The Sydney Morning Herald just published an article titled “Julian Assange interrupts extradition hearing again” about the WikiLeaks founder’s correct interjection that he never put anyone’s lives in danger with the publication of the Manning leaks a decade ago.
It’s actually a rather shocking smear piece for the SMH, who has been one of the better Australian publications at giving Assange a fair hearing over the years. The article’s author Latika Bourke spends an inordinate amount of time waxing on about Assange’s naughty “outburst” and how he was reprimanded for it by the judge, telling readers that the prosecution “separates Assange from the press which also published information revealed by WikiLeaks but without naming journalists, human rights advocates and dissidents who were informing on their governments and repressive regimes”, and bringing up Osama bin Laden’s possession of WikiLeaks documents apropos of precisely nothing.
At no time does Bourke (who has been a regular smearer of Assange) bother to provide the reader with any of the readily available information showing that Assange never caused anyone harm and was not responsible for the unredacted documents being made public. She weaves a narrative about Assange being badly behaved in the courtroom, insinuates that the accusations he objected to could be true to the furthest extent possible without actually making a claim that would need to be retracted, and gets out.
Your headline writers misspelled "Julian Assange being prosecuted for journalism in historic case that threatens press freedoms worldwide", @smh.https://t.co/xQ1O0z8BUh
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 17, 2020
And unfortunately this drivel is more or less typical of the coverage Assange’s historic, world-shaping extradition trial has been receiving from the mass media since it resumed this month. To the extent that they report on the trial at all, mainstream news outlets have mostly limited their coverage to trivialities like trouble with courtroom audio equipment or postponement due to a coronavirus scare. No mainstream outlet has been covering this immensely important trial in-depth to anywhere near the extent that former UK ambassador Craig Murray has been doing every night, or explaining to their audience the significance of a precedent which will allow journalists all over the world to be extradited and jailed for exposing embarrassing truths about the US government.
This dereliction of journalistic responsibility was damning enough back when the prosecution was trying to argue that Assange doesn’t have First Amendment protections because he was engaged in espionage and not journalistic behavior. But now that the prosecution has pivoted to arguing that it doesn’t matter that Assange is a journalist because the US government is allowed to imprison people for journalism, this dereliction of duty has become far more pronounced.
Murray writes the following in his latest update:
The prosecution’s line represented a radical departure from their earlier approach which was to claim that Julian Assange is not a journalist and to try and distinguish between his behaviour and that of newspapers. In the first three days of evidence, legal experts had stated that this gloss on the prosecution did not stand up to investigation of the actual charges in the indictment. Experts in journalism also testified that Assange’s relationship with Manning was not materially different from cultivation and encouragement by other journalists of official sources to leak.
By general consent, those first evidence days had gone badly for the prosecution. There was then a timeout for (ahem) suspected Covid among the prosecution team. The approach has now changed and on Tuesday a radically more aggressive approach was adopted by the prosecution asserting the right to prosecute all journalists and all media who publish classified information under the Espionage Act (1917).
The purpose of the earlier approach was plainly to reduce media support for Assange by differentiating him from other journalists. It had become obvious such an approach ran a real risk of failure, if it could be proved that Assange is a journalist, which line was going well for the defence. So now we have “any journalist can be prosecuted for publishing classified information” as the US government line. I strongly suspect that they have decided they do not have to mitigate against media reaction, as the media is paying no attention to this hearing anyway.
Corporate journalists have barely bothered to cover Assange's trial. But while they doze, the US has changed its argument, as ex-ambassador Craig Murray reports. Now the US is threatening to lock up other journalists for espionage if they expose its crimes https://t.co/4dpYUQ0EAZ
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) September 16, 2020
Murray’s subsequent breakdown of the prosecution’s arguments makes it clear that he was not over-selling this change in strategy. His notes on attorney for the prosecution James Lewis’ arguments contain lines as blatant as “There are Supreme Court judgements that make it clear that at times the government’s interest in national security must override the First Amendment” and “serial, continuing disclosure of secrets which harm the national interest cannot be justified. It therefore follows that journalists can be prosecuted” in arguing against witness testimony that Assange’s publishing behavior should be protected by the First Amendment.
