Stephens' heroic stand for his boss compares the Murdoch empire’s hacking scandal to Wikileaks and Murdoch to Julian Assange. They are both basically “the same story” writes Stephens. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal of course. They are the same because secret information “obtained by illegal means was disseminated publicly by news organizations.”
Strengthening his point, Stephens waxes eloquent about the similarities between Murdoch and Wikileaks and the “dreadful human toll” that has been exacted by their actions. The parents of the murdered British girl whose phone messages were deleted by Murdoch’s actions after her abduction, were led to believe, falsely, that their daughter might be alive. Then there are the “Afghan citizens fearful of Taliban reprisal after being exposed by Wikileaks as U.S. informants.”
Both News Corp, and Wikileaks have committed “despicable instances of journalistic malpractice for which some kind of price ought to be paid.” Stephens affirms. Given that both Assange and Wikileaks and News Corp. and Murdoch are guilty of the same “despicable” crimes in Stephens’ view; how come there have been inquests and arrests in Murdoch’s case but only controversy and a possible Nobel Peace Prize for Assange?
There is an “easy” answer to this says Stephens. Wikileaks revealed in formation that was of “public interest” while Murdoch hacked the phones of abducted young women which is “merely of interest to the public.” The significant difference being that one is a matter of state and the release of government secrets as Stephens calls them. And the other is simply “tittle tattle” about people’s personal lives and “private affairs.”
We are supposed to see the attraction in this argument, because it is a matter of “privilege,” those of us that are grateful to Wikileaks and Bradley Manning, the heroic young man said to have released government information, for putting us in the know, of deciding what is “of public interest”¬----“loftily defined” adds Stephens. He then goes on to give an example of information about Zimbabwe’s prime minister released by Wikileaks that could have caused him to be hanged.
The motivation for those of us that support Wikileaks and the right to know what the hell our government is doing is “perpetual self-righteousness” as in some cases, Assange and his “enablers “ were targeting bigger and often “more vulnerable” game; Stephens concludes. After all, even the Obama administration accused Wikileaks of placing at risk the lives of, “countless innocent individuals---from journalists to human rights activist, to soldiers. Shouldn’t there be some accountability or at least soul searching about this, too?” Stephens whines. How hypocritical of us. Stephens doesn’t mention the Reuters journalists among the other civilians that were killed by US Apache helicopter fire or the Al Jazeera journalist killed by US weaponry while on a hotel balcony in Baghdad. He conveniently leaves out the Bush administration’s “outing” of Valerie Plame, the CIA agent.
Stephens is right in the sense that what is right or wrong, what the public should know and shouldn’t, depends on your class perspective although he doesn't attribute it to that. The tittle-tattle and smut about people’s private lives is a tactical strategic approach to journalism. The serious journals of capitalism don’t have the same approach to information as the mass consumption press that they own does. These journals are overwhelmingly for talking to each other, the ruling class discussing between themselves how best to govern society and continue the plunder of its resources. The mass consumption papers are designed to keep the rest of us at bay, preoccupy us with the sex lives of celebrities and the degenerate way we treat each other, sickened as we are by the system in which we live.
Murdoch’s News Corp spent over $1.5 million on federal lobbying in the first three months of this year. Included in his lobbying efforts was the issue of digital privacy. “Disclosure forms filed with the Senate Office of Public Records show that News Corp’s American arm, News America Inc., employed seven in-house lobbyists supplemented by six outside lobbying firms hired by the company. The lobbyists worked on an array of issues relevant to broadcast television, but also crossed into issues of free trade, defense spending, and increasing the debt ceiling.” Says the I Watch website.
I Watch also reported, “In addition, by virtue of the company’s $1 million donation to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last summer, News America may also be de facto bankrolling a second set of lobbyists. An IWatch News examination of the Chamber’s disclosure forms found significant activity on online copyright infringement issues, a major focus of News America’s lobbying. A story by the Guardian newspaper of London noted that the Chamber also worked to loosen the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits U.S. based companies from participating in the bribery of foreign officials — rules that potentially could come into play during the ongoing legal investigation of Murdoch’s empire."
It is frustrating that Stephens attributes the only motive Assange has for avoiding extradition to Sweden is to avoid rape charges that are “unworthy of public notice.” The possibility of him ending up in Guantanamo as an “enemy combatant” isn’t worth a mention. What chance of Murdoch ending up there? But the reality is that there are sides in this war. Murdoch is a ruthless thug and Stephens is a bootlicker. But there are class interests to defend here. It is in our interests as workers to defend Wikileaks and Bradley Manning. It is in the class interests of Murdoch, Obama, Bush and others to keep this knowledge from us. The more snooping around in the Murdoch empire, the more likely other dirty deals involving the fine gentlemen and women we are supposed to look up to are likely to be revealed. It's not that we don't know this about them in general. But when it is revealed, when it becomes a social fact, its effect is to embolden us and demoralize them.
With Wikileaks and Assange we might find out which section of the US state department and on whose orders Pat Tillman was assassinated, the likely reason for his death. Murdoch’s role in society is to keep that under wraps.
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