Instead Wikileaks has, from the start, identified a range of descriptive labels for identifying itself, and took the time to inform the press on the correct labels to use:

“WikiLeaks should be described, depending on context, as the ‘open government group’, ‘anti-corruption group’, ‘transparency group’ or ‘whistleblower’s site’.”

“WikiLeaks staff should be described, unless otherwise specified and depending on context, as ‘investigative journalists’, ‘analysts’, ‘technologists’, ‘open government activists’ or, especially in an African context, ‘anti-corruption activists’.” (source)

Beyond labeling practices, we witness the increased mainstreaming of Wikileaks, nestled within a cartel of mainstream media establishments, surrounded by lawyers, hiring a public relations firm, book deals, and soon a movie too (update: movies). Catch me if you can has become something similar, but bolder: catch me if you dare. Wikileaks is still on the run, but it’s now on a track littered with obstacles in the form of its many compromises.

(As for catch me if you dare, Julian Assange seems to have concluded that it would be “politically impossible” for the government of the U.K. to extradite him to the U.S. to face any possible criminal trial–which is why he worries about Sweden doing so instead. Prior to the sexual offense reports, he had said that he felt safer in Sweden, and he left the U.K. Assange might be misreading the political realities: Why is it politically impossible, for David Cameron? This the political leader who just privatized the U.K.’s entire higher education system, over and above massive, angry protests. What would “politically impossible” mean for the U.K., the U.S.’ leading NATO partner and close ally in Iraq and Afghanistan? What would make Assange so special that the U.K. government would not dare to touch him? Not only does it instead seem possible, but even with an extradition request already in place from Sweden, the British authorities could prioritize any request from the U.S.Meanwhile, Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt “has insisted his government will play no role in deciding whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the US.” When it comes to politics, nothing is impossible, and that includes the criminalization of entities that might otherwise be seen as respectable and mainstream. The reason there has been no extradition request yet from the U.S. may be because: a) there will never be one–the mere threat of one is an intimidating tactic; or, b) the U.S. is still preparing its case, and not just waiting for Assange to finally appear in Sweden.)

Wikileaks has undergone a very significant transformation over the past year, exemplified by the changes in its website, no longer anything like a collaborative site that until May of 2010 drew direct parallels between itself and Wikipedia (source, source, source). When it came to the prior ideal of crowd sourcing write ups of its documents, in April of 2010 Assange unconvincingly, wrongly, and harshly, declared it to be “all bullshit,” and that academics “don’t give a fuck” about writing up reports based on the leaked documents (see the video below). The launch of the Collateral Murder video was the pivotal point in this transformation, drawing the attention of the established mass media like never before, and paving the way for Wikileaks to soon develop working partnerships with several mainstream media outlets. This is what I refer to as the mainstreaming of Wikileaks. In direct response to U.S. accusations that Wikileaks was a criminal, terrorist organization comprising anarchist hackers, Wikileaks did not remain indifferent or even hostile–it became defensive, and asserted more than ever before that Wikileaks is a media organization, and that its documents were leaked from inside the U.S. national security apparatus. MORE