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The latest WikiLeaks document cache of diplomatic cables is being released at a trickle. Contrary to popular understanding, the media watch-dog organization FAIR – Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – states that only 1,000 of the approximately 250,000 documents have been made public so far. However this small batch of documents has spurred a huge reaction from the US Government. Earlier this month a White House Executive Order barred government employees from viewing any and all of the leaked, widely available documents. And this week the US Air Force went a step further and blocked computer access to entire media websites, including that of the New York Times, in an effort to prevent employees from reading the material. The US Government is also exploring the possibility of bringing criminal charges against WikiLeaks co-founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange. Meanwhile, a survey of the mainstream media by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has found that many outlets are dismissive of the information found in the cables, while interpreting them as proof of competent and effective US diplomacy efforts. At the same time, the FAIR survey shows a media predilection for demonizing Assange as an anti-american radical and conspiracy theorist. In the New York Times David Brooks wrote, “Despite the imaginings of people like Assange, the conversation revealed in the cables is not devious and nefarious. The private conversation is similar to the public conversation, except maybe more admirable.” Brooks’ assertion that classified documents mirror what is already publicly known is another common refrain. Writing in the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum stated that Assange had, “…vast ambitions. Among them the end of American government as we know it.” However she goes on to say that the cables, “Show US diplomats pursue pretty much the same goals in private as they do in public.”

GUEST: Peter Hart, Activism Director at FAIR and and Co-producer of CounterSpin, which airs Sundays at 1:30 pm

Find out more at www.fair.org.