Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 19 submissions in the queue.
posted by takyon on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-walks-like-a-duck dept.

FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks

FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds asserts Pierre Omidyar decided to create The Intercept to not only take ownership of the Snowden leaks but also to continue his blockade against WikiLeaks and create a "honey trap" for whistleblowers.

WikiLeaks, the transparency organization known for publishing leaked documents that threaten the powerful, finds itself under pressure like never before, as does its editor-in-chief, Julian Assange. Now, the fight to silence Wikileaks is not only being waged by powerful government figures but also by the media, including outlets and organizations that have styled themselves as working to protect whistleblowers.

As this three-part series seeks to show, these outlets and organizations are being stealthily guided by the hands of special interests, not the public interest they claim to serve. Part I focuses on the Freedom of the Press Foundation, The Intercept, and the oligarch who has strongly influenced both organizations in his long-standing fight to silence WikiLeaks.

[...] WikiLeaks, in recent tweets, has suggested that Omidyar's influence was responsible not only for the [Freedom of the Press Foundation's (FPF) decision to terminate processing of WikiLeaks' donations] but also for the unusual attacks that some FPF members have launched against WikiLeaks, particularly Assange, in recent months. The most outspoken of these members has been FPF director Micah Lee, who is employed by the Omidyar-owned publication, The Intercept.

In February of last year, Lee called Assange a "rapist, liar & ally to fascists" in a tweet — despite the fact that Assange was never charged with rape, his alleged accusers have also claimed that Assange had not sexually assaulted them, and there is abundant evidence suggesting that the rape investigation was a means of ensnaring Assange to ensure his extradition to the United States. Based on Lee's other tweets, the "ally to fascists" charge ostensibly refers to Lee's belief that Wikileaks' publications of emails from the DNC and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta was done explicitly, with Assange's blessing, to aid the Trump campaign.

Related: Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document


Original Submission

Related Stories

Prominent Whistleblowers and Journalists Defend Julian Assange at Online Vigil 37 comments

Prominent whistleblowers and journalists defend Julian Assange at online vigil

Over the weekend, dozens of public figures, including prominent whistleblowers and journalists, took part in a 36-hour international online vigil in defence of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. The event was the third "Unity4J" vigil organised by independent journalist and New Zealand Internet Party leader, Suzie Dawson, since Assange's communications were cut-off by Ecuadorian authorities at their London embassy last March.

[...] Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 exposed the extent of US criminality in Vietnam, drew a parallel between his own activities and those of WikiLeaks. Referring to WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of US war logs in Iraq and Afghanistan, he stated: "I really waited almost 40 years, after the Pentagon Papers had come out, for someone to do what I had done."

Ellsberg pointed to similarities between the attacks that had been levelled against him, and the persecution of Assange. "I was charged with 12 felony counts, a possible 150 years in prison. Nixon had in mind for me what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had in mind for Julian Assange," he said.

takyon: #Unity4J. See also: Why I Stand With Julian Assange at The American Conservative.

Related: FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks
Julian Assange has His Internet Access Cut Off by Ecuador
Ecuador Spent $5 Million Protecting and Spying on Julian Assange


Original Submission

Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document 46 comments

Barely an hour after a news organization published an article about a Top Secret National Security Agency document on Russian hacking, the Justice Department announced charges against a 25-year-old government contractor who a senior federal official says was the leaker of the document.

The May 5, 2017 intelligence document published by The Intercept, an online news organization, describes new details about Russian efforts to hack voting systems in the U.S a week prior to the 2016 presidential election. While the document doesn't say the hacking changed any votes, it "raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results."

Even as the document was ricocheting around Washington, the Justice Department announced that a criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.

