The Atlantic

Should Journalists Be More Cautious of WikiLeaks?

With its latest leak, the site is daring reporters to go on a scavenger hunt for scoops.
Source: Peter Nicholls / Reuters

Since around the time of the presidential election in November, the U.S. media has taken a hard look at its tumultuous love affair with WikiLeaks. News organizations had lapped up the documents that the site was churning out: first, thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee, then thousands more from the personal Gmail account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta.

The U.S. intelligence community now says the emails were stolen by Russian hackers and passed along to WikiLeaks for publication, an allegation Assange continues to deny. As the source published multiple stories citing the DNC and Podesta emails posted by WikiLeaks, becoming a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence,” the wrote in of Russia’s meddling around the U.S. election.

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