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Are you insinuating these numbers are implausible? (Honest question, I can't quite tell whether you're questioning the validity of the numbers or whether you ar

Are you insinuating these numbers are implausible? (Honest question, I can't quite tell whether you're questioning the validity of the numbers or whether you are trying to demonstrate their plausibility.) I have no idea how accurate/truthful these numbers are but any small company with a dozen or so employees can easily run up $500k in annual salaries, and this is an organization that has been all over the news for months on end--surely that sort of publicity requires the help of at least a handful of qualified people. Regarding productions, the cost for a single, five-minute music video can easily run into the millions [1]. And how does it matter whether or not the people involved with the production are "involved" with Wikileaks? As for the legal budget, we all know what kind of money lawyers charge. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_music_videos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_music_vi...

tptacek 15y ago
I didn't insinuate anything. I asked specific questions. Is Wikileaks "a small company with a dozen or so employees"? Or is it for the most part one person? (That's a new question). The "affiliation" questions matters because if people who draw a salary from Wikileaks are also getting paid piecework rates for production &c, they're subtly getting paid more than those numbers indicate. Lawyers are expensive. Are they charging Wikileaks for Assange's personal sexual assault and concomitant extradition fight? Or is that not part of that number? (That's a repeated question). These aren't questions that are any tougher than the ones Diaspora faced. They're not political. Someone said Wikileaks seemed expensive for what they do. Well, are they?
- julian37 15y ago
  I find it hard not to get the impression that with this post you're subtly insinuating Wikileaks is a highly paid one-man show, that there's cronyism on some level and that Assange's personal legal fees are being paid out of Wikileaks' funds. Some or all of these allegations might be true, but let's not pretend you're just "asking specific questions". With all respect, I would expect you, as a valued member of this community, to be more straightforward than that.
  - nitrogen 15y ago
    Regardless of his intentions, now that the questions have been asked, are there any answers to them?

tptacek 15y ago

I didn't insinuate anything. I asked specific questions. Is Wikileaks "a small company with a dozen or so employees"? Or is it for the most part one person? (That's a new question). The "affiliation" questions matters because if people who draw a salary from Wikileaks are also getting paid piecework rates for production &c, they're subtly getting paid more than those numbers indicate. Lawyers are expensive. Are they charging Wikileaks for Assange's personal sexual assault and concomitant extradition fight? Or is that not part of that number? (That's a repeated question). These aren't questions that are any tougher than the ones Diaspora faced. They're not political. Someone said Wikileaks seemed expensive for what they do. Well, are they?

julian37 15y ago
I find it hard not to get the impression that with this post you're subtly insinuating Wikileaks is a highly paid one-man show, that there's cronyism on some level and that Assange's personal legal fees are being paid out of Wikileaks' funds. Some or all of these allegations might be true, but let's not pretend you're just "asking specific questions". With all respect, I would expect you, as a valued member of this community, to be more straightforward than that.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  Regardless of his intentions, now that the questions have been asked, are there any answers to them?