Why Charging Assange With Conspiracy Won't Be Easy
Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:22 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - As the U.S. builds its case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, federal prosecutors face a challenge: how do they explain why Assange deserves prosecution and not The New York Times or The Guardian, which also published classified government documents? Apparently, they've found their answer. According to The New York Times, the Justice Department wants to charge Assange as a conspirator alongside military analyst Bradley Manning."By bringing a case against Mr. Assange as a conspirator to Private Manning's leak, the government would not have to confront awkward questions about why it is not also prosecuting traditional news organizations or investigative journalists," The Times reports. Federal prosecutors will be looking at an online chat log between Manning and Assange to decipher if Assange actively "encouraged or even helped" Manning leak the documents.But not everyone thinks this tactic would relieve federal prosecutors from having to answer such "awkward questions." Josh Gerstein at Politico argues that most investigative journalists actively pursue classified information--actions which can't easily be distinguished from what WikiLeaks did."Reporters seek classified information all the time in telephone conversations, in private meetings and other contexts," Gerstein writes. "The distinction the Times suggests prosecutors are seizing on posits that most reporters function as simply a 'dead drop,' which strikes me as patently ridiculous." Gerstein concedes that reporters may not provide "special training or instruction" to people breaking into government databases but merely encouraging them to do so is not illegal.On that point, Wired's Kim Zetter disagrees. Getting into the specifics of a federal prosecution, Zetter says that under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), "encouraging a source to obtain documents in a manner known to be illegal is not protected." Manning has already been charged under the CFAA and it's likely Assange would to, Zetter argues. Looking at the big picture, Mistermix at Ballon Juice also doesn't see a big difference between traditional media organizations and WikiLeaks.As far as I can tell, the encouragement Assange provided was on the level of source confirmation, something every journalist does when they receive leaked information. This kind of prosecution would set a pretty awful precedent for our press. Full Story | Top |
The Most Hated Congress Ever
Wed, 15 Dec 2010 02:20 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Lurking under our nation's beautiful Capitol dome is the most-hated Congress in history, with a 83 percent disapproval rating, according to Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones. Only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, the worst rating since Gallup began tracking the sentiment in 1974 and one percentage point worse than the previous low in July 2008 when gas prices were at record levels. Full Story | Top |
Mark Zuckerberg Is Time's Person of the Year
Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:03 am PST
 The Atlantic Wire - Time magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg its Person of the Year, with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Tea Party, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and the Chilean miners as runners up. In explaining the choice, Time managing editor Richard Stengel declares that Facebook's CEO Full Story | Top |
Happy Hour Vid: Keith Olbermann Does Impressions
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:43 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Keith Olbermann now does impressions! The MSNBC host had not one but three deserving candidates for his (Not Really) Worst Person in the World award last night. Instead of simply announcing Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly by name and whatever they did to land themselves on the Worst Person list, Olbermann impersonated the contenders while reading a quote from each. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Full Story | Top |
Understanding Mark Madoff's Misery
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:27 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Bernie Madoff's son Mark Madoff committed suicide this past Saturday. When the Wire reported response to the story earlier this week, much was mere speculation. Now, though, The New York Times' Diana B. Henriques and Peter Lattman have pieced together the story: Full Story | Top |
Why Valuing Internet Start-Ups Is So Hard
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:13 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Whether it's Google extending a $6 billion bid to the deal-of-the-day site Groupon or Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm, valuing the social-networking sensation Twitter at nearly $4 billion, the estimated worth of tech companies has stirred controversy and dominated headlines in recent months. Why is value so hard to pin down online? Full Story | Top |
How the iPhone Increases the Trade Deficit
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:56 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Attention iPhone users who think their beloved device is only for video chatting, Angry Birds, and the occasional phone call: it's also capable of influencing U.S.-China trade relations. Full Story | Top |
Our Guide to Holiday Gift Guides
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:15 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - The snow softly blanketing the headquarters of your humble aggregators at the Atlantic Wire only serves as a gentle-yet-slightly-ominous reminder that all holiday shopping must be completed soon. We’ve been waiting since Halloween candy went on sale for inspiration to strike, for the perfect holiday gift idea light bulb to blink on over our hardworking little heads. But alas, our muse has not sprung forth. Full Story | Top |
Jaws Drop at Google's New Research Tool
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:58 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - This week, a new Google search tool made its debut: the Books Ngram Viewer, which draws on a database of nearly 5.2 million books published in six languages between 1500 and 2008. You can use the Ngram Viewer to search for words and phrases, and track the frequency with which they appear over a given amount of time. Erez Lieberman Aiden, a junior fellow at Harvard who co-authored a research paper about the database, has described the project's goal as "[giving] an 8-year-old the ability to browse cultural trends throughout history, as recorded in books." Bloggers are marveling over their sudden ability to comb centuries of the written word. Full Story | Top |
Palin Decries Double Standard for Female Politicians
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:46 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - Sarah Palin will decide in a few months whether she's running for president in 2012, after "prayerful consideration" and thinking about whether her candidacy will be "good or not good" for her family and for the nation's political discourse, she told ABC News' Robin Roberts. Palin acknowledged she had to overcome some pretty bad polling numbers, but also would have to be "tougher" to counteract a double standard for women in politics. Full Story | Top |
Techies Grieve for Delicious
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:42 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - Yahoo Just Ticked Off the Wrong Group of People, writes Allen Stern at CenterNetworks: That group? Developers. I've written in the past that Yahoo should have learned to embrace the developer community. I believe Yahoo would be a much stronger company today had they realized that getting developers excited about your offerings means more usage of said offerings. If you look at Apple and Google, the developer community is what made their devices a success. The iPhone or Android phone would NEVER be the huge moneymakers and game changers if it wasn't for us, the developers. Full Story | Top |
As Palin Tanks in Polls, Are Presidential Hopes Over?
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:56 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - Two new polls out this week paint a discouraging picture for anyone holding out hope for a Sarah Palin presidency in 2012. A Washington Post-ABC poll reports that 59 percent of Americans would not even consider voting for Palin for president, 8 percent say they would "definitely" vote for Palin, and 31 percent would consider it. Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal-NBC poll finds that Palin would lose a hypothetical presidential election against Obama by 33 to 55 percent. Even after Palin's already rough year of polling, pundits are treating these two new batches as exceptional: nails in the coffin of her 2012 presidential hopes. Here's what they're saying. Full Story | Top |
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