I am convinced that at least a plurality of the people making these decisions at the time of the Pentagon Papers, and a majority ever since, have considered discrediting the Government of the United States to be an important objective in and of itself, not just collateral damage. Read in that light, this otherwise inexplicable decision b…
I am convinced that at least a plurality of the people making these decisions at the time of the Pentagon Papers, and a majority ever since, have considered discrediting the Government of the United States to be an important objective in and of itself, not just collateral damage. Read in that light, this otherwise inexplicable decision becomes all too easy to understand.
Of course they find Trump distasteful, but they're nihilists, so it would be odd if they didn't. But embarrassing Trump does not contribute to the project of discrediting the constitutional order: holding their noses and leaving him alone to run his grift free and unmonitored is much more productive of that end. And if they can wrap themselves in a claim of professional ethics in the process, that's a win/win.
I am convinced that at least a plurality of the people making these decisions at the time of the Pentagon Papers, and a majority ever since, have considered discrediting the Government of the United States to be an important objective in and of itself, not just collateral damage. Read in that light, this otherwise inexplicable decision becomes all too easy to understand.
Of course they find Trump distasteful, but they're nihilists, so it would be odd if they didn't. But embarrassing Trump does not contribute to the project of discrediting the constitutional order: holding their noses and leaving him alone to run his grift free and unmonitored is much more productive of that end. And if they can wrap themselves in a claim of professional ethics in the process, that's a win/win.
In a million years Katherine Graham and Ben Bradley would not have done anything to discredit the US government as a primary purpose.
Please, do Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange next! 😂