Patrice Riemens on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:16:05 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime> The media cottage industry around Wikileaks


Mongrel dogs fighting for a bone is the image that comes to mind when
looking at the undignified spectacle of mainstream media trying to get
exclusive access to the treasure trove of 'Cablegate' leaks. It all
started with Nick Davies of the Guardian making it out in disgust with
Julian Assange who simply couldn't 'get it': that the paper was prepared
to put considerable resources and energy into the Wikileaks story ... in
exchange for exclusivity.

One wonders who's not 'getting it' here.

Now the Dutch weekly 'Vrij Nederland' has reported on the local battle
royal for being first to publish the cables concerning the Netherlands. It
was waged between the NOS public broadcasting and the NRC, the
self-appointed 'paper of records' teaming up with a commercial TV station
(RTL News) - the NOS lost 'in a photo finish'. They had placed their faith
in Wikileaks itself, while NRC and RTL closed a deal with the Norvegian
daily Aftenposten, which in its turn had got the whole stack from a
Wikileaks 'dissident'...

How low can you go?

The whole affray went of course together with a frenzy of plane trips to
Rejkjavik and Oslo, days of anxious watching and waiting, wheeling and
dealings in flurry of mobile phone calls, out-of-control hotel and cab
bills, massive adrenaline rushes and the inordinately frequent display of
what a Columbian friend of mine poetically refers to as 'putting your dick
on the table".

All this to be first past the post.

Those who are looking for unbiased, independent, and even moderately
intelligent reporting surely wish for a speedy demise of this washed-out
and totally obnoxious 'old' media model, whether funded by the taxpayer or
sponsored by various commercial interests which will hand us the tab any
way some time or another. Myself, I cannot wait.

Cheers from patrizio and Diiiinooos!
(just back themselves from a Wikileaks-generated junket in Barcelona ;-)
(a report in Castillian here: http://bit.ly/hGBHyM )


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