Source: NBC News

Once investigative efforts identified Winner as a suspect, the FBI obtained and executed a search warrant at her residence. According to the complaint, Winner agreed to talk with agents during the execution of the warrant. During that conversation, Winner admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue despite not having a "need to know," and with knowledge that the intelligence reporting was classified. Winner further admitted removing the classified intelligence reporting from her office space, retaining it, and mailing it from Augusta, Georgia, to the news outlet, which she knew was not authorized to receive or possess the documents.

Source: Department of Justice

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA's understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying "raw" intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

Source: The Intercept

How The Intercept Outed Reality Winner

Julian Assange: Alleged NSA leaker 'must be supported'

Bad tradecraft: How the Intercept may have outed its own leaker

WikiLeaks tweet #1: "Suspected Intercept reporter gave US government NSA whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner's post code, printout and her report number" and tweet #2: "WikiLeaks issues a US$10,000 reward for information leading to the public exposure & termination of this 'reporter'".


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

Silicon Valley Technologists Form Group to Fight Tech Addiction 27 comments

Silicon Valley technologists, including former Google and Facebook employees, have formed the Center for Humane Technology:

A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build.

The cohort is creating a union of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology. Along with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media, it also plans an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort and an ad campaign at 55,000 public schools in the United States.

The campaign, titled The Truth About Tech, will be funded with $7 million from Common Sense and capital raised by the Center for Humane Technology. Common Sense also has $50 million in donated media and airtime from partners including Comcast and DirecTV. It will be aimed at educating students, parents and teachers about the dangers of technology, including the depression that can come from heavy use of social media.

"We were on the inside," said Tristan Harris, a former in-house ethicist at Google who is heading the new group. "We know what the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the engineering works."

Omidyar Network is listed as a key advisor/supporter.

Also at TIME.

Related: How Facebook Can Be Addictive
Facebook Founding President Sounds Alarm, Criticizes Facebook
Another Former Facebook Exec Speaks Out
FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:25PM (5 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:25PM (#627867) Journal

    how many people would know about the funding?

    How many people working for these organisations would know who was pulling the strings?

    How would they know?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:56PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:56PM (#627891)

      Try reading the linked article, idiot. That would be a good start.

      • (Score: 2, Disagree) by MostCynical on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:48PM (3 children)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:48PM (#627913) Journal

        Read, before posting.
        Does *every* employee buy in to this supposed anti -wikileaks stuff? Do they get asked at interview? Or is it just the editorial direction? Why would anyone want to work for them if the editorial direction is at such odds with the marketing?

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 26 2018, @02:55AM (2 children)

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday January 26 2018, @02:55AM (#628054) Homepage

          There is a tipping point.

          For example, you realized that all mainstream media was fake when NPR and MSNBC started squawking the same talking points as FoxNews. Those talking points were the condemnation of Assange, traditionally a darling of liberal media. The tipping point for The Intercept came pretty late, and it was the fact that an article of theirs suggested Oprah 2020 with a straight face. It is their face of contempt when they've been found out (or people stopped reading them after Snowden's leaks stopped being headline news on every independent media website) and are going full scorched-earth into jerking around their readers.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by pTamok on Friday January 26 2018, @08:33AM (1 child)

            by pTamok (3042) on Friday January 26 2018, @08:33AM (#628150)

            I think the tipping point for The Intercept was the lack of operations security [wikipedia.org] dealing with Reality Winner's [nymag.com] documents. At that point, they lost all credibility with any potential whistle-blowers/leakers who understand operations security.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @03:56PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @03:56PM (#628300)

              Interesting article, thank you.

              You really would expect more from people who decide to go into that line of work. I mean even I know about steganography, whether it's yellow dots from a printer or custom typos for each recipient of a memo. And I'm not exactly a security expert despite my tinfoil headpiece...

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:04PM (18 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:04PM (#627896)

    I'm pretty versed in politics and tech, yet "Pierre Omidyar" should be defined somewhere in TFS, at least until he does become a household name.

