeen the mainstream press and the tabloid press, there's just so much garbage all the way around.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: yellow journalism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: yellow journalism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: yellow journalism
Of course, my reading list is curated by me. It includes Techdirt.com and others. It does not include tabloids, or anything FOX related.
MSM is dramatically better than the tabloids. You reading bad press about your favorite politicians isn't on them. It's on your bad politicians.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: yellow journalism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gawker
That's what Gawker thought too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Gawker
And "here's the tape".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yeah, it does almost seem like that, doesn't it?
No, it depends. Is this leak embarrassing the Republicans or the Democrats? It's bad if it's one of them all right, but if it's the other one, it's nothing more than the bastards deserve!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I beg to differ. "going after the publisher" in this case would be suing the AP. Once the AP, pro forma, denies Broidy's request for the source of the emails outside the courts, of course he's going to issue a subpoena. You would have been more honest to mention Qatar:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
emailzes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]