Wiki Woes

The difference between whistleblowers and traitors:

"Revealing secrets about crimes, abuses, and corruption obviously serves a larger good -- it shines a light on wrongdoing, leading (hopefully) to accountability, while creating an incentive for officials to play by the rules. Leaking diplomatic cables, however, is harder to understand -- the point seems to be to undermine American foreign policy, just for the sake of undermining American foreign policy. The role of whistleblowers has real value; dumping raw, secret diplomatic correspondence appears to be an exercise in pettiness and spite." (Steve Benen, Washington Monthly)

Also: Daily Beast columnist Peter Beinart explains why the WikiLeaks drama is way overblown. He's right.