WSWS | The response of the US media to a series of leaked Pentagon documents revealing US involvement in the Ukraine war raises far-reaching issues of democratic rights.
On Thursday, the New York Times publicly identified the individual who allegedly leaked Pentagon documents exposing US government lies about the Ukraine war, leading to his arrest.
The Times, working with the state-funded propaganda clearinghouse Bellingcat, publicly revealed the identity of Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guard member. Teixeira was arrested just hours later.
There are indications that Teixeira holds repulsive fascist and antisemitic views. But Teixeira’s motivations do not change the fact that the documents he released caught the US government red-handed in systematically lying to the public in waging an undeclared war against Russia in Ukraine.
The documents showed that, contrary to false claims by the Biden administration, NATO troops are on the ground in Ukraine, NATO is directly involved in the war, and the Ukrainian military is in a far worse position than presented by news reports.
These documents have exposed not only the US government, but the New York Times and Washington Post, as liars.
In turn, the major US media outlets have responded by upholding, in principle, the right of the US government to lie to the public.
On Thursday, the Washington Post published an editorial headlined, “The Discord leaks show our nation’s secrets at risk.”
Nowhere in the editorial is there any criticism of the Biden administration for having lied to the American public. Instead, the editorial upholds government secrecy, and vows to assist the government to keep the public from knowing what the government wishes to keep secret.
The editorial declares, “Keeping secrets is essential to a functioning government.”
In making this statement, the Post, owned by the oligarch Jeff Bezos, has declared war on a fundamental precept of democratic rule.
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