Cablegate has great entertainment value, I grant you. I'd lay you odds somebody in Hollywood is negotiating the movie rights at this very moment, though nothing revealed so far seems to do more than a) state the obvious, or b) embarrass the guilty, let alone put lives at risk. Still, you have to wonder, what the frak was WikiLeaks thinking? And what does this era of transparency at any cost portend for more deadly state secrets that find their way onto the Web? The outlook isn't pretty.

As much as it might claim to be otherwise, WikiLeaks is hardly acting like an impartial, disinterested party. For example, it appears to play favorites with news outlets based on how favorably they treat the site and Assange, its controversial public face. WikiLeaks offered early versions of the documents to some (like the Guardian, Spain's El Pais, France's Le Monde, and Germany's Der Spiegel) but withheld them from the New York Times. Presumably the Times found itself unfriended after it published in October. One juicy excerpt: "...some of his own comrades are abandoning him for what they see as erratic and imperious behavior, and a nearly delusional grandeur unmatched by an awareness that the digital secrets he reveals can have a price in flesh and blood."

According to the Washington Post, Assange and company offered the docs to CNN and the Wall Street Journal but with conditions neither outlet was unwilling to accept -- including if either outlet revealed the documents before WikiLeaks wanted them to. He's not exactly the sainted Daniel Ellsbergian figure he might want the world to see him as, Mr. Assange.

I've defended WikiLeaks in the past, arguing that the world needs a resource that can reveal the unvarnished truth without falling prey to coercion from suppressive governments and/or corporate overlords. But Cablegate strays into territory less like whistleblowing and more like reality TV. Just how newsworthy is the fact that Libya's leader has a Ukrainian sponge-honey or Yemen's Muslim leader has a fondness for Johnny Walker Black?

WikiLeaks promised to release even more documents this week. Maybe these will reveal news the world desperately needs -- something vital and earth shaking. But I doubt it.