Julian Assange, No Journalist

Michael Moynihan puts the Wikileaks founder through the wringer:

The problem is not just that Assange posted 91,000 documents online having, by his own admission, read only 2,000 of them carefully. Nor is the problem the reckless exposure of brave Afghans who would rather not live under the jurisdiction of a fanatical religious cult. The real lesson for the Wikileaks team is that while obtaining secret documents is an integral part of journalism, it is not by itself journalism. And contrary to Assange’s grandiloquent proclamations that he intends to “build a historical record, an intellectual record, of how civilization actually works in practice,” in its four years of existence he has produced a handful of interesting and impressive scoops, but the dreaded “mainstream media” has done far more.

So by all means, Julian, stump for more openness, publish more leaks, continue your attempts to “achieve justice.” But stop calling yourself a journalist.