    I typically rage when the media thinks it appropriate to quote random twitter posts, without informing us of why the person behind "LockHil4Evar" may have an informed and somehow valuable opinion.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:34PM (#627907)

      Sorry about that. His name should be somewhat familiar if you remembered the launch of The Intercept. In fact, both SoylentNews and The Intercept were founded in the same month: February 2014. Coincidence?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:35PM (11 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:35PM (#627908) Journal

      I'm pretty versed in politics and tech, yet "Pierre Omidyar" should be defined somewhere in TFS, at least until he does become a household name.

      Yes, because "the Zuck of ebay" is so hard to remember.

      ("now, get off of my lawn" mandatory section) And then, the younglings need to have the info immediately in the context, otherwise - even when "pretty versed in politics and tech" - they may start to search and forget in the process what they were doing. The generational ADHD is so prevalent it became mandatory to cater for news providers and aggregators to cater for it or feel the millennials' wrath

      (grin... or maybe not)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:40PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:40PM (#627910) Journal

        it became mandatory to cater for news providers and aggregators to cater for it

        Sorry 'bout that.
        Too early on a public holiday morning may do this for me. Or maybe it's the age. Or something worth of (self)scorn...

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:56PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:56PM (#627917)

        Sorry, I don't study celebrities, you should identify people by more than name.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:01PM (#627922)

          TFS says he created The Intercept, and that he's an oligarch.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:22PM (7 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:22PM (#627943)

        > And then, the younglings need to have the info immediately in the context

        Actually, Proper Newspapers, from the cold dark days of before being able to google every missing piece of data, had the silly habit of introducing the credentials of the people being talked about or quoted.
        One could argue that it's a lot less necessary these days, and providing context and supporting arguments has become a threat towards post character limits.

        I can wait two paragraphs, as writers trying to avoid repetitions seem to like to do, to enhance drama/curiosity or something ... But the information, per the traditional rules of journalistic writing, should be in the piece.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 26 2018, @12:31AM (4 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 26 2018, @12:31AM (#627994) Journal

          I can wait two paragraphs, as writers trying to avoid repetitions seem to like to do, to enhance drama/curiosity or something ... But the information, per the traditional rules of journalistic writing, should be in the piece.

          Speaking of "traditional rules of journalistic writing", inverted pyramid [wikipedia.org] does not guarantee the details are presented in the summary, rather on the contrary.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday January 26 2018, @01:03AM (3 children)

            by bob_super (1357) on Friday January 26 2018, @01:03AM (#628007)

            From that Wikipedia page: "Most important info: Who? What? ..."

            "Rex says: Trump is a moron" changes completely depending on whether his full name is Rex Tillerson, or Rex Shovelson from the club at the end of the street.

            At least, we don't have summaries that end mid-sentence, in the despicable tradition of US papers trying to make you turn the page.

            • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday January 26 2018, @02:41AM (2 children)

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 26 2018, @02:41AM (#628045) Journal

              What of "Pierre Omidyar decided to create The Intercept" escaped your observation or understanding?

              --
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @06:40AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @06:40AM (#628130)

                None but it would simply have been better to say eBay billionare Pierre Om ...

                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 26 2018, @08:15AM

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 26 2018, @08:15AM (#628146) Journal

                  Which is only relevant to the story as the "this is how he got his billions" detail - doesn't add much to the story.
                  The other "owner of the Intercept" one is more relevant and was mentioned first.

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Friday January 26 2018, @02:56AM (1 child)

          by captain normal (2205) on Friday January 26 2018, @02:56AM (#628055)
          --
          The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @06:52AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @06:52AM (#628132)

            MintPress might be wonky but apparently so certainly is MinnPost or at least this guy writing for them, Brian Lambert.

            From the get-­go, MintPress was your typical left-­of-­center web outlet. Climate change updates? Check. Republican candidates saying bizarre things? Check.

