http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-WikiLeaks-Reveal-abou-by-Joan-Brunwasser-110709-256.htmlMy guest today is progressive activist, Rania Khalek. Welcome to OpEdNews, Rania. You recently wrote 5 WikiLeaks Revelations Exposing the Rapidly Growing Corporatism Dominating American Diplomacy Abroad. Sadly, there's nothing new about corporations and government being joined at the hip. So, why did you write this article? Obviously corporate dominance over Washington is nothing new. But, these cables give us an inside look at the inner-workings of the decisions that get made around the world. And time after time, we see that US diplomats consult with the executives of some of the largest corporations to determine how to deal with conflicts in other countries. These cables also demonstrate the disturbing trend of how our government views any threat to corporate America as a threat to the United States, which is absurd. Just because we know that corporations and US officials have merged, doesn't mean we understand the full extent to which it affects decisions that are made or the implications of those decisions.
Also, the mainstream media has been ignoring the most significant revelations exposed by these cables, which is why I feel it's essential to write about them. People need to know the level of corruption their government is involved in.
Is the press continuing to downplay the significance of the revelations because there's nothing new or because of their corporate masters? Of everything that WikiLeaks has released, the establishment press has spent more time on reporting about Julian Assange's character and WikiLeaks as an organization, than about the substance of what has been released. This happened during the Iraq War Logs, the Afghanistan diaries, the US embassy cables, the Guantanamo Files, etc, all which exposed a vast amount of previously unknown instances of government corruption. For a long time now, the establishment press has acted as an arm of the US government, most of all the Pentagon, where they parrot the "official" version of events, rather than actually covering the truth and holding those in power accountable. And for a long time now, the Pentagon has been devoted to destroying the credibility of WikiLeaks, which they view as a threat. The problem is that the press is so cozy with and dependent on the powerful government officials they are supposed to be covering -- for access, money, career advancement -- that they immediately adopted the government's perspective on WikiLeaks.
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