A live roundtable discussion with journalists who had access to the daily proceedings at the Old Bailey, hosted by Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof.
Guests: Taylor Hudak, Cathy Vogan, Mohamed Elmaazi, Juan Passarelli, Richard Medhurst, Mary Kostakidis, Tareq Haddad and Joe Lauria.
“Julian Assange is being tortured for releasing the same info for which he and WikiLeaks have received some 20 awards, including a Pulitzer and an award from Amnesty International.” This says everything, which is even more damning for The Guardian and The Times and other MSM sources that profited off these important files.
Thanks for this excellent work. Mary Kostakidis is a peerless Aussie journalist and the others guests are brilliant people. But I think she might miss the central point. From my perspective, if you combine her accurate assessment of authoritarianism (it’s a tsunami here in Australia) and the apparent unwillingness of the MSM to cover the injustices inflicted on Julian by the UK there is only one logical conclusion. I see it as a “settlement”, as a deal, as an accommodation, as an agreement. I particularly see the current term “allowed”, favoured by authoritarians everywhere. The MSM will be “allowed” to continue its activities if it acquiesces to power. If it obeys the ruling regime it will be “allowed” to continue in business – it is a business even if publicly funded – and the people working in the MSM will still have food on the table. The authoritarians can easily smash them when they disobey. I see a commercial decision around survival. I see it as conscious and calculated. The MSM is not blind to events. Its actions are not a surprise. Because of its decision to acquiesce to power, to achieve its own survival, it has become an accomplice, a fact that must remain invisible. This is a very difficult vortex to escape and we can never expect the MSM to assist Julian. I don’t believe that they hate him. They simply love themselves more, and are cowards.