Should some secrets be left unsaid?

Alyson Fossett

af965610@ohio.edu

http://thepentagonpapersdreamteam.wordpress.com/key-people/dan-ellsberg/

Pentagon Papers: Positivity

This is not the first time we, as a nation, have ran into this debate.  During the Vietnam War Daniel Ellsberg , a previous U.S. Marine Corps officer, released what we know as the Pentagon Papers. These papers contained information that the US was misleading the American public about the US involvement in Southeast Asia by undermining  the intense war efforts the US were making. While the people at home thought the war was ending  when in reality the US was over seas still bombing , killing and losing lives. The Pentagon Paper revealed this misconception which ultimately, as they say, helped end the war and ended Nixon’s chances at re-election. The Pentagon Papers and Ellsberg is looked at as a heroic story. After many court trials, Ellsberg was not only a free man but in some people’s eyes, a hero.

WikiLeaks: Negativity

So if the Pentagon Papers and Ellsberg have such a positive light associated with them, why is the WikiLeaks incident looked at so negatively? According to PBS.org WikiLeaks describes itself as a "multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public.".  As Alex Jones stated in a PBS interview “ WikiLeaks’ Inclination to simply put raw information out, without any kind of effort to protect sources or guard legitimate secrets, is dangerous”. What Jones means by “legitimate secrets” are things (information) that could potentially put our nation in danger. If someone decides to publish war strategies that they got a hold of and maybe don’t agree with and a terrorist group were to get a hold of them that would not be a good thing.

As journalist we have to be aware of the difference between secrets that need to be told and secrets that should be kept. Jones explains these conflicting values as “One is the legitimate need for secrets”, the secrets that should be kept, and the other pulling factor is, as was demonstrated in the Pentagon Papers,  the “clear history that government very much wants to keep information that may not really be at the level of what could be considered a legitimate secret” but instead keeps things from the public because it may be embarrassing or in someway compromise the support of the government .

Journalist: Our Duty

“Seek the truth and report it”—The first policy in the SPJ code of ethics , not just the first code but a very important one at that. Many journalist go into this profession because they have a passion for storytelling and getting to the bottom of things. We, as journalist, believe it is our duty to shed light on areas of darkness and give the people the power of knowledge.  Which, as we have found out, can be a very powerful thing. So my question is; do we, as journalists; sometimes the only eyes and ears of our nation, left something’s unseen? Is there a line that needs to be drawn? Is there a point when it no longer becomes our duty to communicate but instead our duty to be silent for the greater good of our nation.