Media tonen ware gezicht door weigering Julian Assange te verdedigen

Door de weigering Assange te verdedigen, tonen de reguliere media hun ware gezicht, aldus de kop van een artikel van Caitlin Johnstone op Media.com en hieronder overgenomen van Anti-Media. Een top advocaat van de New York Times (NYT), David McCraw waarschuwde een zaal vol rechters dat de vervolging van WikiLeaks journalist Julian Assange een gevaarlijk precedent zal scheppen en zou kunnen eindigen met het beschadigen van de reguliere (massa-) media..... (ha! ha! ha! Wat er nog te beschadigen is aan de reguliere media is me een raadsel, gezien het enorme gehalte aan nepnieuws ['fake news] en de leugens die daar dag in dag uit ten toon worden gespreid.....)

Volgens McCraw zullen wetshandhavers uiteindelijk weinig verschil kunnen zien tussen een internetplatform als WikiLeaks en mediaorganen als de New York Times en de Washington Post (WaPo)..... Lullig werden de woorden van McCraw niet gepubliceerd in 'zijn eigen' NYT..... (!!) Echter zolang de reguliere media de leugens van politiek en geheime diensten maar blijven herhalen, zal er geen vuiltje aan de lucht zijn.....

Het publiceren van o.a. uitgelekte gegevens die geheim werden gehouden voor het volk, is in feite de taak van de echte journalistiek, immers het is de taak van de journalistiek om de machthebbers te controleren, het volk daarover in te lichten* en het publiek tevens te leren kritisch naar de machthebbers te kijken.....

Daar wringt dan ook de schoen aldus Johnstone, de reguliere media hebben deze taken al lang bij het grofvuil gezet en schikken zich naar de eisen van overheid en degenen die deze media in handen hebben, miljardairs en beursgenoteerde bedrijven......... Niet voor niets dat de journalisten van de reguliere media Assange keer op keer demoniseren en de leugens van de politiek en geheime diensten als CIA en FBI (notoire leugenaars) over bijvoorbeeld de zogenaamde bemoeienis van Rusland met de VS verkiezingen blijven herhalen, ook al is er geen nanometer bewijs voor......

Daarover gesproken: hoorde onlangs een Belgische 'journalist' die het gore lef had te zeggen dat hij de 'stapel aan bewijzen' voor die Russische inmenging met de VS presidentsverkiezingen had gelezen, een keiharde leugen, daar die bewijzen (nog steeds) niet bestaan.....

Lees deze korte mooie analyse van Caitlin Johnstone:

In Refusing to Defend Assange, Mainstream Media Exposes Its True Nature

July 29, 2018 at 10:24 pm

Written by Caitlin Johnstone

(CJ Opinion) — Last Tuesday a top lawyer for the New York Times named David McCraw warned a room full of judges that the prosecution of Julian Assange for WikiLeaks publications would set a very dangerous precedent which would end up hurting mainstream news media outlets like NYT, the Washington Post, and other outlets which publish secret government documents.

“I think the prosecution of him would be a very, very bad precedent for publishers,” McCraw said. “From that incident, from everything I know, he’s sort of in a classic publisher’s position and I think the law would have a very hard time drawing a distinction between The New York Times and WikiLeaks.”

Do you know where I read about this? Not in the New York Times.

“Curiously, as of this writing, McCraw’s words have found no mention in the Times itself,” activist Ray McGovern wrote for the alternative media outlet Consortium News. “In recent years, the newspaper has shown a marked proclivity to avoid printing anything that might risk its front row seat at the government trough.”

Consortium News@Consortiumnews

Though The New York Times itself has not reported it, it’s No. 2 lawyer told a group of judges that the prosecution of Julian Assange could have dire consequences for the Times itself, explains Ray McGovern.https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/25/the-gray-lady-thinks-twice-about-assanges-prosecution/ …

3:40 PM - Jul 26, 2018

The Gray Lady Thinks Twice About Assange's Prosecution

Though The New York Times itself has not reported it, it's No. 2 lawyer told a group of West Coast judges that prosecution of Julian Assange by the U.S. government could have dire consequences for...

consortiumnews.com

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So let’s unpack that a bit. It is now public knowledge that the Ecuadorian government is actively seeking to turn Assange over to be arrested by the British government. This was initially reported by RT, then independently confirmed by The Intercept, and is today full mainstream public knowledge being reported by mainstream outlets like CNN. It is also public knowledge that Assange’s asylum was granted by the Ecuadorian government due to a feared attempt to extradite him to the United States and prosecute him for WikiLeaks publications. Everyone from President Donald Trump to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ranking House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff to Democratic members of the US Senate have made public statements clearly indicating that there is a US government interest in getting Assange out of the shelter of political asylum and into prison.

