Friday, April 29, 2011

To define

The recent NPR report about Wikileaks' Gitmo dump referred to the site as an "anti-secrecy website". The CNN report labeled Wikileaks "an organization that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information"; I think this is their official stance. The Wikipedia article defines Wikileaks as "an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers".

Why "anti-secrecy" instead of "pro-transparency"? Why highlight anonymity, and not whistleblowing, or exposing, or any other facet of the issue? Because when a label or definition is chosen, the chooser seeks to communicate something about the signified.