“The United States Supreme Court has never held that a journalist cannot be prosecuted for publishing national defence information,” Murray reports Lewis argued.
So that’s the precedent the prosecution is setting now. No longer “We can extradite and imprison Assange because he isn’t a journalist”, but “We can extradite and imprison Assange because we’re allowed to extradite and imprison journalists.”
The argument that Assange isn’t a journalist has always been transparently false, whether made in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion. Publishing important information so that the public can understand what’s going on in their world is exactly the thing that journalism is. All WikiLeaks publications have included extensive written analyses of their contents, and its staff have received many esteemed awards for journalism.
WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange has been awarded the 2019 GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers & Defenders of the Right to Information.
The award, sponsored by European parliamentarians, was established in honour of assassinated Maltese journalist, Daphne Galizia. pic.twitter.com/5DaMWcMFM9— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 16, 2019
But the fact that the prosecution is no longer even attempting to argue against the journalistic nature of the actions they are attempting to criminalize means they have ceased trying to pretend that they are not waging a war against worldwide press freedoms. Which means that all journalists and news media outlets have lost their last excuse for not condemning Assange’s persecution with great force and urgency.
Now that it is out in the open that the US government plans to prosecute any journalist anywhere in the world who it deems to have committed “disclosure of secrets which harm the national interest” (which in Assange’s case means exposing US war crimes), anyone on earth who actually plans on doing real journalism which holds real power to account is at risk. If someone isn’t using whatever platform they can to denounce Assange’s persecution, they are showing the world that they have no interest in ever doing real journalism which holds real power to account.
News reporters and news outlets are showing us what they are right at this moment. If they are not speaking out for Assange’s freedom right now they are telling you that his persecution poses no threat to them. They are telling you that they never plan on doing anything that might hold power to account with the light of truth. They are telling you that they will side with power every time. They are telling you they are propagandists.
The prosecution’s new line of argumentation should have drawn massive headlines from all the major news outlets who’ve been bloviating about the dangers posed by Trump’s war on the press with flamboyant preening and self-aggrandizement. Instead they are silent, because they do not care.
To quote Maya Angelou, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.
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Feature image by Garry Knight.
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78 responses to “News Media Who Ignore The Assange Trial Are Admitting They Don’t Care About Journalism”
Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
> So that’s the precedent the prosecution is setting now. No longer “We can extradite and imprison Assange because he isn’t a journalist”, but “We can extradite and imprison Assange because we’re allowed to extradite and imprison journalists.”
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They don’t care anymore. Now, they are at last openly saying what they were thinking and trying to do the whole time. Yes, even in the first hearing in February, they couldn’t deny it after THAT one straight question from the judge:
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“Surely, Baraitser suggested, that meant that newspapers just publishing the Manning leaks would be guilty of an offence?
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“This appeared to catch Lewis entirely off guard. The last thing he had expected was any perspicacity from Baraitser, whose job was just to do what he said. Lewis hummed and hawed, put his glasses on and off several times, adjusted his microphone repeatedly and picked up a succession of pieces of paper from his brief, each of which appeared to surprise him by its contents, as he waved them haplessly in the air and said he really should have cited the Shayler case but couldn’t find it. It was liking watching Columbo with none of the charm and without the killer question at the end of the process.
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“Suddenly Lewis appeared to come to a decision. YES, he said much more firmly.”
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Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 1 — Craig Murray (Feb 25, 2020)
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-1
I was thinking along the same lines, that all those journalists who don’t stand up in solidarity for Assange are in effect, indirectly part of the problem. Where are they, it should be huge? They are the collaborators with the dominators. It reveal them. And this is what should be spread. How the majority of journalists world-wide are fakes and tools of the propaganda machine.
“News reporters and news outlets are showing us what they are right at this moment. If they are not speaking out for Assange’s freedom right now they are telling you that his persecution poses no threat to them.”
Americans are under a delusion that they are customers who consume news. Mass media in America is a propaganda machine. The customers of American Mass Media are those who pay bills and keep the lights on. Advertisers all. Advertisers, corporations in particular, are the true consumers of American Mass Media and everyone else, this means you, are eyeballs to be farmed. These consumers want Julian to rot away like a forgotten sandwich.
