Veteran news anchorman Dan Rather gave a tentative endorsement to WikiLeaks on HuffPost Live on Friday, saying the “controversial” data-dumping group provides the country with “a public service.”

“Overall in the main, I think the WikiLinks [sic] helped with something good because it deals with transparency,” Rather told host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. “As long as governments — and they will forevermore — try to keep their secrets, that are not national security secrets, then we should be pressing to find out more and not less.”

He also agreed that hackers could play a valuable role in investigative journalism by revealing government secrets that do not need to be hidden.

In another part of the conversation, Rather remarked that President Obama “did promise more transparency,” but “has delivered less transparency on everything from whistle-blower laws, which are very valuable to the public and journalists in helping the public. Far less transparency. He hasn’t met his promises about that, no question about it.”

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

HuffPost Live: