Why did WikiLeaks work with traditional news organizations rather than go it alone in releasing the Afghanistan war logs?
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange learned from the way he handled the Apache helicopter video earlier this year that sometimes it’s better to be Daniel Ellsberg than Ben Bradlee. And that Stephen Colbert was right.
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You have to wonder–if the release of 90,000 first hand documents from the war tells us nothing we didn’t already know, why put reporters in harm’s way by sending them into a war zone?
I suppose it’s possible that a reporter will tell us something we don’t already know, but it doesn’t seem very likely. The danger to the reporter, on the other hand, is very real.