{"id":48609,"date":"2016-09-11T14:10:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T18:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=48609"},"modified":"2016-09-11T14:10:51","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T18:10:51","slug":"of-hacktivism-hackers-and-leakers-helping-re-set-the-bar-of-real-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=48609","title":{"rendered":"Of Hacktivism, Hackers And Leakers: Helping Re-Set The Bar Of REAL Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"american_flag_matrix_by_chrisdiontewalker-d954qoe-777x437\"<\/a>
\nOp-Ed by Brett Redmayne-Titley
\n<\/a>
\nIn a world of slanted journalism that pervades not only mainstream media offerings but also the majority of \u201cprogressive\u201d and \u201calternative\u201d media, it is the hackers and leakers of vital information that are now providing a new and desperately needed return to real <\/em>journalism. Recent examples of courage and risk in pursuit of full disclosure which counters media distortions of fact, must be followed. Hackers and leakers are \u2013 as shown this month \u2013 providing the<\/em>public service mandate once enveloped within the vaunted parchment of the First Amendment \u2013 an obligation far too long forgotten.<\/p>\n

America is the origin of media lies and a willfully ignorant public that believes them. Strangely, most US citizens wallow only in the proffered world of gray journalism \u2013 one that wraps the truth and the mind of the reader, instead, in the flag of nationalist colors. Thus stubbornly adhering only to their predisposed personal opinion, one belies demonstrative evidence to the contrary, this malady is shown, at least, in the irrational national adulation for two very flawed current presidential candidates. This opinion ignores an obviously controlled media that is promoting one candidate (using lies) while viciously attacking the other (using lies). This past month, repeatedly hackers and leakers across the globe have smashed America\u2019s mindless and too regularly used false talisman: America is \u201cexceptional\u201d and therefore US democracy is functioning normally. Really?<\/p>\n

The remaining free world should be holding up many hackers as strong examples of moral, social and geopolitical outrage, as once they did the forgotten journalists of a similar dedication. In a modern world dominated by a media establishment that universally propagates a false set of mistruths to their fawning audience, Americans happily exist in this realm of deliberately obfuscated gray. The willfully ignorant wrap themselves in this insular, flag-draped shelter of their singular and fraudulently produced opinion, hence it takes a cold, hard slap across the face, in repetition, before Americans suddenly emerge from the hard chrysalis of media control. \u00a0This journalistic malignancy grows by the lies it tells or, more often, the truth deliberately edited out. In an apathetic and disaffected society, rarely does an American step outside their field of gray and investigate, via the very few but easily found news services that regularly fill-in this gap, the complete story. Today\u2019s hackers and leakers aspire to the correct news reporting tenants; those of Mencken, Murrow, Cronkite, Halberstam, Greene, Thompson, Thomas\u2026<\/p>\n

This last month, thanks to a plethora of hacks and leaks, has been an epiphany for many Americans and a vindication for good<\/em> journalists too easily minimized regardless of their careful presentation of fact. \u00a0Like the bloody photographic reality of an Israeli murdered Palestinian child or video horror of dismembered US Afghan drone victims, this month\u2019s hacks and leaks have torn to shreds volumes of previously authored gray media scat.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A partial review of this month\u2019s myth busting by Hactivists is thus in order.<\/p>\n

\u2013 George Soros made the list several times, solidifying his now-proven position as the<\/em> worldwide public enemy #1. New leaks confirmed what good<\/em> journalists have repeated for more than two years: that Soros was directly tied to the Ukrainian\/Maidan Square coup. Leaked documents prove the immense power and control Soros had over Ukraine\u2019s government immediately following the\u00a0illegal Maidan government overthrow. Soros\u2019 pre-Maidan involvement is thus no longer deniable. <\/strong>[link]<\/a><\/p>\n

But Soros is not content with ruining only one foreign democracy. This new world order Zionist has also been using his billions to restrict Internet access to information for those who do not meet his ongoing definition. Thanks to Obama\u2019s allegiance to Soros, on Oct 1, 2016 Internet control will pass from the federal US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)<\/strong> to the private Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN], whose true upcoming allegiance would seem equally as obvious. Can America become any more ignorant? If Soros has his way, the answer will be, \u201cYes!\u201d [link]<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to the 2,500 documents recently released by DC Leaks, we now know that George Soros is funding the legal fees as part of his stated goal to \u201cenlarge\u201d the U.S. electorate by at least 10 million voters by election 2018.<\/strong> The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) is part of the agenda of Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundations, his secretive network of political organizations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>[link]<\/a><\/p>\n

