Government Censorship of the Media

This past year Wiki leaks leaked a boat load of information, some of which included personal information of U.S. soldiers based upon the idea that the public shouldn't have a government that keeps secrets from them. Let's take a look at this from the point of view of the soldiers. I am now a soldier currently stationed in a hostile foreign country/ near a hostile terrorist regime. At the moment the enemy has no idea who I am. I am after them and they have no way to stop me. They can't harm my family nor my friends and I may be willing to die for my country if need be. However, because Wiki Leaks just put every single bit of information they could possibly want about me they can now attack my family via my street address and mail bombs. My family is now in jeopardy because some guy thought the whole world, even the enemies of our country, should know everything there is to know about me.

Now, let's say that I weren't stationed in a hostile area. Perhaps I am retired. The terrorists can still seek retribution on me if they wish. All they have to do is go on the internet and pull up a couple of files and they can destroy everything I know and love.

I cannot even bring myself to look at this from the point of view of wiki leaks. I find the group's point of view hard to picture. How could they jeopardize the lives of people for no reason other than to spite the government?

When information can possibly endanger the lives of U.S. citizens the government should have the unlimited and expressed authority to censor that information. They should be able to prevent anyone from discovering this information until the information is deemed harmless to the public. In reality the government has been doing this action the entire time. Some concepts and information simply isn't fit for the entire world to know. Couldn't someone that leaks this classified information be deemed a murder for aiding in the killing of several American citizens? They can and should.

The government should be justified to throw someone into a correctional facility for endangering the lives and/or mental stability of U.S. citizens. However, the government does not need to censor the media more than it already is. The government needs to protect us only from what will harm us. They should allow us to know anything else that wouldn't cause hysteria or harm individuals. Thus, I am against changing current government censorship over the media because I believe it is in a good balance.

This entire blog post is an example of the conflict between order and freedom. Obviously wiki links is a freedom extremist. I believe that while we should be entitled to our "unalienable rights" order should take precedence over these rights if the pursuit of those rights endangers the lives and rights of other people.

When something is buried beneath the dirt we should not seek the path of the grave robber.