I would characterize US media as the most prevalent source of misinformation for Americans. From the outright lies, blatant propaganda and media manipulation that dragged America into the Iraq War, to the despicably hallow coverage of the Syrian proxy war with context like the genocide in Bahrain completely whitewashed, all the way to silly equivocations like "Trump and Putin are best friends" or "Putin got a boobjob."
The US media bubble exists to satisfy it's customers, which are NOT it's consumers. These media organizations are paid to bring stories, ideas and perspectives - in the form of media narrative - to audiences. The GAO has indicated that the US is a huge buyer in this regard spending billions in advertising and PR (a huge component of the entire international industry).
Wikileaks is (was?) a credible voice that didn't editorialize. It refused to partially edit collections of documents, disclosing them in full. When we got a bunch of nonsense from the media about the SONY hacks, Wikileaks backed up the US government take that the attack was from North Korea by connecting the attack to US propaganda operations involving themselves in the filmaking process, and evaluating how to direct the film in a way that might destabilize the country (efforts that of course failed).
Similarly, much of the news reporting on Wikileaks by some of its compeditors has been filled with nonsense and unattributed rumors about Assange and it's teams of lawyers.
Media outlets rarely (never) provide the context that the HB Gary Federal leaks implicated the US in plans to disturb the quality of reporting out of Wikileaks to discredit it, in retaliation for disclosing US diplomatic cables that did a huge amount of damage to the US reputation (for having been duplicitous in countless ways with the public and with allies diplomats).
I feel as though there is a vacuum that will be created if Assange is killed and/or Wikileaks dismantled by intelligence. A vacuum for a peek behind the curtain of pro-government narrative that US National Security spends so much treasure making ubiquidous. A loss of Wikileaks may very well lead to a series of replacements (many of them garunteed to be various intelligence agencies) and therefore more leaks, until the militaries of various countries can more totally solve the problem of information control in the new internet medium.