Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
theaustralian.com.au
Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
1–10 of 141 posts
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#2Quote - "In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#3"In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act" G. Orwell
I find the calls to get him assassinated or kidnap his son simply appalling.
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#4Ah, so he's a Queenslander. That adds context - we're a special breed north of the Tweed.
To add some other context to non-Australian readers:
* Gallipoli, remembered as Australia's 'coming of age', was a disasterous battle in the First World War. While hardly more pointless than most of that War's assaults, it was more or less the first time we had fought as a sovereign nation and Murdoch's efforts helped shock our young country to that war in general, and the results of our troops still being commanded by our former colonial masters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
* The Fitzgerald Inquiry in the state of Queensland revealed corruption that ran through the police force and (via the Police Commissioner) into Cabinet and the Premier. Joh Bjelke-Petersen had been running Queensland for 19 years, supported by the gerrymander in state politics. We Queenslanders have a chip on our shoulder about being overlooked by the officials 'down south' - Joh worked this masterfully (in one election campaign he called Queensland the greatest 'Country' on earth) and while he is still remembered fondly for 'sticking it up them', the corruption of that era is a blight on the nation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzgerald_Inquiry Incidentally, Chris Masters' famous piece of journalism 'The Moonlight State' was seen as instrumental in propelling public support towards an Inquiry and a change of government.
Assange seems to be positioning himself as another in the long line of Australian journalists (and Australians generally) who believe the 'powers' want to hide the truth. His belief can be neither true nor false; I'm not yet convinced his methodology is supporting the outcomes he seeks BUT, if nothing else, he has certainly revealed by provoking the actions of our PM and other political leaders around the world that there remain powers whose opposition to truth is far stronger than their respect of law and principles like a fair trial.
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#5"Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend."
- Rabindranath Tagore
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#6He talks about Murdoch's actions in "1958" but then says that his actions are happening nearly a century later. Was that date inaccurate? Because 52 years doesn't strike me as a full nearly-a-century.
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#7If all wikileaks was doing was publishing information about illegal or highly suspect acts by the government it'd be one thing. But that isn't all they're doing, and it is these other releases that has really pissed me off. For instance, what legitimate purpose does it serve to release a list of infrastructure that are critical to national security? (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jWvPaI6hI...)
If diplomacy is so important to the people of the world, why are so many people cheering on the fact that wikileaks has made it almost impossible for diplomats to give frank and honest assessments of the countries in which they work? When wikileaks makes everything "transparent", everything becomes opaque, because no diplomat will write any memos or share information with one another. Wikileaks is a tremendous blow to anyone who wants to see international problems come to a peaceful and diplomatic resolution.
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#8"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." --Oscar Wilde
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#9He talks about Murdoch's actions in "1958" but then says that his actions are happening nearly a century later. Was that date inaccurate? Because 52 years doesn't strike me as a full nearly-a-century.
The battle if talks about took place about ninety-five years ago.
Re: Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth
#10He talks about Murdoch's actions in "1958" but then says that his actions are happening nearly a century later. Was that date inaccurate? Because 52 years doesn't strike me as a full nearly-a-century.
There are two separate dates. 1958 is a Rupert Murdoch quote and "nearly a century" ago is Rupert's father Keith re: World War I.