Weak-i-leaks

I have always strongly advocated for free speech and press, and I take my journalism degree seriously.  But we are entering a bizarre era when hacking and leaking are not only part of our daily lives – these activities are completely re-engineering global communications, and along with that, our society.

In past decades, journalists published information they got from trusted sources, and then sometimes refused to name those sources. Even if it brought down a powerful man like Richard Nixon, even if it landed them in jail (which it often did). But Watergate pales in comparison to what we’re seeing now.

The law on hacking and publishing illegally obtained media, known as CFAA, is muddy at best.  President Obama tried to strengthen it a couple years ago, but was completely shot down, ironically by Democrats.  Basically, if you steal media by illegally hacking somebody’s computer or server, you can do anything you want with it as long as you’re not physically located in the United States.  

This explains Wikileaks, located in Iceland.   They can leak absolutely anything, from any source, no matter if it causes harm to American political, defensive, economic or justice systems, whether it is real or false, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Wikileaks claims that they “check out” all of their sources before publishing these illegal hacks, but why should we trust them?  Most of them are said to be “anonymous”.  In any case, they don’t have to tell anyone who those sources are, and they can suppress any information that doesn’t support the Wiki agenda.  This begs a couple of questions:  one, why do our news organizations blindly publish anything Wikileaks releases as though it is gospel truth; and two, what’s the end game here – and who are the larger players?

Russia is already a proven major player (highly suspected in the recent Clinton and DNC hacks), and many claim China and North Korea regularly hack into sensitive U.S. servers, looking to cause even greater harm to our defenses and economy, perhaps planning to take over our nation, bits at a time.   

It starts with Wikileaks (which has numerous bones to pick with Obama) trying to get Donald Trump elected, apparently with Russian support.  Yet there is no talk of suing them, or those who repeat their illegally hacked information verbatim.  What about the Trump recording, you ask?   NBC obtained signed consent forms from the idiots, so they have no legal ground on which to stand.  In fact, there are said to be many, many more out-takes that the network is skittish to publish for fear it wouldn’t be legal.  The only way we’ll see more of them is if a Wikileaks competitor illegally obtains and releases them. 

Make no mistake, Wikileaks and their ilk are not patriots, not truth seekers, not journalists.  As their power and technical prowess grow, and they continue to link forces with super powers not friendly to the U.S., tough decisions will have to be made about extending and strengthening our First Amendment.  Free press, absolutely and forever.  But we can’t allow malicious, outside influences to control our media. 

HACKERS UNITED

Do you realize that our next American president is essentially being chosen by hackers?  Of all the bizarre things happening during the election, this strikes me as the most troubling.   In the past, we didn’t know what happened behind closed doors.  The candidates told us what they wanted us to hear.  For example, Hillary Clinton chose not to release her speeches to various groups.  Those were private meetings and she wasn’t required to do it.  Now we have leaked transcripts.  Her emails, and the DNC’s, were also hacked and distributed. 

Think about that.  Everything you’ve ever posted online could be made public.  I definitely can’t remember every email I’ve written, but I’ll bet someone, somewhere would be highly offended by something I said – especially if taken out of context, or altered.  And yet we implicitly trust these hackers, who are essentially criminals with a clear political agenda, to leak us the truth.

On the other hand, we know nothing of Donald Trump’s emails, or those of the RNC.  We’ve seen not a single one.  Wonder what we would discover if those were hacked?  It’s a reasonable assumption that a WWIII of bombshells would explode.  But because apparently Russians want to control our election, and hackers such as Wikileaks continue to oblige them, only the Clinton campaign suffers.  

Trump still won’t release his tax returns, which by all accounts would provide very damaging information against him.  But we at least got three pages, which strongly indicate what we all suspected - he’s a terrible business man, and a tax dodger.  And then there is the leaked audio from that fateful bus ride to meet a talk show host, which may cost him the election.   Our dark sides yearn to learn more about his nefarious character – but where does it end?   Is this the brave new world of politics, or a smarmy reality show?   

If we knew none of these things - the race would be very different.  We can’t ignore these illegal hacks and leaks, and pretend they don’t exist.   It’s impossible to remain in the present tense – listening to what the candidates pledge to do in terms of policies and platforms, regardless of what they did or wrote years ago, or what they blurted out in what they thought was a private moment.  If we did, we still might reject Donald Trump, but for better reasons.