Opening Statement: Wikileaks

Wikileaks has been an extremely debatable topic recently. Currently, the Pentagon is taking action to try to prosecute and take it down due to the release of numerous documents chronicling the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Created by Julian Assange, Wikileaks was created to keep government activities open worldwide. What was unique about the site was that it allowed for anyone an “innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to [its] journalists”. So, the question arises: is Wikileaks overall more harmful or more beneficial to society?

In my opinion, Wikileaks overall is more beneficial to society because it leaves people with the knowledge of their government’s censored actions, something that should be available to the public without the hassle of Wikileaks. When America was first founded, all decisions were to be made public to the American people. But as time has gotten by, we are moving more towards corruption by making private decisions and committing censored actions. What is the need for these decisions and actions to be censored? If it is because what is being done is wrong, then why are they being done at all?

Jeff Cohen is an associate professor at Ithaca College, TV commentator for CNN and MSNBC, and has numerous columns in daily newspapers such as USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globes. He once said:

"Media is the nervous system of a democracy. If it's not functioning well, the democracy can't function."

The point that he is making is that the media is responsible for keeping the people informed of the government. The media inform us on our politics and their actions. The media of today can only go so far in reporting the daily activities of the government. Sometimes, the sources of the media aren't even primary sources but instead released statements from spokespeople or rumors spread from other sources. The point is that the media is no longer functioning well and Wikileaks has become the solution into bringing order back into the media. When Wikileaks started publishing the war diaries of Iraq and Afghanistan, it was a big surprise to a majority of our country. If our media was functioning properly and our democratic system was functioning properly then the stuff that were released out of Wikileaks should have been well known by the people.