Why the media is changing its tone regarding Julian Assange?
If you search for the name of Julian Assange on Google, the results that are going to appear on the top would be like these:
Numerous Western media organizations wrote a joint open letter to the US government saying that “Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists….. If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.”
“There’s a threat to press freedom in prosecuting Julian Assange,” writes Chicago SunTimes.
This might hit you as a surprise if you have seen the way media put out smear pieces after smear pieces about Assange after he exposed the dirty secrets of the dirty globe-spanning US empire; most prominent ones being him having ties with the Russian government, him being a rapist, and many more - all of the are addressed and debunked in detail by Caitlin Johnstone.
The media effectively carried out character assassination of the most courageous journalist of this century by presenting him as some kind of national security threat. This was another incident when we witnessed the mainstream media for what it really is - the propaganda arm of the US empire. Instead of supporting the most journalistic thing ever done against the US empire, at least since 2000, the so-called “journalists” turned against him and celebrated his imprisonment.
The Guardian, which is one of the five media organizations wanting the US to end Julian’s prosecution, was one of the most active media outlets in poisoning the public opinion of Julian Assange. The publication ran a campaign in 2018 with the obvious goal to make the persecution of Assange look like an act to preserve national security rather than an act to destroy Assange and threaten future journalists.
After years of calling him different names, ignoring his journalistic spirit, promoting him as a traitor, and supporting the modern-day Leviathan (CIA) in its effort to eat Julian raw, the media is FINALLY starting to better its tone regarding the most consequential journalist of this generation.
From this:
To this:
The media’s sudden transition from advocating to end Julian’s life in prison to advocating to end his imprisonment and not apologizing for years of false reporting clarifies one thing: they were aware of what they were doing all the time. If they were aware that Julian did nothing wrong and didn’t commit any crime, why it took them more than 10 years to acknowledge this? What prevented them from doing similar reporting when Julian was sent to the maximum-security prison in London? Why Trump insulting Jim Acosta was considered a “threat to press freedoms” by the mainstream media while Assange, whose persecution is the real threat to press freedoms, was continuously ignored until now?
The answer to all of these questions is CERTAINLY not that the billionaire-controlled media is becoming a check on the powerful, which is what real journalism is. There can be several explanations behind the media’s changed approach to the Assange case:
One explanation can be that the US has already achieved its goal; it is possible that they never wanted to extradite him to the US but to scare other journalists from walking down the same road. Taking away 10 years of his life and torturing him both physically & mentally in the meantime, I guess they’ve already broken him and set a dangerous precedent for other journalists.
Other possible explanation is that as we march closer to the US empire’s scheduled hot war with Russia and China, it’s going to need all the leverage and high moral ground it can possibly get to make the Western populace dance to the beats of the war. As the propaganda machines against both these countries heat up, the empire is going to grease it in every possible way and removing the contradictions and hypocrisy in the Assange case is one of those ways.
This is perfectly illustrated by an article in Canberra Times which states, "When China laughs at you over freedom of speech and press, you know you have lost the moral high ground."
One thing to keep in mind is that ending the prosecution of Assange would not make the US empire saner or better than its official enemies. It would not mean that the Western world is epitome of press freedoms because imprisoning a journalist for exposing the truth and destroying every aspect of his life only to not extradite him means you’re as much an enemy of press freedoms as you claim your enemies to be.
The US would still be the most tyrannical nation on this planet.
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