Wik­ileaks released a leaked clas­si­fied video from the U.S. mil­i­tary that shows three attacks that resulted in as many as 25 civil­ian deaths on July 12, 2007.

(I asked YouTube to ask them to remove the 10-minute limit, as the edited film is 18 min­utes long, and the orig­i­nal is 38 min­utes long.)

The tran­scripts pro­vide a view into the ban­ter of mil­i­tary pilots.

When his­tory looks back, this video will likely rep­re­sent a turn­ing point in account­abil­ity jour­nal­ism (a sub­set of which is inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism). Videos rep­re­sents the ascent of pri­mary mate­r­ial as an axis around which jour­nal­ism, and pub­lic opin­ion will pivot. Another exam­ple is the Neda video (con­tained in this YouTube), from Tehran, which shows the killing of 27-year-old Neda Agha Soltan in Tehran. It rock­eted around the world and also won a Polk Award.

Two other forms of pri­mary mate­r­ial that will come from citiens are doc­u­ments and pho­tos, but they are per­haps not as emo­tion­ally impact­ful as video.