It was also revealed that Soros and his Open Society Foundations continue to purchase American democracy for themselves by actively funding the election campaigns of state and federal judges. A new definition of Soros-brand \u201cjustice\u201d is currently being unleashed on an already corrupt US judicial system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Considering this month\u2019s collective indictment of Soros, his plans now laid bare, it would seem high time for the anger and hatred, currently multi-directed and misguided across the nation, to be properly re-focused. Should Soros finally meet justice at the hands of a properly enlightened and thus outraged public, it will be due to a very small subset of the world\u2019s reporters of news.<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton. The Clinton Foundation.\u00a0 Lighting these gray shadows came the leaked documentary evidence that shows her presidential campaign to be the fraudulent side-show distraction that many good journalists have analyzed it be. Reams of information was leaked this month and thanks to those who chose a higher authority than MSM, further criminality on the part of the democratic candidate is now absolutely clear. According to leading establishment nemesis, Julian Assange, recent releases are merely \u201cteasers\u201d with a treasure trove worthy of an FBI \u2013 or journalistic \u2013 indictment to be released in batches, \u201csoon.\u201d [link]<\/a> Considering the mounting pile of criminal allegations against DNC candidate Clinton, and her blatant lies in attempting to explain away same, it remains to be seen, soon, how much trust the voters will still have for her \u2026 on Nov.8. [link]<\/a><\/p>\n

We now know that US President Obama has been just as impotent with his foreign policy demands as with his eight-year milquetoast methods used on the US population. In a previous article<\/a> it was suggested that Obama lacked any traditional Political Capital, hence resorting to mere bribery. With regard to Iran, leaks show this to be true, as are the allegations that he sent $400 million in hard cold cash as \u201cransom\u201d for several hostages. Such is <\/em>Obama\u2019s presidential power.[link]<\/a><\/p>\n

But the best came last, as \u201cThe Shadow Brokers\u201d hacked and released legitimate hacking tools from the NSA\u2019s own special-ops entity, the \u201cEquation Group.\u201d While it is debatable whether this was a hack or a leak [link]<\/a> by a new NSA whistleblower, regardless, when the NSA\u2019s own elite top-of-the-line IT op is itself breached, that is one very stiff middle finger at Uncle Sam\u2019s cyber arrogance[link]<\/a>. It is also an implicit promise of very good<\/em> things to come.<\/p>\n

Those who hack and those who leak documentary evidence of the world\u2019s evil conspirators are helping rid the world of the endemic danger of \u00a0invalid, mindless opinions. These backstage players must be now acknowledged for what they are: Journalists. Damn good reporters of vital news. In the current war against media lies and their fraudulent, manipulating effect on opinion<\/em>, like the front-line, hard-nosed news men of old, the work of these anonymous cyber-heroes shows a dedication to the full truth in a world of half-truths of gray; a dedication to a higher moral standard in the face of an amoral world; and a dedication to both these two mandates despite little reward and serious risk to personal and family freedoms. Yes \u2026 journalists!<\/p>\n

Before this month\u2019s revelations, a higher moral ground was clearly defined by the hackers who leaked the names of millions of members of the Ashley Madison website. In July 2015, a group calling itself \u201cThe Impact Team\u201d stole the user data of Ashley Madison<\/a>, a commercial website billed as enabling extramaritalaffairs<\/a>. The group copied personal information about the site\u2019s user base and threatened to release users\u2019 names and personal identifying information if Ashley Madison was not immediately shut down. When Ashley Madison\u00a0 called their bluff, on 18 and 20 August, the group leaked more than 25 gigabytes of company data, including the user details. These once anonymous website members were as guilty as Clinton or Soros, but this time of the charge of adultery. Ashley Madison members were also cheaters; cheaters on their husbands and wives. These members also lived \u2013 for a time \u2013 in the realm of the gray \u2026 hiding their sins from their spouses and therefore from themselves. Thanks to The Impact Team \u2026 their crimes, too, were brought to light. Did not<\/em>the remaining moral world salute those who chose the reestablish a higher bar for the promise of fidelity?<\/p>\n

Was this not<\/em> also a great news story?<\/p>\n

On today\u2019s battlefield that is the fight against MSM created ignorance, these new cyber-war correspondents are also often wounded, killed or taken prisoner. This month Guccifer, Marcel Lazar Lehel, a 44-year-old former taxi driver and paint salesman who was arrested in Romania and\u00a0 extradited to the US in 2014, was sent to prison for providing the public with too much inconvenient truth. Guccifer is the man who leaked, among others, the documents proving Hillary Clinton\u2019s national security crimes. [link]<\/a> Given fifty-four months in prison, Marcel Lazar Lehel rightly joined other world journalist heroes \u2013 such as Assange, Chelsea Manning, Snowden, Mordechai Vanunu, W. Mark Felt , Daniel Ellsberg \u2013 who put the bar of truth above concerns for personal freedom.<\/p>\n

Prison, however, is the least of concerns.<\/p>\n

At 4:25 AM on June 18, 2013, journalist Michael Hastings, who had revealed US General, David Petraeus, as having provided top-secret military intelligence to his news reporter and personal biographer mistress, Paula Broadwell, never got to tell the whole story. Reportedly the key info. had been previously leaked to him by Jill Kelly who he was scheduled to meet with the next day. According to eye witnesses and CCTV footage first, Hastings\u2019 Mercedes C 250 ES accelerated to a speed of over 135 MPH on a quiet Hancock Park\/ Los Angeles street, then the car exploded in flames as the car\u2019s engine was ejected through the hood, the car\u2019s body then separating from the chassis. This all happened before<\/em> Hastings and his Mercedes ran full speed \u2013 no brake marks \u2013 into a very large palm tree. Two days after the crash, the Los Angeles Police Department<\/a> declared that there were no signs of foul play. Really?<\/p>\n

