With corporate media largely abandoning the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher, Consortium News has been in the forefront of chronicling his plight. But we can’t do it without you.
Except for a brief moment after his dramatic arrest in 2019, and a joint statement last year, the mainstream media has largely abandoned Julian Assange. They do this at their own peril.
That’s because the arrest and espionage indictment of Assange for practicing journalism is a danger to all journalists everywhere.
Consortium News started covering the Assange case on Dec. 16, 2010 with an article by founding editor Robert Parry, one of the leading investigative reporters of his generation. Bob argued that Assange was practicing journalism in the exact way that he did. He wrote:
“… the process for reporters obtaining classified information about crimes of state most often involves a journalist persuading some government official to break the law either by turning over classified documents or at least by talking about the secret information. There is almost always some level of ‘conspiracy’ between reporter and source.
Though some elements of this suspected Assange-Manning collaboration may be technically unique because of the Internet’s role – and that may be a relief to more traditional news organizations like the Times which has published some of the WikiLeaks documents – the underlying reality is that what WikiLeaks has done is essentially “the same wine” of investigative journalism in ‘a new bottle’ of the Internet.
By shunning WikiLeaks as some deviant journalistic hybrid, mainstream U.S. news outlets may breathe easier now but may find themselves caught up in a new legal precedent that could be applied to them later.”
Since that first article, Consortium News has published more than 700 articles and 250 videos on Assange and WikiLeaks. That’s because this website has recognized the historic importance of the case against Assange, which has justly been compared to the trials of John Peter Zenger and Alfred Dreyfus.
Our Assange coverage has dug deeply into the meaning of the case, legally, politically and historically. CN was inside the London courtroom for the February 2020 start of Assange’s extradition hearing, and has had remote video access to every part of the legal process since, bringing you daily print and video reports and special editions of CN Live!
Consortium News is committed to bringing you the most in-depth coverage of Assange’s ongoing extradition ordeal to be found anywhere.
But we can’t do it alone. You have an immense role to play as readers and viewers, our only source of support. Please support our team, or reaffirm your commitment to it, with a generous, tax-deductible donation today to our Fall Fund Drive. Thank you.
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Gatekeepers, Lackeys in Suits, and the Owners of Mainstream Media
Let’s not pretend that the words, neutrality and objectivity, simply because they are synonyms, are exact in meaning. Obviously it depends on the context in which they are applied.
In Julian Assanges case, Morality is proving to be nothing more than the Hypocrisy of the all-powerful elites!
For example, morality: “principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior” can neither be neutral or objective, when considering morality.
In this instance, moral objectivity is equivalent to laxity: “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.” Pretense: The tap root of unprincipled hypocrisy!
Applying the words “imperatively good or inherently bad” to describe morality is a false premise. There is a vast chasm between categorical and hypothetical imperatives. Categorical, has nothing to do with whether one has an inclination. Morality is a categorical imperative, which is not necessarily inherent. It is not innate. It is a learned phenomenon, just as are love and hatred.
Being that all human beings, everyone of of us, are the subject of our own innermost selves, we are fallible in our perceptions, not only of ‘real’ objects, but in our interpretations of ourselves; speaking from first-hand awareness of self, of course!
“Some common synonyms of moral are ethical, noble, righteous, and virtuous. While all these words mean “conforming to a standard of what is right and good,” morality implies conformity to sanctioned codes or accepted notions of right and wrong, the basic moral values of a community.”
So then, who are those individuals’, ethical, noble, righteous, and virtuous enough to sit in judgment of ‘others’? What is it that elevates them and their claims to moral rectitude, in a societal community that is hypercritical through and through?
Notes:
1) Merriam-Webster
2) Oxford Languages
Significantly more than any other investigative independent media organization, Consortium News is relied upon to publish crucial and relative articles often. Even at live events relating to urgent topics, as is the unjust case against Julian Assange, Joe Lauria is present asking the important questions needing to be answered. Consortium News is relied on because it is a leading force of unbiased, expertly researched independent investigative journalism time and time again. The time to donate and keep this important treasure in business is now!
This Assange nonsense is akin to the Dreyfus Affaire. Dreyfus was wrongfully prosecuted for treason, because he was Jewish, allegedly passing on ‘secrets’ to the Germans. Some wonder if anti-Semitism was at work, I don’t, it was. I don’t know what would have happened to him had it not been for Emile Zola’s public letter ‘J’Accuse’. On the same track of wrongful prosecution, Assange is suffering the same kind of political slog. Just as Dreyfus was partly exonerated by Zola’s published letter, having brought the affaire to the public, I hope that the continued journalism that CN and few others are doing will help exonerate Assange. Unfortunately, the global press has been flaccid; they don’t get it. This affaire could be what silences them if Assange is further prosecuted and convicted. Both are innocent of wrongdoing. However, in the Assange Affaire, so much more is in the balance: Free Speech and a Free Press. Let’s not allow the crimes of the U.S. Empire go unproclaimed and unpunished. We need real journalism to do that. Rock on Consortium News!
There is another journalist, Pablo Gonzalez who has been and still is incarcerated incommunicado in Poland since February 28th 2022 without formal accusation.
Poland says he is a Russian spy without any prove, without any proven charges.
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