Wikileaks, freedom fighters or greedy opportunists?

The discussion about WikiLeaks has been polarizing.

Many are calling Assange and his website heroes while others call them shameless crooks.

Personally, I don't think it is a matter of whether the U.S. government was rude or polite or secretive, etc.. in their files.  I am certainly not the person to defend unscrupulous behavior on the governments part.  That's another story entirely.

The point of this is that the documents were stolen.  They were knowingly and intentionally stolen.  After being stolen, they were given to a group who had something to gain by making the information public.  What to gain, for a wanna be "journalist"?  That is reputation.

As with any stolen items, if a thief steals something then turns it over to a "fence" or someone else to sell or use it for gain, the 'fence' is just as criminal as the theif for knowingly and willingly using the stolen goods for gain.

That's what it boils down to for me.

You can argue semantics and argue philosophy and you can even argue intention.  The point is, if Assange and WikiLeaks were true "journalists" as they would have us beleive, they would have refused the stolen information and mounted a legitimate investigation of their own, knowing something was to be found.

They didn't do that though.  They took what they knew was ill-gotten and ran with it to benefit in terms of profit (money taken in from advertising and begging for donations from like-minded people increases in such circumstances) and reputational gain (again among like-minded people who don't care how it happens, just as long as it does.  Even though they seem to be the first to complain when the same tactics are used against them.)

 I find Wiki-Leaks and Assange guilty of dealing in stolen property and lacking journalistic integrity.

They deserve what they get.