Blog Post #2

Knowing information that is a secret, and whether or not to disclose that information is a very hard to decision to make. Especially if others weigh in on their opinion and decide that it is not a good idea to disclose. If it were me in that situation it would be a difficult decision for me, but ultimately I would follow my gut. When I give advice to friends and family in my everyday life, my main focus is just letting them know that listening to that gut feeling, your conscience, it tells you to do the right thing. All you have to do is listen. If you listen to your conscience you’ll never do the wrong thing. So if I was in the situation, I’d make my decision based on how I felt and not under the influences of others.

I think about the WikiLeaks controversy. WikiLeaks leaks secret government documents and it was created by whistleblower Julian Assange. In 2010, WikiLeaks began publishing United States diplomatic cables from the Iraq and Afghan War. When it comes to government documents, it’s tricky to figure out whether the public needs to know certain information about war issues. The truth is, that sometimes those secrets are the very secrets that could put someone’s life in danger, and in this case, a soldier’s life.

Danger definitely fits into my criteria for whether or not a secret should be told. More criteria would be whether or not to hurt someone’s feelings or not. I think that ties into the little white lie. In class we talked a little about the infamous question, “Does this make me look fat?” Now, what exactly is the right answer? If you say yes, you hurt her feelings. If you say no and she does, you’re lying. What is the right thing to do? I’d say in this case, lying is ok, because you are preventing hurting the person’s feelings, and it is not putting anyone’s life in danger. Now, when Ellsberg said there’s a difference when something is wrongfully kept, I think he was right. There are things in this world, that people just need to know. For example, I watch the news just about every night, and they almost always have a segment about investigating neighborhood scams. If you know about a scam going on, I feel like as fellow human beings we have the right to warn others. It is our social responsibility.

There are many consequences when it comes to fallouts from leaking information. For example, Bradley Manning, a United States soldier who is to believed to be the one that leaked the US cables to WikiLeaks. He spent time in maxiumu security custody and was even said to be in solitary confinement.

As a media professional, I feel like it is impossible to avoid getting tangled in secrets. I mean especially in journalism. As a journalist, it is your job to get the news to the public, the bad, and the ugly. Knowledge is power, the more we know the better we’re informed. In any profession in the world, people are going to be face with ethical dilemmas. It’s just about doing the right thing, and listening to that guy feeling. Like we spoke about in our groups in class, if you can sleep at night, you did the right thing.