            If you think it is required of a web site to be "left-of-center" to be interested in the climate, you must be a rabid fascist and nihilist yourself. And to think that politicians (left, center or right) are unable of constantly uttering the stupidest things, a fool.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:08PM (2 children)

      by frojack (1554) on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:08PM (#627928) Journal

      I typically rage when the media thinks it appropriate to quote random twitter posts,

      You and me both.

      Its a disease, a cancer, born of the believe that all opinions are equally valid and all facts are subject to negotiation.
      I don't care that someone might "have an opinion", and I have no reason to believe any given twitter handle belongs to any specific person. I place no special value on an Informed opinion, because regardless of the information that person supposedly has access to, its still just their opinion, often unswayed by the facts.

      I've added a rule to the My Rules tab of Ublock Origin, something like:

      ! 1/25/2018, 2:48:24 PM https://twitter.com [twitter.com]
      twitter.com

      Kill them all, let god sort it out.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 26 2018, @02:15AM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday January 26 2018, @02:15AM (#628036) Journal

        I don't care that someone might "have an opinion", and I have no reason to believe any given twitter handle belongs to any specific person. I place no special value on an Informed opinion, because regardless of the information that person supposedly has access to, its still just their opinion, often unswayed by the facts.

        You raise an interesting issue. We're living in a time now when "argument from authority" has suffered a multi-prong assault.

        One prong is that thanks to the Internet and the greater access to information it has brought, we have all seen more clearly than ever before how devoid of actual authority so many of our "authorities" are, ie. the Great and Powerful are so often not very great and really quite stupid, and so each of us asks himself, "If we live in a meritocracy, then why is it that moron is rich and powerful when I am not?"

        Another prong is that knowledge has become so specialized that it's becoming harder for us to feel able to question the conclusions of specialties not our own. A person might know a great deal about circuit design, but shy from questioning the latest astonishing report from the field of chemistry.

        So we're collectively finding it harder to know who to believe, and the process we're witnessing where authorities are attacking each others' authority has compounded that.

        Then there's trying to fall back on logic, to carefully assess if what the person tells us makes sense. That can lead to error, too, because a clever deceiver will construct a lie that sounds plausible enough. We can probe, to see if the construct bears scrutiny, but well the day gets away from us and we get interrupted by our boss, our spouse, our kids, our chatty neighbor and we can't follow up as thoroughly as we might in a slower age.

        This is the discursive breakdown we have read about so many times in history books. Old orthodoxies crumble away, new forces try to craft language that empowers them, that helps them wrest the discourse away from the status quo. They reach for new symbols, new stories to tell their truth.

        This is what it feels like on the ground in the middle of a revolution. Buckle up and pay close attention, because we all have front row seats to History in the Making now.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @04:42PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @04:42PM (#628320)

          This is what it feels like on the ground in the middle of a revolution. Buckle up and pay close attention, because we all have front row seats to History in the Making now.

          Every generation says and thinks this. Sometimes things happen, sometimes they don't. And it is always easy to look back and assign importance to things, much like a horoscope. Regardless, every generation looks to some unknown boogeyman around the corner whether it exists or not. "It is the best of times. It is the worst of times."

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @12:08AM (#627982)

      Wasn't Pierre one of the TeleTubbies?

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:35PM (8 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:35PM (#627909) Journal

    That some parts of the press are ganging up on Wikileaks (not that wikileaks is any kind of a saint here), shows they have ad many secrets to had as government does. Probably the same secrets.

    If we've learned nothing else in the past 5 years, its become painfully obvious just how corrupt the journalism profession as a whole has become.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:50PM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:50PM (#627914) Journal

      Yeah, right, it's not the governments fault that they have dirty laundry to hide, it's the presses' fault.

      Allow me to correct our assertion

      If we've learned nothing else in the past 5 years, its become painfully obvious just how corrupt the journalism profession as a whole has become.