Don’t let it happen.
Keith Hayes has piggybacked an absurd model of society onto the Campaign to Free Julian.
Nobody in their right mind could be persuaded that advertising defines everything, yet Keith is telling us this is our inescapable Reality … while calling upon our sympathy with Julian, whose ten years of imprisonment is where all truthful individuals may end up.
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I have disagreed with Keith before, yet he neither responds onTopic,
noR does he change from peddling nonsense as if it were definitive insight.
Who else sees this pattern of disorientingDissembling sinister ?
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The American Public have no idea what is going on in the real world,and are constantly bombarded with Government propaganda ,Keith Hayes is spot on the money,they will never learn the real truth from Americas Mass Media,their only interested in power and money,so telling the truth would be bad for business.Julian Assange is a true speaker of truth,and has shown the true criminals in this world,he should be freed immediately and thank for his commitment of truth,something you dont seem to understand
The only thing in your post i find hard to understand … is why you and Keith think anybody with an internet connection needs to have anything so obvious and widely published to be explained yet again. Keith’s commentary is particularly obnoxious because he pretends to be the only person who has noticed the bleeding obvious.
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What is it that causes you to not see ? … that my writing reflects the knowledge that you tell me is absent, Barry. ( This is a serious question, as distinct from rhetorical posturing.)
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My own view is that this is characteristic of the artificialStupidity which is imposed by the mudShadows, yet i remain open to alternative explanations which fit the observable reality.
As any competent thinker does.
Journalism, as we knew it, is dead. Today’s MSM journalists merely troll Twitter looking for items they can write about, even if they know nothing at all about them, that compete for clicks in a world that worships ad revenue above all other things.
Anything “Trump” sells; anything “Assange” doesn’t. We need know nothing more than this if we want to understand why Julian’s story is not told by the MSM.
In her angst over fallen soldier Julian Assange , Ms Johnstone appears to be ignoring the horrific crimes being committed against South Australians by Victoria’s government in the name of covid ? Why is that?Todays report on Off Guardian makes one cringe . Her fellow Aussie Mr Pilger seems to have the Assange debasement in hand ?
Off the subject (Assange and his mistreatment by the media). I know everything you think is terribly important, but you’re still off the subject.
Please listen to what lifelong Republicans, Republicans who were willing to work in the White House, have to say about this election.
There are Republicans who are horrified over 200,000 dead Americans.
Off the subject (Assange and his mistreatment by the media). I know everything you think is terribly important, but you’re still off the subject.
So you’re a Bush republican? How do you feel about the Downing Street memo? Is it OK for Bush to lie to us and get a bunch of us killed but not Trump?
Caitlin : As much as I like much of your view of the World and its politics I cannot understand why in all that I have read that you have written you do not make mention that the persecution of Jullian Assange started in 2010…!!! The constant neglect of this information, at this specific time in a 4 year period, speaks volumes about your willingness to gloss over some truths to protect your bias.
You are more truthful and upright than most Trump critics but in this small but important piece of information, it shows that your integrity is sometimes questionable.
this following is from Wicapedia…
“WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. These leaks included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video (April 2010),[5][6] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and Cablegate (November 2010). After the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks.[7]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#:~:text=US%20criminal%20investigation,-Assange%20speaks%20on&text=After%20WikiLeaks%20released%20the%20Manning,the%20Espionage%20Act%20of%201917.
Elaine L Peers is persuaded by her self-importance that she can instruct Caitlin in the art of investigative journalism. Unfortunately, the nature of undisciplined self-importance is obseessed with domination, rather than truthfulness and knowledge.
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Indulging in Self-importance allows Elaine to insult us by proposing that we don’t know how long Julian has been tortured by those who demand immunity from accountability.
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It does not mitigate this patronising blunder to profess her admiration of Caitlin’s other writing before delivering this insult to our intelligence and memories.
“News Media Who Ignore The Assange Trial Are Admitting They Don’t Care About Journalism…If someone isn’t using whatever platform they can to denounce Assange’s persecution, they are showing the world that they have no interest in ever doing real journalism which holds real power to account.”
