CNN's WikiWars

[Kevin_Kennedy]

CNN’s ballyhooed WikiWars: The Mission of Julian Assange special airing this Sunday evening is an odd amalgam, blending quick cuts, pounding music, and a casually dressed host (at left below) with an attempt at a serious overview of WikiLeaks. Yet, like the recent PBS Frontline probe, it is fatally unbalanced.

This is a list of Assange / WikiLeaks critics interviewed (and quoted more than once): David Leigh, Nick Davies, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Adrian Lamo, Brigadier Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt (Ret.). Here is a list of Assange / WikiLeaks supporters interviewed: one unnamed and masked allegedly activist from Anonymous. Other critics who get face time: Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, even Newt Gingrich.

Like the PBS Frontline producers, the CNN team appears to believe that quoting Assange alone balances a brigade of critics. This, of course, is silly. Many viewers, naturally, take anything the subject of criticism says with huge grains of salt especially when no one else rises to his or her defense (besides figures in masks).

Preview of CNN's WikiLeaks Special Coming This Sunday: 'Mission' Implausible | The Nation

This is about the worst piece of State propaganda I've ever seen.