Wikileaks Documentary Makers Accuse Assange of Censorship
I&#x27;ve always had mixed feelings about Assange going back to the beginning of WL.  While I take my hat off to what he has claimed is the purpose of WL, I never quite trusted Assange the man.  It always felt to me like the kind of power that WL has needs to be wielded by a person of great moral integrity and Assange never struck me as that kind of person.<p>Information is powerful and it can be used both to force transparency and it can be used as a weapon.  My impression is that Assange views it more as a weapon that he can use against others.<p>Nobody can operate effectively in a 100% transparent environment.  I was living overseas when WL released the State Department communications and most of the information released pertaining to the country I was living in revealed little of noteworthiness.  It was all tabloid level stuff where some ambassador made a dismissive or insulting comment about some government official in a report back to Washington.<p>How would any of us like every email we&#x27;ve ever written to be put into the public domain?  If we were doing nothing illegal what purpose would it serve to let everyone know that I hate my aunt&#x27;s cooking and tried to get out of a family dinner in June of 2013?  The only thing that information would do is embarrass me and strain my relationship with my aunt.  No public good comes from it.<p>And that&#x27;s where I see many of the WL releases being.  Many leaks seem to stir up trouble where nothing illegal or malicious is actually occurring.<p>So, an organization like WL has a great responsibility.  I applaud them for uncovering deceit and illegal activities, and I think we need some outside force doing it, but they also need to use that power in a way such that they don&#x27;t try to prove their own importance by releasing information that is merely sensationalistic in order to heighten their brand.<p>I&#x27;ve never trusted Assange to be the kind of person who can make that distinction.  WL would be much better off in the hands of someone&#x2F;people who were far less concerned about elevating their own notoriety and were able to better able to separate the mission of WL from the politics.