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Real journalists are not allowed anywhere near corporate “journalism” and haven’t been for a long time now. Instead, what these desk-warmers do is get paid their thirty-pieces-of-silver to betray the public in a word blizzard of peddling lies, nonsense, and corporate-approved narratives and agendas. When you sell off your soul for money, it makes it much easier to do your “job” today to please your corporate masters and sell out the public who craves honest journalism but instead gets never-ending pages of written text or an orgy of verbal crap populated by nothing but deceit for and insult of the readers and viewers.
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Corporate media finished off honest journalism years ago. Sadly, no one ever conducted a funeral for that terrible loss we all suffered. Journalism died in silence and is now is only mourned by the few who understand what we all lost and probably will never get back.
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You can’t stop the lie-peddlers from peddling lies. What you can do is not give them one precious second of your time.
Joe Biden is Julian Assange’s best hope.
Lets look at facts, something the pro-Trumpers hate.
The charges facing Assange were all considered during the years when Biden was Vice-President.
The Obama-Biden administration decided not to pursue these charges. They knew that pursuing these charges would be an open and direct attack on journalism. Obama-Biden were not saints, but that was a line that they very publicly decided not to cross.
It is Donald Trump pressing these charges.
It is Trump’s corrupt administration, where AG Barr is nothing but a corrupt tool of Trump that is pressing these charges. It is Donald Trump who wants Assange in a US federal prison cell.
It is also Donald Trump who constantly attacks the rule of law and the constitution.
It is thus Donald Trump who will claim to be able to do anything he wants to Julian Assange once he has his hands on him.
It is Donald Trump who is seen in photographs being big pals with Jeffrey Epstein.
It was under Donald Trump that Epstein died in custody, preventing him from testifying against his pals.
Joe Biden is Julian Assange’s best hope.
If Donald Trump wins, Julian Assange is dead.
Donald Trump hates transparency.
If Donald Trump wins, Julian Assange dies in US custody. Just like so many others before him.
Bullocks! No one within this authoritarian state’s brainwashing club will support an honest spirit like Julian Assange. It’s not in their psychological essence. Binary thinking doesn’t lead to freedom. Besides, FWIW: hope derails action.
Nonsense. Biden and the Democratic Party are imperialists and warmongers to the core. Stop perpetuating the myth that the Democrats are somehow not criminal imperialists, OK? Look at the political record of Joe Biden (and also of Kamala Harris, whose record I know well because I live in San Francisco). You and the “lesser evil” retards make me sick. I vote Socialist Equality Party, myself.
Voting will not fix this shit. We need a revolution for the common good.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden
Nonsense , Obomber/Biden’s handling of Assange was far more cruel and duplicitous than anything Trump has done or not done . Mr Assange now sits in an English jail courtesy of that government , which could have turned its back and let Mr Assange slip away when ousted from the embassy or dropped the bogus charges fronted by the Swedes when they lost interest.
So, this is obviously the place to ask the question ….
How does it feel to be played for a sucker?
Confidence Artists rely on people not wanting to admit to even themselves that they just got played for a sucker. Many people get ripped off, and never even report it to the police. They do not want to admit that they got played for a sucker.
There are a lot of people at this website, at least judging by the comments section, who now know exactly how it feels to be played by a sucker.
The people who were saying that COVID was a hoax.
Now we have Donald Trump on tape saying, in his own voice, that it is deadly serious. We now have Donald Trump on tape saying that his security advisers had told him that this was the biggest challenge he would face as President.
The people who were saying that COVID was just like the flu.
Now we have Donald Trump on tape, saying in his own voice, that this was far more serious than even the most strenuous flu.
The people promoting the quack cures that Donald Trump was selling.
Now we have Donald Trump on tape, saying in his own voice saying just how deadly and serious this was and how easily it was spread.
The people saying that wearing a mask was worse than COVID.
Now we have Donald Trump on tape, saying in his own voice just how easily this spread through the air.
And of course, we’ve got all the rest of the zoo …. spreading Russian propaganda, spreading Q’Anon theories …. basically supporting the rise of a lying fascist to power. The people who can not see the danger that Donald Trump, and of course Emperor Jared I, represent, and still do their bidding every day by trying to depress the vote for democracy over fascism.
