I agree with bits of this
Full disclosure will, in some cases, reinforce the fact/illusion that politicians are not to be trusted, when they've done no more than get found out gossiping that they actually didn't like the hostess's cakes when they told her at the dinner party they did, which is quite damaging when taken out of context.

But another way of looking at the leaks is that these are ambassadors for our various countries, so their "gossip" shapes the world and its political alliances, and what one says about another in an official enough context that it is written down and leakable is actually making policy for the world and is therefore newsworthy, putting a lot of other things which happen before and after in to context.

It's a little like, on a smaller scale, when you read the section in Private Eye which covers journalists and newspapers, telling you who has upset whom and why, putting in context the columns and "news" which go on to shape the current opinions of the country.

The celebration of Assange isn't (on my part) simply for what he has done, it is admiration of his struggle against becoming a political prisoner for his beliefs and for creating a machine which is made from the "little" people and yet (for now) appears to be big enough to make political differences. Whether those differences are good or bad, we have yet to see.

Remember all the marches against war, against poverty, against the government generally, against Blair particularly, over the last 10-15 years which have simply been ignored? This is a big "fuck you" which can't be ignored, which is quite heartening, whatever you think of the substance of it or the consequences. Personally, I'm just enjoying the intense embarrassment being felt at the top and the procession of arguments and justifications wheeled out to contradict or agree with what was actually said to make them look a little better and less hypocritical as they try to wash away the bits previously reported as being said or done which might disagree with the current "truths" being leaked.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Wed 29 Dec 2010, 9:31, Reply)