--- title: James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn' Not Journalism description: FBI director James Comey said he thinks WikiLeaks is "intelligence porn" and that the website isn't real journalism. canonical: https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-03T17:15:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:43:57.067Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn,' Not Journalism og:description: "There’s nothing that even smells journalist about some of this content." og:url: https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn,' Not Journalism twitter:description: "There’s nothing that even smells journalist about some of this content." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn,' Not Journalism > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 5:15 PM UTC  James Comey prepares to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2017. James Comey prepares to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2017. Kevin Lamarque—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 5:15 PM UTC FBI director James Comey said he thinks [WikiLeaks](http://time.com/4747907/wikileaks-julian-assange-us-prosecutors-charges/) is “intelligence porn” and that the website isn’t real journalism. “It crosses a line when it moves from being about trying to educate a public, and instead just becomes about intelligence porn, frankly, just pushing out information about sources and methods,” Comey said while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, “without regard to the First Amendment values that normally underlay press reporting, and simply becomes a conduit for the Russian intelligence services or some other adversary of the United States just to push out information to damage the United States.” “There’s nothing that even smells journalist about some of this content,” Comey continued. “A huge portion of Wikileaks has nothing to do with legitimate news-gathering and is simply about releasing classified information to damage the United States of America. People sometimes get cynical about journalists. American journalists do not do that.” It wasn’t the only time Comey commented on journalism during his hearing. He also said that he has [never been an anonymous source](http://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/?xid=homepage) to leak any information to the media regarding FBI investigations into Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Recent media reports say federal prosecutors are [considering charges](http://time.com/4747907/wikileaks-julian-assange-us-prosecutors-charges/) against WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, for revealing government secrets. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/"},"headline":"James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn,' Not Journalism","datePublished":"2017-05-03T17:15:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:43:57.067Z","description":"\"There’s nothing that even smells journalist about some of this content\"","url":"https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/","keywords":["Congress","FBI","WikiLeaks","James Comey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington","caption":"FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4765358/fbi-james-comey-hearing-wikileaks/","name":"James Comey: WikiLeaks Is 'Intelligence Porn,' Not Journalism"}}]}] ```