More nwes on assange's glorification.

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 07:06:54PM -0300, Punk wrote:
> 
> https://consortiumnews.com/2019/04/15/julian-assanges-nightmarish-future/
> 
> "Assange being held in a maximum-security prison in London that has been called the “UK’s Guantanamo Bay” and has been used to detain alleged terrorists, sometimes indefinitely. "


As you said, it's not working out too well for Assange - isolated
from his supporters, most of the world, even his family - perhaps
being in prison he will actually get more visitation rights (or may
be not) than he had in his last section of time in the Ecuadorian
embassy UK.

It kinda smacks of "glorifying the state's example-making of Assange"
- make him a $4.2 billion loan to Ecuador sized example (shit, gotta
get your money's worth, right?)

Here's Caitlin Johnstone stating the obvious in her typical "pull no
punches" way:

  US Government Won't Care About Your Definition Of Journalism
  After The Assange Precedent Is Set

  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-15/us-government-wont-care-about-your-definition-journalism-after-assange-precedent

  https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-us-government-wont-care-about-your-definition-of-journalism-after-the-assange-precedent-is-set-66ae974d23fe

    Since I published my last article
    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/assange-is-not-a-journalist-yes-he-is-idiot-761fa437269f

    about about the idiotic
    “Assange isn’t a journalist” smear, this talking point has become
    more and more commonplace in online discourse. It’s very
    important to defenders of the political status quo for us all to
    believe that Assange is not a journalist, because otherwise that
    would mean they’re cheering for a dangerous precedent which would
    allow for the prosecution of journalists who exposed the truth
    about US government malfeasance. And that would mean cognitive
    dissonance, which all defenders of the political status quo spend
    most of their day-to-day mental energy running away from.

    So in the past few days, editorials like this one
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/assange-is-no-journalist-don-t-confuse-his-arrest-with-press-freedom-20190412-p51di1.html

    from free press avatar Peter Greste have popped up all over the
    place with their own definitions of what journalism is in order
    to argue why that label can’t possibly apply to Assange. All of
    these definitions ultimately boil down to the argument that
    because Assange doesn’t publish leaks in a way that they feel
    journalism ought to be practiced, it isn’t journalism and
    therefore sets no legal precedent for journalists around the
    world. As though the US government is going to be consulting
    their feelings about what specifically constitutes journalism the
    next time they decide to imprison a journalist for doing what
    Assange did.

    It doesn’t work that way, sugar tits. Assange is being prosecuted
    by the Trump administration for standard journalistic practices,
    https://theintercept.com/2019/04/11/the-u-s-governments-indictment-of-julian-assange-poses-grave-threats-to-press-freedoms/

    he stands no chance of receiving a fair trial,
    https://www.rt.com/usa/456274-kiriakou-assange-arrest-trial/

    and it is very likely that he will be hit with far more serious
    charges for his activities once on US soil.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/us-may-add-espionage-to-assange-s-charge-sheet-reports-20190412-p51dpd.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1555061206

    The next time the US government, under Trump or someone else,
    sees another journalist anywhere in the world doing something
    similar to what Assange did, there will be nothing stopping them
    from saying, “We need to lock that person up like we did Assange;
    they’re doing the same sort of thing.”

    It’s just so amazingly arrogant how people imagine that the way
    their feelings feel will factor into this in any way. Like the US
    Attorney General might show up on their doorstep one day with a
    clipboard saying “Yes, hello, we wanted to imprison this
    journalist based on the precedent we set with the prosecution of
    Julian Assange, but before doing so we wanted to find out how
    your feelings feel about whether or not they’re a real
    journalist.”

    You won’t get to define how the US government will interpret what
    constitutes journalism in the future. Only the US government
    will. It’s amazing that this isn’t more obvious to more people.

      Also, the question "is X a 'journalist'?" - as though it's a
      credentialed, licensed status like being a doctor or lawyer -
      is deceitful. The First Amendment's press freedom protects *an
      activity* available to everyone - not just a designated
      priesthood called "journalists."
      — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 12, 2019

    In reality, journalism has always been and will always be defined
    as an activity. It’s not like being a doctor. If you happen to
    witness a car crash and you give CPR on the scene, you are not a
    doctor in that moment, but if you take some photos and post them
    online with a summary of what you saw then you are engaging in
    the act of journalism and all the legalities and rules of
    journalism apply to you.

    The particular journalistic activities that the US is currently
    trying to extradite Assange for is encouraging a source to give
    him more documents and conspiracy to help Manning hide her
    identity so that she would not be persecuted for her heroic act
    of whistleblowing. In other words, Assange was attempting to make
    sure Manning’s leaks had enough impact to justify the risk, and
    also to try and make sure she wasn’t caught and tortured for it.

    As Glenn Greenwald has pointed out on Twitter,
    https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1116817814541733888

    the indictment describes an activity that all investigative
    journalists partake in all the time. A source offers you some
    docs and you see a gap that needs to be filled, you will ask them
    to get them for you. A source fears they will be found out and
    you do what you can to hide their identity. That’s journalism at
    its most raw and dangerous and important. Check out the film
    Spotlight to see a fairly true version of what the journalists at
    the Boston Globe had to do in order to expose the pedophile ring
    of the Catholic Church. These high level crimes must be exposed
    for people’s safety, but the higher the level the crime, the more
    risk there is in its exposure.

    To be clear, you only have to engage in these kinds of activities
    when you are exposing the most powerful people with the most
    political clout for the most heinous of crimes. Julian Assange
    and Chelsea Manning suspected she was risking years of torture if
    she was found out, and history has since proved them both
    correct.

    So of all the many enraging aspects of all of this extraordinary
    act of Nice Guy Fascism,
    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-legal-narrative-funnel-thats-being-used-to-extradite-assange-8a2e8f7a53d1
    one of them is the constant bloviation of the mainstream media
    elite with their endless personal definitions of what makes a one
    journalist. You’d think they were quaffing wine at an opening and
    wanking on about whether the paintings in the gallery were really
    art. “This journalist is not a journalist, my five year old son
    could paint that!” they grandstand to any poor bastard within
    earshot while inhaling olives and patting the waitress on the
    bum.

      Not sure indiscriminate dumping of thousands of classified
      documents is “investigative journalism” - also being a patsy of
      Russia to damage Clinton in favour of Trump is hardly heroic.
      #Assange?
      — Paul Bongiorno (@PaulBongiorno) April 12, 2019

      Julian Assange is no journalist: don't confuse his arrest with
      press freedom https://t.co/9pYr7jgTng
      — Lenore Taylor (@lenoretaylor) April 13, 2019

      "To be clear, Julian Assange is not a journalist, and WikiLeaks
      is not a news organisation." Strong stuff from @PeterGreste
      https://t.co/HriMYQgcIW
      — Samuel Clark (@sclark_melbs) April 12, 2019

    These people have obviously had their personal opinions taken far
    too seriously for far too long. It’s truly the hallmark of
    someone whose mother put too many of their crappy crayon drawings
    on the fridge when you think that your precious little homespun
    definition of what constitutes journalism will serve as a legal
    precedent in the years to come. No one will care about your
    feelings regarding who is a real journalist or not when the long
    arm of the US empire reaches out across the planet and nabs the
    next guy for exposing inconvenient truths about the US
    military-industrial complex or US corporate interests. No one is
    going to grant you a sit-down and consult you about your
    oh-so-fascinating ruminations about the next journalist they wish
    to use Assange’s precedent on.

    It’s obvious to any journalist who doesn’t have their head up
    their ass that this is the beginning of the end of the fourth
    estate. Want to expose the US corporate corruption fueling the
    degradation and desecration of your environment in your
    particular province in the world? Oh well, uh-oh, now you’ve
    found yourself on a plane to Gitmo.

    Journalism is an activity. It is bringing the detrimental
    activities of the powerful to the light, regardless of how you do
    it, whether it’s through the legacy media, publishing documents,
    or making a Facebook post. The powerful are not entitled to a
    private space where they can abuse humans or resources. They
    don’t get to commit crimes in secret just because they are rich
    or in government. Journalism is the only way the everyday person
    has any window into what the powerful are doing to them, doing to
    their planet, doing with their tax money, and doing in their
    name.

    So in every way it is probably even worse if you don’t consider
    Assange a journalist. This precedent puts every single person on
    earth in danger. That means you can be nabbed wherever you may be
    on the globe for helping a whistleblower, and I’m sorry to say to
    all you impassioned bloviators, you will not be consulted on how
    your feelings feel about whether they fit your dubious definition
    of what a journalist is, because journalism is an activity, not
    an elitist club of which you have been the self-proclaimed
    gatekeeper for so long.

    These narcissistic wankers are a severe danger to press freedom
    and they need to put their personal proclivities aside and start
    fighting a very dangerous legal precedent that is being set right
    before our eyes.

    *  *  *

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  Jew Media Very Happy That Julian Assange Was Arrested for
  Conducting Journalism
  https://dailystormer.name/jew-media-very-happy-that-julian-assange-was-arrested-for-conducting-journalism/
  ...