WikiLeaks cables: Seven key things we've learned so far

Some in the media glibly dismissed the US embassy cables at first, but such WikiScepticism is on the wane

It's a sad fact that many journalists who have been scooped or cut out of a breaking news story react by knocking it down. "That's old news," they say, "we knew that already." Sometimes it's true. But mostly it's sour grapes.

And the reaction by many US media outlets to the latest US embassy cables disclosures – as rich a source of commentary on contemporary US foreign policy as we're ever likely to have in one cache – has been much the same.

Policy wonk Peter Beinart summed up what he knew of the cables as: "Valuable insights – if you've been living under a rock all century." The "latest WikiLeaks dump," he announced, "is to American foreign policy what the Starr report was to presidential politics – fun, in a voyeuristic sort of way, revealing, but not about important things, and ultimately, more trouble than it is worth".

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