Media obey government request to withhold leaked documents from public

Mainstream news outlets are obeying a Biden administration request to withhold leaked intelligence documents from the public.

Between January and March, over 50 classified documents containing sensitive information related to the Russia-Ukraine war were posted by unidentified users on the social media platform Discord, which were then shared to 4chan and Telegram. The photographed documents contain top secret information pertaining to the US and its allies, particularly details about US spy operations on Israel and South Korea.

In a press briefing Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby directly asked reporters not to report sensitive information in the documents.

“Again, without confirming the validity of the documents, this is information that has no business in the public domain. It has no business – if you don’t mind me saying — on the pages of . . . front pages of newspapers or on television. It is not intended for public consumption and it should not be out there,” Kirby said.

Rather than disclose the documents to the public, corporate news outlets appear to be obeying the Biden administration. According to a review of news reports by Frontline News, no legacy media publications have included or linked to the documents.

While they note that they have reviewed the documents, they do not disclose many details.

NBC News, for example, says it “obtained more than 50 of the leaked documents, many of them labeled ‘Top Secret,’ the highest level of classification,” but did not disclose them.

The Washington Post says it also reviewed the documents, which “involved nearly every corner of the U.S. intelligence apparatus”, but gives few details:

Among other secrets, they appear to reveal where the CIA has recruited human agents privy to the closed-door conversations of world leaders; eavesdropping that shows a Russian mercenary outfit tried to acquire weapons from a NATO ally to use against Ukraine; and what kinds of satellite imagery the United States uses to track Russian forces, including an advanced technology that appears barely, if ever, to have been publicly identified.

According to the New York Times, the documents mention the expenditure rate of American HIMARS artillery rocket systems supplied to Ukraine, but the Times does not disclose it.

The BBC goes so far as to warn its readers that the government disapproves of the leak, which Google used as a featured snippet when users search for the documents: 

Pentagon documents leak a risk to US national security, officials say. A leak of classified US Defence Department documents is a "very serious" risk to national security, the Pentagon has said. The documents appear to include sensitive information regarding the war in Ukraine, as well as on China and US allies.

The few details divulged by mainstream news media are relatively innocuous and steer clear of any wrongdoing by the Biden administration. A CIA report on Israel, for example, said that Israeli spy agency Mossad has been working to subvert the newly formed government by fueling widespread protests against proposed judicial reforms. Israel has denied the report.

Other information contained in the documents suggest that Ukraine is in a worse predicament than widely thought. Despite having received over $150 billion in aid in little more than a year, Ukraine’s air defense is close to collapse unless it receives another influx of munitions. The papers also included plans by the US and NATO allies to build up Ukraine’s military.

But corporate media are dutifully neglecting to disclose information that might upset the Pentagon. Instead, it has been left to independent journalists to report that according to the documents, the UK and Biden administration have already placed special forces in Ukraine, a move that may be seen as casus belli by Russia.

But more than appearing to cover for the Biden administration, media corporations like the Washington Post have even run op-eds demanding that the leaker be brought to justice.

The New York Times, for its part, seems to suggest that the leak demonstrates a need for more censorship on social media.