Julian Assange 101

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been called many things but he may soon become a business ethics course. Kathleen V. Willis of Indiana University-Purdue University, Columbus, is exploring the possibility of doing so.

“Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006 to challenge world hegemony,” Willis said at the 2013 annual meeting in Boston of the Modern Language Association. In order to do so, he “leaked military and diplomatic correspondence,” Willis noted. Willis admits that Assange’s own background makes him problematic but focuses her inquiry upon his enterprise.

“Where is Assange’s ethical slippage?” Willis asked. “According to his own business ethics?”

“Who is in control of ethical boundaries?”

“Were the sources attributed?”

“The sources were documented.”

“Did he let the volume and content of the sources make his argument?”

“The Russians and other adversaries or enemies of the United States have benefitted immensely from the WikiLeaks disclosures, which included classified information about U.S. counter-terrorism efforts,” Cliff Kincaid pointed out in a report for Accuracy in Media. “In return, perhaps as a show of thanks, the Russians gave Assange a TV show, where he interviewed such figures as Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah and U.S. Marxist professor Noam Chomsky.”

“The Russia Today (RT) show, funded by Moscow, is broadcast into the United States but has not been required to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. “

 

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
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