^^^People make up government. People sometimes are known to lie, cheat, and steal, as well as doing things that are embarrassing. The Bush Administration wasn’t the first to take actions that were less than savory, and it won’t be the last. Bringing such things to light is appropriate, though, because a free society generally deserves to know what its leaders are doing. Torturing terror suspects is awful, yes, but it is nevertheless a far cry from torturing, imprisoning and killing political dissidents, for example.
That aside, journalists must be responsible with the information given them. (Extreme example: publishing a list of names, locations, pictures and aliases of international spies. I don’t know anyone who would condone publishing that.) At the end of the day it’s an awfully weak defense to simply say “all I did was publish it.” That’s roughly akin to someone driving around in a car stolen by another and then denying any wrongdoing because the driver didn’t steal it. There is still complicity.
Journalistic integrity requires discretion.
Manning was the thief, no doubt, but Assange was his/her accomplice.
Given his self-imposed exile and British prison time, in the grand scheme of things I think justice has (to some extent) been served.