Earlier quoted context omitted.
I too am shocked that Wikileaks would publish tabloidish material with little public value. Next thing you know, I'll hear that Wikileaks posted private emails of a government official talking about pizza. Emails which spawned ridiculous conspiracies about satanic child abuse cults headquartered in the basement of a pizza shop that doesn't have a basement. That would never happen. Not at an august, hard-hitting journ…
Still waiting for a valid explanation of what pizza is code for because they certainly aren’t talking about pizza the food in those emails.
Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
301–310 of 432 posts
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#302I feel nausea... This and the new anti-encryption bills... I am happy to know the existence such a lot of great American minds, mathematicians, scientists, visionaries, because, else, with only the kind of ugly news such as above, my image of US would have been tainted for good. (*) I'm not American. I'm neutral about not being American, thanks to the existence of both plus and minus items. By the way of course you c…
As someone not from the USA as well I have always chuckled at the "Land of the free" sentiment that is there (how Americans really believe it when it is the complete opposite). Fortunately there are places like Germany where things like CCC.de can exist and the Chaos Communication Congress can happen. From my time living in UK, Germany, Mexico (where I am from) and travelling every 3 months to the USA, my [subjective…
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of journalists, say, in France for example, hurl shit in the face of US every day, with lots of investigations, and they still are more or less protected and the country where they live abide by the law... So, that's what personally I would have expected and hoped about Assange too. The reality is different from what you present: it is not common that journalists opposing to US are (internationally) repressed at…
US seems to be totally fine about opinions expressed from freely available data. They don't like a campaign to leak everything that can be caught hold of. So I would not compare the reaction to Assange to a general reaction to journalism.
This is why journalism is mainly about publishing information. The part where the writer gives their opinion is actually optional.
Also, this is why good news organizations (Reuters, etc) are doing investigations (this is investigative journalism). They do not just publish already available data, they go seeking the truth where it is.
Btw, the sheer existence of investigative journalism is also what makes difficult to believe all the conspiracy theories. If something fishy that huge was going on, there is an overwhelming likelihood that some news organization (also, some whistle-blower) would have revealed it. (that shows also the importance of the existence of whistle-blowers)
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I must have missed where anyone in this thread-chain has asserted that statement at all.
There's this from the top level comment. > Stand up for journalists. Real journalists. I wouldn't think that "Real journalists" would selectively choose what to report based on who their friends are.
Then who is a "real" journalist anymore these days? That's is exactly why so many people are abandoning mainstream media (CNN, Foxnews, NBC, BBC, Guardian, Al Jazeera), because those established entities time and time again choose to selectively report on events when it fit their political bias and omit when it isn't possible to put a spin on the story.
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#305Wikileaks is just a Russian propaganda unit disguised as wind of change.
Interesting that Russia would publish self incriminating documents and evidence of their own malfeasance within Ukraine and corruption elsewhere. Really makes you think.
Meanwhile, Julian Assanage has a television show on RT[1], the state-sponsored media for the Russian government [2], meaning he's literally paid by a Russian propaganda organization.
[1] https://www.rt.com/news/456280-julian-assange-rt-show/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Assessments_an...
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm generally on Assange's side in all of this. I agree he shouldn't be charged and this is all a disgrace. Having said that, I once went to wikileaks and found a PDF of Steve Job's supposed STD test which claimed he was HIV positive. That was a surprise to me as my understanding was that he died of cancer. I looked into it and no one could corroborate the story and the general consensus seemed to be that it was fake…
I'm generally against Assange on all of this. Hacking is an illegal activity that results in the disclosure of information that the hacker does not own. This is theft of information and a federal offense. Anyone engaging is nefarious hacking should be jailed, if caught, and never allowed to use technology again. We have very lax laws when it comes to hacking - they need to be stronger.
I am against hacking in general.
I see no good reason for him to have targeted a newspaper.
I do see good reason to target secretive government agencies.
I see good reason for those agencies to have a problem with this and go after anyone who does it.
I am against government agencies having bad enough security that they can be so targeted.
Assange isn’t in prison right now for any of this, he’s in prison because he skipped bail to avoid extradition for a completely different charge to a completely different country to face his accusers for a potential maximum penalty less than the time he spent in the embassy he got kicked out of for breaking their rules, and which he fled to because for some reason that never made sense to me he claimed that going from the UK to Sweden put him in danger of the thing which actually happened in the UK.
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for chiming in. I would also add that he put aid workers and activists at risk [1] and caused potential harm, torture, and death to dissidents in Afghanistan and Iraq [2]. Indiscriminate doxing to accomplish a radical agenda is not journalism. My view-- which I admit is broader than the point you made-- is that he is a criminal and should be tried and convicted. It makes me sick to my stomach that he cloaks hi…
"The burden of proof is on state power to justify itself." It seems very plausible that WL/Assange disclosed information irresponsibly, and if so, he should be held to account. The real concern is that I think we all know he isn't going to get anything resembling a fair trial; The Powers That Be are looking to send a message to any other would-be leakers and journalists with the audacity to challenge unaccountable st…
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#308Assange helped Trump win the election. Now, the administration that he enabled is coming for him. What a turn of events.
Assange leaked the DNC emails, hacked by Russian-controlled Guccifer 2.0, in weekly bundles as an effort to manipulate news headlines leading up to the November 2016 election.
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
HIV wasn't around in the 1970s (in Western countries at least) and also Jobs wasn't in the more at-risk demographics for the disease.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_early_HIV/AIDS_cas... "(...) These specimens are significant not only because they are the oldest specimens of the virus known to cause AIDS, but because they show that the virus already had an extensive amount of genetic diversity in 1960.[10] This suggests the virus had either undergone recombination or been circulating for years or perhaps decades in the Kinshasa populatio…
The genetic diversity might be indicative of widerspread infection in sub-saharan Africa, and then two immuno-comprimised cases, are not specifically indicative of HIV.
...and then this statement has absolutely no basis in evidence: "The virus was already circulating globally in the early 1900s."
Re: Julian Assange charged in superseding indictment
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
I too am shocked that Wikileaks would publish tabloidish material with little public value. Next thing you know, I'll hear that Wikileaks posted private emails of a government official talking about pizza. Emails which spawned ridiculous conspiracies about satanic child abuse cults headquartered in the basement of a pizza shop that doesn't have a basement. That would never happen. Not at an august, hard-hitting journ…
Yeah, the conspiracy theory is just insane. Almost as insane as the conspiracy theory that one of the world's largest religious organizations was engaging in something similar, except at a scale spanning every continent except Antarctica and having done so for at least as long as living memory. For another conspiracy theory, what about the idea that if a conspiracy was uncovered, instead of denying it those with some…
Leaking Podesta's email spawned a conspiracy theory that high-ranking Democrats were a part of a satanic child abuse and traffic ring. It was specifically partisan.
Meanwhile there are multiple layers to the Epstein case. Yes, Epstein was a nexus of child abuse. He was a terrible human being who got away with years of child abuse because of his money and powerful connections. Yes, he died under mysterious circumstances. And Epstein's close friends and confidants included both Democrats and Republicans.
Conflating Pizzagate with Epstein is just moving the goalposts to exonerate Wikileak's publishing of private emails. Are some of the people involved in the email dump known associates of Epstein? Yes. But that's not what Pizzagate is, nor was Epstein associated with the email dump.