(Alternatively, if they were to publish them, would the US Government be forced to respond differently to how they did with WikiLeaks, so as to not be seen as hindering free press? I'm sure in the public's eyes, going after WikiLeaks is a much smaller thing than going after a paper as big as WSJ.)
Well the US Government has yet to manage much in the way of actually going after wikileaks. The Wall St Journal has the advantage of falling under its jurisdiction.
But the answer is: no, I get the impression that the WSJ will be more circumspect about precisely what it publishes. On the other hand if the WSJ does publish your leaked documents they automatically get a lot of credibility. And if you leak documents to the WSJ and they refuse to publish you can always leak 'em to someone else.
On the other hand, it's not like Wikileaks is publishing things indiscriminately nowadays -- they're still sitting on a huge stash of diplomatic cables and releasing a few every time they feel like it. As I've said before, if I were the wikimedia foundation I'd be complaining pretty hard about the fact that Wikileaks isn't actually a Wiki any more.
Depends on whom they were embarrassing. If WSJ (owned by Murdoch) published something embarrassing to the Obama administration then the machinery of the left will spin it as "Oh, that wicked Fox News up to their usual tricks again".
It's amazing that you've come in and criticised "the left" for spinning something pointlessly, when in fact you're just spinning it right back at them, while nobody else had made this discussion in the slightest bit party-political.
Well the US Government has yet to manage much in the way of actually going after wikileaks. The Wall St Journal has the advantage of falling under its jurisdiction.
But the answer is: no, I get the impression that the WSJ will be more circumspect about precisely what it publishes. On the other hand if the WSJ does publish your leaked documents they automatically get a lot of credibility. And if you leak documents to the WSJ and they refuse to publish you can always leak 'em to someone else.
On the other hand, it's not like Wikileaks is publishing things indiscriminately nowadays -- they're still sitting on a huge stash of diplomatic cables and releasing a few every time they feel like it. As I've said before, if I were the wikimedia foundation I'd be complaining pretty hard about the fact that Wikileaks isn't actually a Wiki any more.