      With the evident solution: maybe it's a good time for you to actually learn something, Or at least don't forget the earlier lessons.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:19PM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:19PM (#627938) Journal

        I can see where my multiple typos probably triggered your rant button:

        they have ad many secrets to had as government does.
        should have been:
        they have as many secrets to hide as government does.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:03PM (4 children)

      by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:03PM (#627923) Journal

      As the same people funding the politicians are the ones who fund the "media" (entertainment, news, whatever, it is all the same) it would be surprising if they weren't the same secrets.

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:16PM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:16PM (#627934) Journal

        Exactly.
        My point was that the press is so corrupt that they have plenty to hide.

        If it turns out they want to hide the same things the government wants to hide it wouldn't surprise me at all.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @12:00AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @12:00AM (#627975)

        '"As the same people funding the politicians are the ones who fund the "media"'

        Are you talking about media consumers? We fund the oligarchs by buying content that turns us into meme dribbling morons, and they provide us more memes to dribble. And then we bitch that we collectively concede our civil rights to them, which is the most profitable meme of all. It recovers millions in revenues through the great whirlwind of shit known as the RNC/DNC alliance.

        If you think your side is right, your probably on the wrong side. It isn't about winning, it is about how you play the game.

        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday January 26 2018, @12:16AM (1 child)

          by MostCynical (2589) on Friday January 26 2018, @12:16AM (#627989) Journal

          "The primary source of newspaper income is advertising – "
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]

          Philanthropy* and advertising.

          *rich people, aka 1%

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Friday January 26 2018, @07:14AM

            by anubi (2828) on Friday January 26 2018, @07:14AM (#628136) Journal

            Who is to say that the "editorial content" is not also a form of advertising.... somebody is controlling the bias.

            Seems damn near every non-technical article I read is slanted.

            "Makers of Public Opinion" will stop at nothing to get their side pushed... and includes buying the paper if people are reading it.

            Remember how DeBeers got into Hollywood and successfully implanted the notion that a diamond ( they have a monopoly on 'em ) as a REQUIRED symbol of betrothal... or furriers promoting the mink coat as a symbol of wealth. The fancy department stores, and the importance of having the right store's name on the box.

            These are what I see as "psychological steganography". You are being programmed subconsciously desire something while absorbing entertaining content. You have been convinced to act a certain way, and all the time you thought it was your idea! Mimic the Fonz!

            I look back on my life, and can count many occasions I know good and well, once I see it in retrospect, what happened. Like why in hell would I think an animated lion movie celluloid would have much value? Now, I see in the old movies now airing on TV, showing stars lighting cigarettes when the tension mounts, in a whole new light. Subliminal, but it works. Its worked on me. I am a bit more resistant to it now because I recognize how its done.

            Do I really want one of those cars shown being driven by movie stars on the big screen? Nah, not really. Can't do anything with it. I'd rather have my old van.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @04:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @04:51PM (#628329)

      Poor wikileak, the bastion of truth and impeccable character and honesty beyond reproach. They take in troves of documents and only release the parts they want to release that fits the narrative they want to push, and they've basically admitted to that. They time their selective releases for maximum effect, meaning to sell the agenda they are pushing. Because it has this "fight the Man" slant to it. too many ignorant fuckwads buy into their sanctimonious BS and hold them as some beacon of Truth and Light. The hypocrisy of those around here who look down on the Trump base with disdain wondering how they could buy into all the stuff that spews out, and turn around and worship at the feet of Saint Assange and swallow hook, line, and sinker his agenda.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:12PM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:12PM (#627930) Journal

    (Read the title of my post in the voice of Gomer Pyle, USMC.)

    these outlets and organizations are being stealthily guided by the hands of special interests, not the public interest they claim to serve.

    Organizations acting in the public interest? They are few, and far between. Even if they started out with that purpose, they often change into something else. While Mozilla doesn't merit an "evil" tag, they have lost sight of their original mission, and they often act against the wishes of their customers today.