Its America or Trump.
If you think getting rid of Trump in favor of a con artist like Biden, I have to wonder who the sucker is here.
Precisely!
Agreed.
Dear Caitlin,
Would like to see you draw a parallel–as one exists–between Assange and Gary Webb, an investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury who was ruined professionally and finally “suicided” (by TWO bullets, no less) after exposing the CIA’s involvement in drug trafficking.
Few people know about perhaps the U.S.’s last real investigative journalist, and his story needs to be out there as a precursor to Assange’s, an example of what happens to journalists who do their jobs and expose unpleasant truths.
Best,
Horror/thriller author S.A. Hogan
We living in California know this story well. But thanks for the reminder for the benefit of people who live outside of the state.
Hogan, good comment.
They made a movie about that .
“Kill the Messenger”
Once upon a time, when I was a young man, the most popular American TV newscaster was Walter Cronkite. He, like all of his comrades in the press corps, had been reporting misinformation about the Vietnam War, feeding us the lies and propaganda fed to them by the deep state. But at some point, Walter’s conscience apparently began to bother him, and he took a trip to Vietnam to check out the situation on the ground. When he returned, he came out against the war on national television, giving a substantial boost to the peace movement. I report this information, known to almost everyone my age, to indicate to younger people that even America’s corporate-controlled media, back in the 1960s/ 70s, had at least a shred of integrity and courage. The Fordist capitalism of that era still provided enough opportunity for working people to live hard but decent lives. I’m a socialist who opposes capitalism in any form, but that said, there’s a crucial distinction that needs to be made between Fordist capitalism and neoliberalism. Under our current neoliberal system, a Walter Cronkite story is inconceivable, and we would do well to consider why.
If you think getting rid of Trump in favor of a con artist like Biden is the answer, I have to wonder who the sucker is here.
Newton did not mention Biden. Why do you?
I would speculate it is because he is trying to increase support for Trump and/or decrease support for Biden (unfortunately, the only plausible electoral alternative).
I detest Trump both as a man and a “president.” I could no more vote for him than I could vote for neoliberal warmonger Biden. Frank’s and Blessthe beasts’ responses IMHO are classic examples of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which has destabilized both right and left. As the old saying goes, sometimes it’s not about sex and a cigar is just a cigar. Similarly, sometimes it’s not about Trump but just a memory of Walter Cronkite.
I was referring to Ishkabibble’s comment, not your original comment, Newton, so you are off base accusing me of derangement. The accusation is illogical.
Well, and to Bless the Beasts.
Sorry, my comment was supposed to be in response to White Rose earlier. I am NOT afflicted by TDS and agree with your comments!
So, maybe the reason why our governments are so evil is because our leaders are so evil, as this researcher asks;
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17479881211323616/full/html
Is Betrayal a Necessary Aspect of Leadership
“Can’t we just drone this guy?”, Secretary of State of the US, Hillary Clinton.
Nervous laughter in the room, followed by silence as Secretary of State Clinton proceeds without a smile.
Wrong venue for “droning”, and the dragonfly-size micro drones are not yet fully operational, Mrs Secretary…
Hillary Clinton is a repulsive war criminal and sadist. She giggled when Muammar Ghadafi was brutally and sickeningly murdered. Nobody should pay any attention to her any longer. She is a viper.
What we see here with regard to the Mainstream Media and Julian Assange is the truth that two myths we all grew with need to be exposed and exploded. Those are the myth of a free press and the myth of journalists and/or journalism. Corporate Media or State Media is not a free press; and people who work and write
for those operations are not journalists (in the mythological sense of honest objective reporting). The Mainstream corporate Media and State Media are instruments of Capital and Power and Control. Their mission is to manage the minds and perceptions of populations.
News Media Who Ignore The Assange Trial Are Admitting They Don’t Care About Journalism
OK, that’s been obvious for, what, at least since the Texas Village Idiot started the US’s War Of Terror On The World. So, now that every one of us understands that this is the case, just exactly WHAT are we going to do about it, march down the street shouting that we want newspapers to write about whatever it is at the moment that we want them to write about? You know how much “coverage” that march will get in that same MSM? (Maybe if we burn down a bunch of businesses, that’ll help, right?) Zero. THEN what do we do?
