Monday, November 8, 2010

WikiLeaks but not the Leaks

Burning matter du jour: Why are most stories about the concept of WikiLeaks, but not about the content of the leaks?

I did a very unscientific and brief Google on "Iraq War Leaks" only to find that most of the stories are about WikiLeaks and very few on the abuses detailed in the leaked material. I believe that content is fundamentally important to news and yet, journalism in the 140 character Twitter world we live in, seldom dives into content. (However, here's an interesting more in-depth article I found, it's worth checking out at http://bit.ly/aOrANP

Oddly enough, England--home to CCTV and other Orwellian apparatus--has devoted far more ink to the content and has continuing coverage. Major outlets in the USA gave speak and ink to the leaked documents in the first week of their release but has not truly continued in diving deeper other to slam Julian Assange. Of course this gives rise to my other burning peeve: lack of coverage on ongoing big news stories of interest. So how can this be remedied?

Probably the bigger question is: Why do citizens allow themselves to float above the news and surf on headlines? What does it say about us citizens of the world when we allow journalism to dissolve into quick elevator messages. The only way to stop two-second journalism is to stop consuming it--but sadly, I see that people just don't have the will to stop. So what's a stopgap measure?

Burning suggestion du jour: News outlets should devote carved-out pages to update stories like BP oil spills, etc.

PS: It's Veteran's Day Thursday in America...does that make the Iraq War Leaks even more important? Email me at burningmatter@gmail.com and let me know.

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