Wikileaks Targets the Local News Frontier

eldavojohn writes "Wikileaks has been pretty successful on a global scale — from ACTA documents to East Anglian e-mails, it is the definitive place to find suppressed documents. But some are saying that now Wikileaks should begin focusing on a local level. From the article: 'The organization has applied for a $532,000 two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to expand the use of its secure, anonymous submission system by local newspapers. The foundation's News Challenge will give as much as $5 million this year to projects that use digital technology to transform community news. WikiLeaks proposes using the grant to encourage local newspapers to include a link to WikiLeaks' secure, anonymous servers so that readers can submit documents on local issues or scandals. The newspapers would have first crack at the material, and after a period of time — perhaps two weeks, [German Wikileaks spokesman Daniel] Schmitt said — the documents would be made public on the main WikiLeaks page.' Anyone reading this who works for a community news source and would like to host sensitive documents with no risk: here is your solution."

Comments

Somebody call the Hoff

[0xdeadbeef]

The organization has applied for a $532,000 two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to expand the use of its secure, anonymous submission system by local newspapers.

Wouldn't that money be better spent on a prissy talking car?

Sweet!

[sootman]

The organization has applied for a $532,000 two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to expand the use of its secure, anonymous submission system by local newspapers.

I knew the Knight Foundation was real! Oh, how the kids in 4th grade used to tease me when I said I wanted to go work for them...

Re:Complain to Stephen Conroy

[atheistmonk]

If you let me cry on your shoulder, you can also cry on my shoulder.

Re:Better Reporting On The Way.

[AnotherUsername]

Bloggers are idiots. Lumping them in with journalists is like saying that a 5 year who draws a stick picture of his family is in the same group as a Renaissance artist. These are the same people saying that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. and that Bush caused 9/11. Give me a break.

- Journalists study for years, and fight to get a good job with a reputable news agency.
- Bloggers have a computer, and a website(oftentimes only a free account that took 10 minutes to start up).

- Journalists spend their workday following up on leads, researching stories, and fact checking.
- Bloggers do their 'research' by checking other blogs, and occasionally looking stuff up on wikipedia.

- Journalists worry about libel and slander lawsuits constantly, because it could mean their job if they don't have the facts to back up their claims. If a tip turns out to be fraudulent, they could be in deep water, not only with their job, but with the courts.
- If a blogger prints faulty information...I don't know. You never really hear about it, because they don't own up to it. A retraction, on a blog? Fat chance. Whatever the information, they'll just either pass blame, or they'll deny that it is wrong, or they will just delete it and pretend it never happened.

I hate bloggers.