Here’s the question that has to be asked and answered. WHO is paying all these infamous MSM publications and networks and journalists to NOT cover Assange being railroaded into a US prison? Oligarchs — oligarchs that have access to an infinite amount of Fed–printed-out-of-thin-air USD who want the present arrangement to remain exactly as it is — no liberty for all; injustice for all; perpetual war.
Now, three questions for The People — AKA The Voters — of The Greatest Nation On Planet Earth to answer.
First, how many R and D candiates running for public office in the November election are promising to pardon Mr. Assage and support journalists’ right to publish the details of US war crimes around the world and what are their names?
Second, how many NON R and D candidates running for public office in the November election are promising to pardon Mr. Assange and support journalists’ right to publish the details of US war crimes around the world and what are their names?
Will you be voting for candidates running for public office in the November election who promise to pardon Mr. Assange and support journalists’ right to publish the details of US war crimes around the world, or will you be voting for candidates who promise to “let (in)justice take its course” in order to inevitably imprison journalists like Assange who publish details of US war crimes around the world?
If you want to free Julian Assange, prevent journalists who report US war crimes around the world from being imprisoned and stop the US’s War Of Terror On The World, no matter how much you believe that your vote will be wasted, or that a NON R or D candidate cannot or will never be elected POTUS (who could, by him or herself alone, pardon Assange), you must NOT vote for an R or D in the upcoming election. It’s as simple as that. That is what you must do.
Correct. I vote only for the Socialist Equality Party and have done for many years.
Caitlin, so glad you are give a hat tip to Craig Murray, who has shown extraordinary courage and integrity in covering this trial. This at a time when, having exposed the malicious political prosecution of Alex Salmond he is being prosecuted himself for similar charges (ie informing the public of the lies and malicious actions of the authorities)
Just checked the NYTimes – only article about Julian Assange since September 7th is about technical difficulties. Those slimey creeps only say something about the significance of this trial at the very end of the article. (So they can later claim they did report on it,) This is not surprising because the cowardly NYT top editors kissed Trump’s ass at a meeting right after he was elected.
Thank you Caitlin Johnstone for very often saying what needs to be said. And if they do not care for journalism, then they are not journalists just stenographers, and the “stuff” they print about politics, and usually economics, are nothing more than very low quality but dangerously misleading fantasies The NYT and the other mainstream “media” are all just Judas Goats leading us to the slaughter.
I find it impossible to believe that the Criminal Court of the UK is incapable of managing a CCTV system that Wal-Mart’s anti-shoplifting setup puts to shame.
The covid panic aka the war against death , the coming US election have made Mr Assanges travails , along with Islamic terrorism , and the neoliberal elites financial crimes against the masses a non stories. You’d be better served commenting on “Jackbooted” Australian authorities and the crime they are currently committing in your country.
Nothing will change because no one dares to name who owns the media…
not you nor me friend…there, i dared
You only dared to name who did not own the media not who did.
sorry, WE don’t own them, nor desire to. They are not worthy. Peace my accomplice. Here’s my offering: “The misled being misled by the misled.” A line from my operarth ‘Sphere (The Most Passionate Love Triangle Never Imagined’) from the character Nihil Sufi, referring to the indoctrination of the majority of humans. Sphere will have its Grand Premier Performance on all the inhabited planets of the Universe other than the one we’re now barely existing on, where it will be banned. Trust that answers my soul’s heart. i sense we may be brethren. If not, i have no more to say.
