I love WikiLeaks — by which I mean that any organization that helps ferret out the secrets of states or the nefarious secrets of corporations deserves a cozy place in my heart. But as anyone who has experienced my love can tell you, it’s not always lovely. So I don’t feel bad at all about taking the business end of my press-crit rake to the latest WikiLeaks project, “The Global Intelligence Files.”

The Files contain in excess of 5 million emails from the Texas-based private intelligence firm Stratfor. WikiLeaks appears to have obtained the email from the hackers at Anonymous, who nicked the haul late last year. There may be great stuff in the 5 million emails, but the files released thus far, which International Business Times puts at 194 emails, underwhelm.

Today’s email dump and the first set of stories based on them aren’t a complete waste because they help demystify both WikiLeaks and Stratfor. Both organizations are capable of doing “good” work. But little of that is on display here.

Reuters Opinion: “Wikiyawn” by Jack Shafer

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Supreme Court in London February 1, 2012. Assange was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault. [REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth] Read more: Julian Assange appeals extradition to UK’s top court
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Supreme Court in London February 1, 2012.

Assange was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault. [REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth]

Read more: Julian Assange appeals extradition to UK’s top court

Julian Assange gets a TV show: Kremlin-funded English language channel Russia Today has given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his own TV talk show, the station said this week. Filming for Assange’s television debut is already underway from Britain, where he remains under house arrest outside London while appealing an extradition order to Sweden, it said. Read: WikiLeaks founder to host Kremlin-funded TV show
Pop-upView Separately

Julian Assange gets a TV show: Kremlin-funded English language channel Russia Today has given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his own TV talk show, the station said this week. Filming for Assange’s television debut is already underway from Britain, where he remains under house arrest outside London while appealing an extradition order to Sweden, it said.

Read: WikiLeaks founder to host Kremlin-funded TV show

Suspected WikiLeaks source appears in U.S. court