ecprice / newsdiffs

Automatic scraper that tracks changes in news articles over time.
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Track WikiLeaks changes #20

Open douglaslucas opened 11 years ago

douglaslucas commented 11 years ago

WikiLeaks deletes its tweets and makes small but significant changes to the text on its website not infrequently. These differences have news value[1, 2].

WikiLeaks (rightfully, in my opinion) presents itself as a highly ethical news organization building an objective historical record of what humanity does. In that light, Julian Assange has stated[3] his concern with news organizations changing the material on their websites without alerting readers and has also asked[4] US news outlets to make corrections about him on their websites more prominent.

The same attention should be afforded to WikiLeaks itself. Especially as WikiLeaks is a new media organization with global impact, tracking its changes would fit right into NewsDiff's mission.

[1] https://twitter.com/DouglasLucas/status/366712539612061697

[2] http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/wikileaks-spokesman-insists-snowden-statement-is-genuineh

[3] http://www.e-flux.com/journal/in-conversation-with-julian-assange-part-i/

[4] http://www.imediaethics.org/News/3130/_assange_not_charged__mcclatchy_corrects_record_in_4_newspapers__editors_not_informed.php