Mega corporations with corporate boards and wealthy VPs? Get your anti Semitic smear garbage out of here
Let’s get this straight:
Opposing bankers is “antisemitic”
Opposing Usury is “antisemitic”
Opposing Rothschild is “antisemitic”
Opposing paedophiles is “antisemitic”
Opposing Epstein is “antisemitic”
Opposing Hollywood is “antisemitic”
Opposing corruption is “antisemitic”
Opposing media lies is “antisemitic”
Opposing obscene wealth is “antisemitic”
Opposing wars is “antisemitic”
Opposing ethnic cleansing is “antisemitic”
Opposing genocide is “antisemitic”
Opposing falsifying history is “antisemitic”
Opposing thought policing is “antisemitic”
Opposing Wall Street is “antisemitic”
Opposing espionage is “antisemitic”
Opposing treason is “antisemitic”
Opposing baby-killing is “antisemitic”
Opposing destruction of cultures is “antisemitic”
Opposing racist ideologies is “antisemitic”
Opposing supremacy is “antisemitic”
Opposing manipulation of political parties is “antisemitic”
Opposing evil is “antisemitic”
Aha, now I understand!
He said “who owns the media” – right-wing dog whistle for Jews – I was clarifying that statement. You just completely revealed yourself as a QAnon loon with the Rothschild reference, “Harry.” Thanks.
The men who rule the globe’s media all seem to have one strange trait in common:
Fox News, Peter Chernin
Paramount Pictures, Brad Grey
Walt Disney, Robert Igor
Sony Pictures, Michael Lynton’
Warner Brothers, Barry Meyer
CBS, Leslie Moonves
MGM, Harry Sloan
NBC/Universal Studios, Jeff Zucker.
Viacom, Sumner Redstone
NB, Jeffrey Zucker
President of NBC News, Neil Shapiro
Time Warner, Jonathan Miller
New York Daily News; US News and World Report, Mortimer Zuckerman
Have a guess what trait I might be referring to?
Religion isn’t a trait you POS. Brown eyes are.
If Israel acted like a sane country, ruled by people who wished to live together in peace with Palestinians, we might be able to accept your silly drivel. Anti-semitism is just a slur you use when you wish people would stop complaining about the corrupt and cruel cabal that runs this apartheid state. Progressive, you?? Well, maybe on second thought….
You mentioned Israel – nobody else did. This has nothing to do with Israel. But since you asked, this is more dog whistle garbage. Progressives aren’t anti-Semitic, but we oppose the current Israeli government in power & the way they treat the Palestinian people. Just like we aren’t anti-American, but we oppose many of the actions of the current American government. We support BDS because it is a freedom of speech issue, whether or not we agree with it.
Good. It is about time you understand.
Bill Clinton opened the door to corporate monopoly of mass media when he signed the Telecommunications Bill of 1996 into law. Prior to that law, there was a limit to the number of media outlets one person or corporation could own.
Given they have stopped arguing that Julian is not a journalist, and so apparently accepting that he is, any journalists remaining should be absolutely terrified. An Australian citizen, rounded up in the UK, for “crimes” against the US, Is a clear indication they will go after anyone, anywhere, for the release of any information that displeases the US Psychopaths In Charge, and any court in any subject state will happily assist them in doing so.
The journalists (sic/sick) who are willingly ignoring Julian Assange’s torture are knowing accomplices to the psychopaths who believe they are the masters of all the Innocents- human and all of Earth. They are not. Such faux scribblers and their ilk are forever banned by my heart’s senses.
There is more to Assange and Manning than meets the eye !
Their treatment sends a clear message to other potential ‘whistleblowers’ (whistleblowers are like unicorns – they ONLY exist in our minds) – that message is DON’T try it !!!
The evidence of living with first hand knowledge of US war crimes can be seen in the high rate rate of US ‘veteran’ suicides !!
Why don’t you have a place where one can send you money with a bank card? The only one I can find is for your book (the other book is on Amazon which you should not be encouraging). I’ve tried several times to donate to you but always, being lazy, given up.
Tweet her for a Ca$happ ID maybe?
Support Caitlin on Patreon. It gets billed to your bank card if you wish.
She is on Patreon. You can use a card there.
Ms Johnstone, Mr. Julian Assange is ” being railroaded ” in a court of law; he is not on trial. ” Railroaded people ” are deemed already guilty by the owners and the masters just like the men jailed at Gitmo in Cuba. Mr. Assange’s ” railroading ” will continue even after he is dead and buried. The only people who ever get ” fair trials in a court of law ” are people rich enough to get one. Mr. Assange is morally very right but his ” fate ” is already sealed in stone. The government has him now and they will do whatever they want to him, legal or not.