On April 23, 2015, Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials. He was given a two-year probationary period and a fine of $100,000.<\/p>\n

Re-enforcing this terminal risk that stalks the nether regions of the gray for all truth-tellers, last month a person unknown tried to scale the outside walls of the Ecuadorian embassy. Credence to an assassination attempt on Assange was given substantial credibility when it was revealed that the local police station, mere blocks away, failed to heed emergency embassy calls regarding this breach of Ecuadorian sovereign property. The cops showed up two hours later.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s hackers and leakers share two other realizations peculiar to the life of a dedicated journalist. Similarly, they make almost no remuneration for their efforts, merely hopefully serving-up their hard work to editors. If accepted for publication, rarely is this due primarily to the quest for full disclosure of a story, but instead for the success of their publications and readership revenues. Allegiance is not first to the truth, but to money. A recent example of this is the advent of The Intercept<\/em>, Glenn Greenwald\u2019s mast-head that exists on leaks and information from underground sources. Privileged to receive one of the very few complete copies of the 2013 Snowden revelations, Greenwald\u00a0 made these the long-winded opening salvo of news articles that supposedly legitimized The Intercept<\/em>, as well as attracting a large new readership. While it is unknown if Greenwald has shared this windfall with its originator, Snowden, for Greenwald, however, there has been a book, book tour and a trip to the Oscars.<\/p>\n

But if monetary gain was the goal of the real <\/em>journalist all would be faced with the sad choice of fading away \u2026 or selling-out. Many have. When personal dedication prevails, however, they, as with Hactivists heroes like Snowden, face this much more controlling obstacle to getting their work to the public. Here, the cyber-journalist has come full circle to the same harsh realization of his contemporary peers: that all information is subject exclusively to an editors willingness to publish it.<\/em> Whether it be the properly maligned Mainstream Media (MSM) or the too often mislabeled Alternative Media, editors are the true Gate Keepers of all Internet information. Consider the unfortunate punch-line to\u00a0 Edward Snowden placing his faith \u2013 and the biggest NSA document dump in history \u2013 in the hands of, seemingly, just four editors: Greenwald [pre-The Intercept<\/em>], Alan Rusbridger [The Guardian<\/em>],\u00a0 Wolfgang Buchner [Der Spiegel<\/em>] and Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. [Washington Post<\/em>].<\/p>\n

One of the first revelations from the Snowden leaks was that the NSA was intercepting and storing for evaluation all \u2013 repeat all \u2013 phone calls and meta data from five US allied countries under a program called \u201cMYSTIC.\u201d Reveling in the attention of an upcoming book tour, Greenwald, on behalf of The Intercept, released the names of only four of the five nations. Pressed on the issue of full disclosure, Greenwald refused to budge. As this story gained traction worldwide, neither The Guardian<\/em> nor Der Spiegel<\/em> and the other two trustees of the documents honored their own mandate for the full truth of this story. Fortunately, and reportedly unbeknownst to all four editors, there was a fifth copy \u2013 an insurance policy as it turned out \u2013 and this copy was in the hands of the only man with the power and dedication to real journalism \u2013 and the sacrifices of real<\/em> journalists \u2013 able to hold these four media gate keepers accountable for having, in reality, joined MSM. After a week of their excuses, without fanfare Julian Assange and WikiLeaks suddenly revealed that they would not<\/em> in turn prostitute themselves, by providing one simple, all powerful answer to the world: Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

When a media source deliberately fails to reveal key facts to its readers it is effectively guilty of journalistic treason. It can no longer be completely trusted. These whores of the 4th Estate<\/a> fight daily a war against the will, the power, the intuition of the free mind. This incredible evil seeks to blanket the collective rational mind of the world in the ever tightening wrappings of the gray shroud of ignorance. Judging from the state of the world, evil is winning. Yet, against this flood of disinformation the journalist fights back. The ebb tide is turning. Hackers and leakers, like all journalists, have chosen to fight back, for in some\u2026 there is a deep place that ever smolders, igniting to fire on those long sleepless nights when the mind churns, a passion burns and one\u2019s conscience screams in unison. Flames that can only be calmed \u2026 by action!<\/p>\n

So, hackers \u2026 beware. You have joined a fight so few grasp in earnest, even fewer follow with sincerity and almost none attack unfailingly with a passion, a vengeance, a conviction. A fight that will not<\/em> surrender to a standard so clearly beneath us<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Welcome, Brothers! The gauntlet is now at your feet.<\/p>\n

It is time!<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u00a0THE END <\/strong>\u2013<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.activistpost.com\/2016\/09\/hacktivism-hackers-leakers-helping-re-set-bar-real-journalism.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}