5 ms·

"Accountability" used to be the job of the Fourth Estate, at least ostensibly, but they abandoned that job no later than the 80s, and now need to be held accoun

"Accountability" used to be the job of the Fourth Estate, at least ostensibly, but they abandoned that job no later than the 80s, and now need to be held accountable themselves, since they're manifestly incapable of self-policing. The hope would be that somehow independent organizations would use the internet to do this, but the gatekeepers of search make this impractical. Consider the trajectory of WikiLeaks' perceived credibility, and that is best case. Everyone else has been reduced to"conspiracy theorists."

JKCalhoun 7y ago
Agree. And WikiLeaks sort of jumped out at me from the OP's comment. Not much accountability when it is actually SelectiveWikiLeaks.
- stochastic_monk 7y ago
  Wikileaks was nothing more than a counterintelligence operation by the USSR for their interests. Informants weren’t, necessarily — e.g., Snowden, but that is definitively resolved.
  - romaaeterna 7y ago
    > Wikileaks was nothing more than a counterintelligence operation by the USSR for their interests The USSR, huh? Are they operating from a hidden base on the moon? (No doubt having signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis who are out there too.)
    - shadowprofile77 7y ago
      This comment gave me my good chuckle of the evening. Cheers for that.
  - mindslight 7y ago
    Is this supposed to be some sort of indictment? If Wikileaks is publishing inconvenient truths about USG, then they are furthering the interests of US citizens, period. That the accountability Wikileaks brings couldn't happen at home in the US merely reflects the neutering and corruption of our domestic fourth estate.
  - fit2rule 7y ago
    Nonsense. There is zero evidence that Russia was behind Wikileaks, save a few butt-hurt American patriots who don't like knowing the truth about their country's evil mis-adventures around the world. Just because it hurts your feelings doesn't mean its the Russians behind it. Maybe your country is just doing evil, illegal things that the world should know about, ASAP.
- luckylion 7y ago
  It's still accountability, even when it's selective - it's accountability for those that it watches. Granted, universal accountability would be great, but some is better than none. Also, Western media does an okay job holding those accountable that aren't aligned with Western interests, so WL's selective accountability fills a gap in that regard.
L_Rahman 7y ago
The Fourth Estate didn't abandon that job in the 80s, private equity companies saw their advertising based recurring revenue streams, bought them in LBOs, decimated the teams and extracted profits until nothing was left. Online advertising finished off the rest.
- dgellow 7y ago
  To be bought you have to accept to sell. That’s maybe what the other commenter meant by “abandon their job”.
  - wallace_f 7y ago
    CIA and military have much deeper, more significant roles in media, hollywood then you would believe. This information is freely available through Google searches. But there is also a trend where the big media corporations seem to be turning to evil. I mean, I don't know what better word there is for it. What I mean is the kind of stuff described here: https://www.salon.com/2016/09/20/betraying-snowden-theres-a-special-place-in-journalism-hell-for-the-washington-post-editorial-board/ https://www.salon.com/2016/09/20/betraying-snowden-theres-a-...

JKCalhoun 7y ago

Agree. And WikiLeaks sort of jumped out at me from the OP's comment. Not much accountability when it is actually SelectiveWikiLeaks.

stochastic_monk 7y ago
Wikileaks was nothing more than a counterintelligence operation by the USSR for their interests. Informants weren’t, necessarily — e.g., Snowden, but that is definitively resolved.
- romaaeterna 7y ago
  > Wikileaks was nothing more than a counterintelligence operation by the USSR for their interests The USSR, huh? Are they operating from a hidden base on the moon? (No doubt having signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis who are out there too.)
  - shadowprofile77 7y ago
    This comment gave me my good chuckle of the evening. Cheers for that.
- mindslight 7y ago
  Is this supposed to be some sort of indictment? If Wikileaks is publishing inconvenient truths about USG, then they are furthering the interests of US citizens, period. That the accountability Wikileaks brings couldn't happen at home in the US merely reflects the neutering and corruption of our domestic fourth estate.
- fit2rule 7y ago
  Nonsense. There is zero evidence that Russia was behind Wikileaks, save a few butt-hurt American patriots who don't like knowing the truth about their country's evil mis-adventures around the world. Just because it hurts your feelings doesn't mean its the Russians behind it. Maybe your country is just doing evil, illegal things that the world should know about, ASAP.
luckylion 7y ago
It's still accountability, even when it's selective - it's accountability for those that it watches. Granted, universal accountability would be great, but some is better than none. Also, Western media does an okay job holding those accountable that aren't aligned with Western interests, so WL's selective accountability fills a gap in that regard.

L_Rahman 7y ago

The Fourth Estate didn't abandon that job in the 80s, private equity companies saw their advertising based recurring revenue streams, bought them in LBOs, decimated the teams and extracted profits until nothing was left. Online advertising finished off the rest.

dgellow 7y ago
To be bought you have to accept to sell. That’s maybe what the other commenter meant by “abandon their job”.
- wallace_f 7y ago
  CIA and military have much deeper, more significant roles in media, hollywood then you would believe. This information is freely available through Google searches. But there is also a trend where the big media corporations seem to be turning to evil. I mean, I don't know what better word there is for it. What I mean is the kind of stuff described here: https://www.salon.com/2016/09/20/betraying-snowden-theres-a-special-place-in-journalism-hell-for-the-washington-post-editorial-board/ https://www.salon.com/2016/09/20/betraying-snowden-theres-a-...