Wikileaks busts myth about the irrelevance of mainstream media

[Commentary] By releasing 92,000 pages of intelligence documents relating to the Afghanistan war onto the laptops of an unsuspecting public, the proprietor of WikiLeaks has made an iron-clad case for the mainstream media.

If you were under the impression that we no longer need news organizations, editors or reporters with more than 10 minutes' experience, think again. The notion that the Internet can replace traditional newsgathering has been revealed as a myth. Without more investigation, more work, more journalism, these documents just don't matter that much. To argue that they are significant because they will inform an ignorant public is ludicrous: If you don't know by now that the Pakistani secret service helped create the Taliban, or that civilian casualties are generally a problem for NATO, or that special forces units are hunting for al-Qaeda fighters, all that means is that you don't read the mainstream media. Which means that you don't really want to know.