STICKY WIKI – AT 9:30 A.M. ET:  The Brits have done vastly better reporting on WikiLeaks and its sleazy spiritual leader, Julian Assange, than has the American press.  For example, Iain Dale in London's Daily Mail, asks the following: 

He preaches openness but demands privacy. He reveals 'secrets' but 99% are prurient gossip. He's accused of rape but won't face his accusers. Why do the Left worship the WikiLeaks 'God'?

Well put, don't you think?  When the Brit writers get going, they really get going.

Far from being a 21st Century hero, I have come to regard Assange as a dictatorial charlatan whose real agenda is not the furtherance of greater transparency, but the furtherance of Julian Assange and his anti-American agenda.

His ego seems to be without equal and he’s now reached the dangerous point of believing his own publicity. So much so that some of his staunchest supporters, such as the Guardian journalist Nick Davies, have cut off contact with him.

Dale makes the reasonable point that whistleblowing and exposure can have honorable motives.  But he doesn't attribute honor to the wicked Wikis:

...its ethics and operations are now coming under serious scrutiny, and rightly so.

Whenever anyone – journalist, or otherwise – reveals confidential information there has to be a point to it. By releasing three million random documents, illegally obtained from U.S. government computers, WikiLeaks put paid to its reputation in one fell swoop.

Had Assange and his cohorts sorted through the documents and filtered out those with a genuine public interest, he could have been seen as a modern-day hero.

But he released everything in the name of so-called transparency. He did it because he could – the prerogative of every dictator in history.

Read the whole piece.  Well worth it.  Try to find that kind of commentary on this side of the pond, in the mainstream media.  You'll be looking a long time.

And, while you're at it, read this companion piece in the Mail: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339859/Wikileaks-Julian-Assanges-promiscuous-lifestyle-revealed-Jemima-Khan-look-away-now.html

Good reporting, juicily served.  Assange is major sleaze, and some of the beautiful people supporting him are going to seem far less beautiful when all the facts come out. 

But the most important facts are those still not explored:  Who leaked these documents?  As we've said, they certainly weren't all leaked by one little Army private now in custody.  As Americans, we have a right to know who violated their public trust, and why.   True journalists should be Woodwarding and Bernsteining all over the place, but they are not.  There is no career advancement to be had in exposing corruption in a liberal administration, except maybe at Fox News or The Wall Street Journal.  We hope they have reporters on the case.

December 20, 2010