Although it seems doubtful that Wikileaks impresario Julian Assange will go down in history as an okay guy, much less a hero, it would appear that he has ceased for the time being to be the object of a lynch mob. When the first batch of leaks was published some months ago, it stirred up fears that America’s counterintelligence network would be irreparably damaged. This time, however, the news media have been feasting on the leaks, even as their editorials have self-servingly played down the collateral damage the disclosures might cause. An irony is that the patchwork of international gossip divulged in recent days has provided insights into the world of diplomacy that make the news media’s coverage of the topic seem almost irrelevant.
For instance, we’ve been reading for years about how Saudi Arabia feared the growth of Iranian Shiite influence in the Arab world. But compare that story with the Wikileaks bombshell that Arab leaders have been actively trying to provoke the U.S. into launching an air strike against Iran. Will publicizing this fact unbalance the geopolitical world? Arguably not, since the Iranians would have known how the Saudis feel about them without using Wikileaks as a source. On the other hand, the leak is bound to change public perceptions of the issues involved, possibly forcing the hand of the aggressor. Since either side could be the aggressor here, one could infer that the chances of an attack have increased.
A Hunted Man
Meanwhile, Assange is indeed a hunted man, but this time it is TV news producers who have been trying to track him down, not Interpol or a torch mob. We wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he’ll turn up in Dancing With the Stars in 2011, especially if the most salacious details of the latest Wikileaks continues to spill out via the tabloid press. And when we say tabloid press, we don’t mean National Enquirer, Weekly World News and other rags that routinely report on alien abductions, two-headed babies and such. Rather, we are referring to Huffington Post, Daily Kos and every media outlet above them in the food chain, including the New York Times. While the Grey Lady is unlikely to headline Qaddafi’s penchant for Botox and bimbos, as Huffington already has, it is predictable the esteemed Newspaper of Record’s Style sections will not sit idly buy while The Daily Beast and other gossip-mongers continue to commandeer eyeballs on the web by the hundreds of millions.
(If you’d like to have Rick’s Picks commentary delivered free each day to your e-mail box, click here.)
Your aesthetics ARE you ethics. Your awful Assange
dancing with the stars spoke volumes. Perhaps you
consider yourself a later day Daumier.
Fields