That's an interesting point - we take it for granted that Wikileaks is, in fact, passing on information without changing it, but there's no oversight to it. We know that they edit material they get - the infamous helicopter video for one was edited down to join the three main parts in a watchable time frame - but the editing itself puts a slant on the material.Generic Gamer said:... I worry slightly that a lot of people are mistaking Wikileaks for an impartial repository of information rather than a news source that also needs to be assessed. It also worries me that at this stage they could say anything and people would automatically believe it, not just be inclined to trust them, they would believe. That's not the sort of thing you should need to believe.
Is that journalism (strong case for that - it's what paper do, after all), or is it sinister (the lack of oversight combined with anonymous, unverifiable information sources)? Honestly, though, if they did come out with something damaging that was a lie then their entire credibility would have been shot, so it would be in their best interests to at least report facts correctly. As for spin, every news source does that - Wikileaks can hardly be persecuted for doing it too.
It's laughable that our political system allows a serious political party so say whatever the hell they like and not hold them accountable for it. I fully expect that if the Monster Raving Looney Party came to power that my sister's teddies would be allowed to vote; it's on their manifesto (amongst other things...). The point is, if you're going to sign a pledge that you're going to do something, there needs to be a system in place to make you accountable to it.The Lib Dems are an interesting case. A lot of their policies weren't really realistic but they didn't get a chance to reassess them before being asked to fulfil them. A lot of their policies were formulated to sound good and not assessed for feasibility since they seemed to be playing a long game. Last election they achieved a few seats and were looking to slowly expand, I don't believe they or their hardline followers were really prepared to enact their policies.
It's a sorry state that our politics are in when we can be outright lied to and then re-elect the bastrds (see Blair's long list of manifesto back-pedals, also including tuition fees -_-).
It's even worse that most people don't give a shit.