- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 51,709
- Reaction score
- 35,485
- Location
- Washington, DC
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
How is investigative journalism different than what Assange has done? How is what wikileaks is doing untirely unlike what the NY Times did in publishing the Pentagon Papers?
Please feel free to be explicit.
The NY Times is an established entity that is universally recognized as being part of "The Press".
A random website operating in a user submission type of style that is primarily a repository for leaked documents rather than investigation journalism that is actually crafting a report or story detailing said leaks is not as cut and dry as a form of "The Press". Is Wikipedia the press? Is 4chan "The Press" if someone posted up classified documents there? The difference between the two is one is unquestionably part of "The Press" and the other is a bit more ambiguous, and that in and of itself may warrant the need for SCOTUS action in determining it.
Indeed, I personally find this entire thing fascinating becuase its a case of the modern era needing to be define within the scope of the constitution. The "new media" and the frontier of the internet, blogs, community-based internet news sites, and other type of things are essentially untested and unproven ground and this may be the type of thing that helps solidify their definition as we move deeper into this new century.