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The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

wsj.com

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Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#51

Post by shostack »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #19
midniteslayr wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Freedom of the Press is dead. WikiLeaks isn't a news organization, especially when they released campaign emails during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network.

Yes, they are a news organization. Covering the election is what a news organization should do, and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. >They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia. And that TV…

> "This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia."

Really? Nothing at all? Big fat nothingburger?

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-latest-mue...

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#53

Post by jsutton »

eeks wrote: post #32
Apocryphon wrote: post #4

So much for WikiLeaks thinking there was a lesser evil back in 2016

Wikileaks believed at the time that Clinton was ready to send a drone to get rid of Assange. Between due process and a drone attack, I take due process any day.

'Believed' is a loose term, you'd have to be deluded to believe something like that.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#55

Post by midniteslayr »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #31
midniteslayr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A credible news organization would have tons of fact checkers and editors to make sure the relevant facts made it in to any article they wrote. They wouldn't, blindly, release tons of unedited emails, including some that were doctored to make the DNC and the Clinton Campaign look bad. Doesn't need to be state-sponsored (and most news organization aren't "state-sponsored" ... unlike RT, for example) to be credible.

Which emails were doctored? I hadn't heard about that. My understanding is that the "doctoring" done by Wikileaks consisted of selectively releasing information obtained from Democratic sources while concealing similar information related to the Republican side ( https://www.wired.com/2017/01/russia-hacked-older-republican... ). If true, that's the point at which Assange and Wikileaks departed from the path of legiti…

The Russians doctored the email, for example: https://www.businessinsider.com/guccifer-2-0-dnc-document-ru...

They did it to make it seem that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC had something nefarious going on

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#56

Post by krapp »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #49
krapp wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikileaks didn't cover the election. Wikileaks released private emails with the intent of damaging one specific candidate. >and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. That the emails were released was newsworthy, but I would argue that nothing in the emails themselves was particularly newsworthy.

The emails were newsworthy, disliking what you consider their ulterior motive doesn't change that.

What emails, specifically, were newsworthy?

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#57

Post by StanislavPetrov »

midniteslayr wrote: post #5
gbumakefan wrote: post #3

Wow. Freedom of the press is dead.

I don't think Freedom of the Press is dead. WikiLeaks isn't a news organization, especially when they released campaign emails during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network.

>They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government

Known by whom? Its been over 2 years and there has still been absolutely no evidence released at all proving this. Claims made by the CIA, the US government or anyone else are proof of nothing, despite what you may think.

>even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network.

Larry King has a show on RT too, is he an agent of the Russians also? The fact is that RT gives all sorts of people shows - especially people who make us look bad. What is really unfortunate is that so many of those shows are able to make us look bad without lying at all. They just have to give a platform to people (like Chris Hedges) willing to report on the many misdeeds we have, and continue, to commit.

The Russians are no angels and neither are we. The very heart of this case is about freedom of the press and free speech. If we let the government decide who is "legitimate" and who is allowed to publish then there is no "freedom of the press" at all.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#58

Post by kbenson »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23
hadrien01 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News organizations wouldn't drop all the emails at once. Previous enormous leaks have been handled by ICIJ members with great care, going for years of investigations, careful verifications, and publishing only pertinent stories.

Why is that better than releasing all the emails at once? Why do they get to decide what's "pertinent"?

For the same reason that if you found yourself with access to someone's diary that you thought might be guilty of wrongdoing, you might convince yourself to look through it possibly with a lawyer friend and report on if anything illegal went on, but you might shy away from publishing the whole thing online "just in case".

One option at least pays lip service to legal and ethical considerations.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#59

Post by throwaway2048 »

midniteslayr wrote: post #34
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are a news organization. Covering the election is what a news organization should do, and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. >They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia. And that TV…

If they are a news organization, they do a terrible job of reporting the news. They are a black box repository for leaked data. They were once a great resource for info hackers and leakers to push their data, like back in 2008/2009. But that was before news organizations started using their own secure drop servers for sources. Once WikiLeaks sources started to not go to them, they started to look for other benefactor…

News organizations are under no (legal) obligation to not be biased. Bias does not make wikileaks not a news organization.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#60

Post by boomboomsubban »

midniteslayr wrote: post #34
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are a news organization. Covering the election is what a news organization should do, and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. >They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia. And that TV…

If they are a news organization, they do a terrible job of reporting the news. They are a black box repository for leaked data. They were once a great resource for info hackers and leakers to push their data, like back in 2008/2009. But that was before news organizations started using their own secure drop servers for sources. Once WikiLeaks sources started to not go to them, they started to look for other benefactor…

Again, nothing suggesting they are knowingly working with the Russians.

Wikileaks quality has surely dropped. They are still the press, and any prosecution by the US will be over things like the Manning links, a direct attack on the freedom of the press.

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