'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY, AND, APPARENTLY, A LITTLE SILLY TOO – AT 9:01 A.M. ET:  The WikiLeaks saga continues to fill news space at a time of year when editors and news directors sometimes have trouble finding solid stories to tell.

I've heard more silliness about WikiLeaks than about any other subject recently.  I think it's absurd for some people to argue that newspapers have a "right" to publish the material that got WikiLeaked, and yet that is the argument one hears from a number of journalists.  The secrets of the United States government are not "news stories."  They are the property of the American people, entrusted to elected leaders and their appointed officials.  In my view, a newspaper does not have a "right" to them. 

Of course, that should never be an absolute position.  There may be extreme circumstances in which a government is acting outrageously, corruptly, or dangerously.  Then, a free press, after very sober consideration, might conclude that it has the obligation and right to make a secret public.  There is plenty of precedent for that, and common-sense guidelines are available.  Compare please with the illegitimate dumping of hundreds of thousands of documents on the open market. 

Some commentators have, however, gotten it right when they say that the real villains are those who supplied the material to WikiLeaks, and it's hard to believe that the Army Pfc the government has in custody did the whole job himself.   I am being strictly speculative here, but the extent of the leaks may tell us about the kind of people hired by the Obama administration, even for sensitive positions.  We know that a number of profoundly leftist types have been recruited, people like the Marxist Van Jones, who was forced to leave the White House last year after his Kremlinesque views became known.  Those views never, apparently, bothered Obama.

It will be a real test of this administration to conduct a thorough probe until the culprits are brought to justice.  I wonder if they have the interest.  The mainstream media certainly doesn't.

December 13, 2010