Goldberg Defends Wikileaks From O’Reilly’s Organized Crime Claims: ‘It Is A News Organization’

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by Frances Martel | 9:58 pm, April 25th, 2011

» 10 comments

The State Department’s favorite whistleblower organization, Wikileaks, has taken yet another holiday to launch a document dump, this time on the secrets of America’s military base on Guantanamo Bay. Like every Wikileak, this one has many in the media, including Bill O’Reilly, calling for the government to press charges on Julian Assange and company, but the group appears to have found an unlikely ally: Bernie Goldberg.

Goldberg, who classified Wikileaks as an “anti-American, anti-war organization” in his weekly segment with O’Reilly, nonetheless stood by the group, arguing that, if Wikileaks truly did not encourage or aid the theft of the information they publish, they are by definition a “news organization” whose business is precisely to publish said information. He isn’t the first Fox Newser to stand up for the organization, though, unlike Shepard Smith, who went as far as to christen Wikileaks just about the only beacon of truth in government reporting, he didn’t seem to convinced of the group’s good faith. Nonetheless, he stood up for their right to publish. “You have to distinguish between the person who actually downloaded and effectually stole the documents,” he explained, “and Wikileaks.” Adding the caveat that, for this to be true, Wikileaks must not have been “in collusion with the person that downloaded the documents,” the would be a “news organization,” and unless the information “puts lives in jeopardy or jeopardizes an operation,” they have a right to publish “and I don’t think they should be prosecuted.” To illustrate his point, he asked O’Reilly if he would publish President Obama’s transcript had someone stolen it from the Columbia University archives.

O’Reilly didn’t buy it, beginning his segment reminding viewers that “if I got Wikileaks documents, I wouldn’t put them on the air.” He didn’t disagree with the classification Goldberg gave for Wikileaks as “an anti-American organization that’s looking, searching, and encouraging people to come to them with stolen documents,” but O’Reilly saw a legal opening here, defining the case as “almost like a RICO thing,” referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal racketeering law under which most organized crime members are charged. “I think you can get them on that RICO thing,” O’Reilly concluded, though Goldberg appeared unconvinced, adding to his examples that of Daniel Ellsberg, the man responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.

The segment via Fox News below:

Bernie Goldberg, Bill O'Reilly, Daniel Ellsberg, fox news, GITMO, Guantanamo Bay, O'Reilly Factor, organized crime, RICO, Wikileaks

Gasket

Gotta love those big brother conservatives like O’Reilly….LOL.
Pokerdude777

Free Speech. You CAN’T yell fire in a crowded movie cinema. Free Speech is muzzled here?? No, because it can and probably will cause bodily harm – Same theory applies to wikileaks. Why is it so hard for you leftists to understand something so basically fundamentally sound??? fkn DUH!!!
Nacho

Pokerdude777 said:
Free Speech. You CAN’T yell fire in a crowded movie cinema. Free Speech is muzzled here?? No, because it can and probably will cause bodily harm – Same theory applies to wikileaks. Why is it so hard for you leftists to understand something so basically fundamentally sound??? fkn DUH!!!

What do you think about that right wing conservative Pastor in Florida that burns Korans, that can and probably will cause bodily harm?
ljam

Pokerdude777 said:
Free Speech. You CAN’T yell fire in a crowded movie cinema. Free Speech is muzzled here?? No, because it can and probably will cause bodily harm – Same theory applies to wikileaks. Why is it so hard for you leftists to understand something so basically fundamentally sound??? fkn DUH!!!

Yes, the conservative position is clear.. trash our justice system then suppress any dissenting voice in the name of security. Well this leftist believes that freedom of speech and the right to a trial are part of what made this country great. If you equate that to yelling fire in a theater, your a fool.
pakattak

Pokerdude777 said:
Free Speech. You CAN’T yell fire in a crowded movie cinema. Free Speech is muzzled here?? No, because it can and probably will cause bodily harm – Same theory applies to wikileaks. Why is it so hard for you leftists to understand something so basically fundamentally sound??? fkn DUH!!!

That’s the thing, the Wikileaks documents haven’t really resulted in any overt acts of violence or increased aggression toward the United States than what would probably have happened otherwise (aside from what’s happening to PFC Bradley Manning).
black and WHITE

I just hope that Obam’a utter refusal to join the cause and help them another gay soldier dumps the secret Obama regime files that would expose just what the hell Barack , his secret czar society, GE and the corrupt union brothers are plotting against America and us ” real ” American people behind those locked gates of our White House.

Maybe Rachel, Anderson or Dylan could start the ball rolling, considering that group makes up their core audience.
More Liberty5

Good for Wikileaks. The more secrets they expose of an overbearing government the better for individual liberty and governmental accountability.
Resistance Is Futile

Obviously Bill O’Reilly is clueless about law. Wikileaks is engaging in legal activity. It is clearly not espionage. O’Reilly should read the Pentagon Papers case which was referred to in the interview. It is amazing how ignorant most conservatives are about American history and American law.
More Liberty5

Resistance Is Futile said:
Obviously Bill O’Reilly is clueless about law. Wikileaks is engaging in legal activity. It is clearly not espionage. O’Reilly should read the Pentagon Papers case which was referred to in the interview. It is amazing how ignorant most conservatives are about American history and American law.

That’s a fair point. The more government secrets and corruption is exposed the better for everyone.
LarryB

O’Reilly calls WikiLeaks “anti-war.” Is that a bad thing?

“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free, no one ever will.”
-Thomas Jefferson