“The approach has now changed, and on Tuesday a radically more aggressive approach was adopted by the prosecution … asserting the right to prosecute all journalists and all media who publish classified information under the Espionage Act (1917).”
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A change of reasoning as radical as this exposes the intent to punish Julian, as distinct from an ethical objection to harm caused (which is the only proper grounds for punitive sanctions on a sovereign individual.) Surely the prosecution lawyers are fully cognisant of this perversion of legal process, and therefore are demonstrably morally corrupt.
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A similar radical shift of reasoning was done against journalist Wilfred Burchett in his 1975 case of defamation against unscrupulously deceitful detractors in Australia. The judge in the case tipped off the floundering defence to an argument he could agree to dismiss the case with, and Wilf was sunk the next day.
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The war against press freedom has been going on at least since Burchett was declared untouchable by USA & British intelligence agencies, after he published his observations of the humane treatment of prisoners by the North Koreans and their Chinese allies, and went on to publish his personal observations of compelling evidence that US and Canadian military aircraft had dropped insects tainted with a pneumonic variety of anthrax on villages in North Korea.
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This was long before Eisenhower made his famously ineffective remark about the hidden government he described as a military-industrial complex.
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We voters are the intended victims of this war against journalistic freedom. We are the ones who lose when MSM lies about and strategically distorts truthes we need to know. Just as the endless war on drugs makes users of traditional herbal medicines into criminals, viciously depicted as the scum of mankind and unfit for execising elementary freedoms of choice and self-Responsibility.
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Beneath the velvet glove of democracy lies a steel fist of tyranny.
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Journalists?
Where?
They are PR presstitutes for multi national corporations.
They are gossip parasites, trivia turds and distraction specialists.
They are a WASTE OF SPACE.
Good article. MSM writers slag Assange with the zeal of good lapdogs.
Assange should have been set free a long time ago, but he’s being made an example of.
Apart from fear of creating a martyr, being an example to be made is possibly the only thing protecting Assange from an unfortunate accident in prison.
Next it’s Caitlin and then YOU
Saw a picture the other day of a black man that had been hanged. The caption under the picture explained that they had forced the man to eat his own penis before they lynched him. Julian is yet another form of terrorism that these people engage in. The same people who ran most of the Atlantic Slave Trade in the day. And, unless the Chinese are willing to liberate the poor enslaved people of Afganistan, who are forced to produce narcotics against their religious beliefs, we can expect the same for the rest of us. God has sent us Putin, pray that God sends his other son Xi, to save us as well.
I agree wholeheartedly Lynn.
The US has, once again, revealed itself to be a rogue state, regardless of who is “in charge”, and that justice and the law is whatever it says it is on the day, as long as it suits its nefarious purposes.
The awfulness is that the UK is going along with it. The nation of the Magna Carta upon which all Common Law is based, is bending over for the US.
As a British Citizen I find this unbearable, and I don’t know what we can do.
It’s possible keeping Assange away from the press, public, everyone, isn’t just due to him exposing US war crimes, which we all knew about & Obama chose not to prosecute, or classified info, which he exposes about plenty of govts, & would continue if free. Could his prosecution be for reasons similar to Michael Flynn’s, Trumps new NSA director, who would have immediately found there was no Russian hack, found many big names involved in spying on Trumps campaign, which would negate a need for the Mueller set-up, too? We know British Intel/agents, and other nations, were in on this crime. Flynn was set up [within days of election] to be removed and prosecuted for a crime he didn’t commit, & others who talked about spying were removed, charged, discredited). Julian can absolutely prove, if he had to, who/how he got the emails he released in 2016. A lot of people are facing serious exposure, or worse, here in the US for spying, and UK’s involvement in that could possibly explain their eager assistance. A free Assange is a problem, but ‘dead men (or imprisoned) tell no tales’. I wonder if Barr is in on the cover-up, too. I don’t know, wouldn’t surprise me.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?index=735&list=ULegahz8T4VAw&v=9HPs1RY1wvM
“Manunkind” has gone totally insane.
What a sad sad tragic event.
Time to free Assange. And let Manning, Winner and Snowden be allowed to have their freedom.
Please. It’s a Kangaroo trial.