[Update: Jesselyn Radack, who has vigorously defended the cause of whistleblowers, pans this documentary as shallow and biased.]
[Update2: Danny Schecter also blasts the film and provides important information on the unusual government-corporate backing that it got that may explain its apparent negatives of Assange, Manning, and WikiLeaks. (Thanks to Pierce R. Butler in the comments.)]
Academy award winning documentarian Alex Gibney has released a new one We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks. The film’s website is here and here’s the trailer.
Gibney was interviewed on Stephen Colbert’s show.
The Colbert Report
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(This clip aired on June 4, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Pierce R. Butler says
Not having seen the film, I have no firm opinion.
However, others have some serious doubts.
Ashley F. Miller says
I saw the film and it was… kind of boring and meandering and not great. A film about Bradley Manning alone would have been far more compelling. As a film, it’s just not well structured. As an argument, it’s fractured.
Mano Singham says
Thanks for this. Reading it, I found a review that pans this documentary as shallow and biased, and have added an update to the post.
obscure1 says
This documentary was commissioned by Universal Studios, a subsidiary of Comcast, a global entertainment conglomerate that took in more than 21 billion dollars worth of revenue in 2011. NBC/Universal owns and operates American television networks, numerous cable channels, and a group of local stations in the US, as well as motion picture companies, several television production companies, and branded theme parks. To believe that this entertainment consortium is not a part of the national security state is very naive. The golden-toed jackboot of our national security state is on the necks of Manning and Assange. The national security state is making it impossible for a free and open society to exist. An informed citizenry is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society and the branding of Assange, Manning and WikiLeaks as enemies of the state is classic political D.C. dissembling, deception and duplicity. The documentary focuses on the personalities and peccadilloes of Assange and Manning instead of the criminality and unreasonable excessive secrecy of our national security state. The director and his corporate overlords have a deep understanding of the movie’s potential viewers. USA-Land of the Sanctimonious and Home of the Prudes. Any whiff of sexual impropriety reverberates so thoroughly throughout this ‘Great America’ that nothing else is needed to impugn someone’s reputation and establish their guilt. Do yourself and America a favor and boycott this documentary.
Pierce R. Butler says
Reporter/producer Danny Schecter has another slam at “We Steal Secrets”.