    Always, follow the money. Money leaves convoluted trails sometimes, but if you can follow the money, you can usually eliminate that "public interest" nonsense. NPR Radio? Take a good look at it - it is partisan (more so today than in past decades) and it serves US foreign interests more than anything else. Public radio, in the public interest? Nonsense - NPR is a propaganda tool, nothing more, and nothing less.

    Think tanks are fun. They usually have great sounding names, that indicate a philanthropic interest and goals. Dig into them, and they are almost always partisan. Not only are they partisan, but they all conform to national policy. They wouldn't get the prestigious "think tank" title if they weren't thinking with government approval.

    Newspapers and public interest? Maybe the news outlets, one upon a time, considered "public interest" to be important. Today? Not so much. It's money, money, money. Some of them have gone the paywall route, to prevent the public's interest from being satisfied. So, maybe that isn't really evil, but believing that any news organization is in it for the public good is naive, at best.

    As a rule of thumb, the grander the name, the less service to the public interest you can expect. A Koch, or a Soros is able to establish any number of organizations, in any number of cities, states, or countries. They toss a little chump change at a group of activists, and suggest that some mission might be appreciated if it were successful - and overnight, BANG! One more organization to "Explore the promise of a happier tomorrow through technology and spirituality", or some other inane doublespeak nonsense.

    What is the purpose of an organization, anyway? Well, look at the Southern Poverty Law Center (isn't that a grand name?). An opinionated, partisan guy struggled for years, to establish himself as some kind of "authority" on racism, prejudice, poverty, and more. Today - he's considered an authority. How many times have we, collectively, bitched about argumentum ad verecundiam? Yet, we turn to organizations like the SPLC to decide for us who/what is good, and who/what is evil.

    In summary - who here is surprised that a "Freedom of the Press Foundation" might be more interested in censorship, than in the freedom of the press?

    --
    “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:54PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:54PM (#627972)

      An opinionated, partisan guy struggled for years, to establish himself as some kind of "authority" on racism, prejudice, poverty, and more. Today - he's considered an authority.

      C'mon, Runaway! You're just jealous because no one considers you, an opinionated, partisan guy, an authority on anything!! So are just being pathetic now. Please stop.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 26 2018, @10:53PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 26 2018, @10:53PM (#628602) Journal

        Oh - which party am I a partisan of? Derp-a-derp, Bubba!

        --
        “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @01:09AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @01:09AM (#628013)

      I long asked myself about the reasons a figure like Pierre Omidyar would create a news org like The Intercept. I've been reading The Intercept semi-regularly during its early phase, but since a while back, veiled bias seems to be creeping in and the quality of articles seems to be declining. Of the original plan to have The Intercept be just one founding pillar of a larger journalistic entity "First Look Media", there is not much left now.

      The way the Reality Winner case evolved made me consider the possibility of the whole org having been set up as a honey trap. Will be interesting to see what The Intercept has in response to this, if anything at all.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @09:57AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @09:57AM (#628177)

      They have *NEVER* been in the public interest.

      If they were it would not have taken them two years to put out a browser in the first place, which solidified M$'s hold of the market for years to come (Didn't IE6 not come out until after Mozilla was founded? And wasn't it Mozilla's abandonment of their original C based codebase that lead to IE having no competitor for 2 years, while netscape was no longer updated?)

      Mozilla fucked up big with the gecko rewrite. The javascript UI was both a memory and cpu waste until the middle of the p4/athlon xp era. In fact if it wasn't for Phoenix (the browser that eventually morphed into Firebird, then Firefox, then XUL based Firefox) Mozilla as a company likely would have died. Google's cash infusion around that time staved it off, but the corporate culture of Mozilla has been toxic since the beginning. If you have any doubt, go read up on the ex-Netscape guy who bought DNA Lounge in SF. He got out at about the right time and reading the events surrounding that should help clarify just how long netscape/mozilla has been sick.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @10:00AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @10:00AM (#628179)

        Had to resubmit and forgot to correct the title.

(1)