The New York Times is aware of this, and as evidenced by McCraw’s comments it is also aware of the dangerous precedent that such a prosecution would set for all news media publications. The New York Times editorial staff are aware that the US government prosecuting a publisher for publishing important documents that had been hidden from the public would make it impossible for the Times to publish the same kind of material without fear of the same legal repercussions. It is aware that the maneuvers being taken against Assange present a very real existential threat to the possibility of real journalism and holding power to account.

You might think, therefore, that we’d be seeing a flood of analyses and op-eds from the New York Times aggressively condemning any movement toward the prosecution of Julian Assange. You might expect all media outlets in America to be constantly sounding the alarm about this, especially since the threat is coming from the Trump administration, which outlets like the New York Timesare always eager to circulate dire warnings about. You might expect every talking head on CNN and NBC to be ominously citing Assange as the clearest and most egregious case yet of Trump’s infamous “war on the free press”. Leaving aside the issues of morality, compassion and human rights that come with Assange’s case, you might think that if for no other reason than sheer unenlightened self interest they’d be loudly and aggressively defending him.

And yet, they don’t. And the fact that they don’t shows us what they really are.

Belinda Noakes@belindanoakes

A fine piece of work. I see a handful of international journalists brave enough to write about this. Where are the others? Can they not see that if Assange is persecuted to death, they’re next? #unity4J

stefania maurizi@SMaurizi

Dear Readers, our op-ed on Julian #Assange and #WikiLeaks published in @consortiumnews https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/19/inside-wikileaks-working-with-the-publisher-that-changed-the-world/ … has been shared by more than 10,000 readers, as for now we have 100 comments: THANK YOU! Without you, our work would be completely useless

12:46 AM - Jul 26, 2018

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WikiLeaks

✔@wikileaks

Replying to @belindanoakes

They're not next. Very few will ever publish anything substantive enough to generate serious blowback.

1:15 AM - Jul 26, 2018

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Theoretically, journalism is meant to help create an informed populace and hold power to account. That’s why it’s the only profession explicitly named in the United States Constitution, and why freedom of the press has enjoyed such constitutional protections throughout US history. The press today is failing to protect Julian Assange because it has no intention of creating an informed populace or holding power to account.

This is not to suggest the existence of some grand, secret conspiracy among US journalists. It’s just a simple fact that plutocrats own most of the US news media and hire the people who run it, which has naturally created an environment where the best way to advance one’s career is to remain perpetually inoffensive to the establishment upon which plutocrats have built their respective empires. This is why you see ambitious reporters on Twitter falling all over themselves to be the first with a pithy line that advances establishment agendas whenever breaking news presents an opportunity to do so; they are aware that their social media presence is being assessed by potential employers and allies for establishment loyalism. This also why so many of those aspiring journalists attack Assange and WikiLeaks whenever possible.

“Everyone hoping to gain admission to the cultural elite must now strenuously cultivate their social media so as to avoid controversy,” journalist Michael Tracey observed recently. “Eventually they will internalize controversy-avoidance as a virtue, not a societal imposition. Result: a more boring, conformist elite culture.”

A great way for an aspiring journalist to avoid controversy is to never, ever defend Assange or WikiLeaks on social media or in any media outlet, and certainly under no circumstances allow yourself to look like the sort of journo who might someday publish the sorts of materials that WikiLeaks publishes. An excellent way to prove yourself is to become yet another author of yet another one of the many, many smear pieces that have been written about Assange and WikiLeaks.

Common Dreams@commondreams

Why Americans Need to Defend Julian Assange’s Freedom http://ow.ly/qUJ130l9O1G 

2:10 AM - Jul 28, 2018

Why Americans Need to Defend Julian Assange’s Freedom

Criminalizing the act of publishing through the Espionage Act destroys the First Amendment as the guardian of democracy.. Over 50 years ago, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, addressing a...

commondreams.org

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Mainstream media outlets and those who thrive within them have no intention of rocking the boat and losing their hard-earned privilege and access. Conservative mass media will continue to defend the US president, and liberal media will continue to defend the CIA and the FBI. Both will help advance war, ecocide, military expansionism, surveillance and police militarization, and none will leak anything that is damaging to the power structures that they have learned to serve. They will remain innocuous, uncontroversial defenders of the rich and powerful at all times.

Meanwhile, alternative media outlets are defending Assange ferociously. Just today I’ve seen articles from Consortium News, World Socialist Website, Disobedient Media, Antiwar and Common Dreams decrying the persecution of the most important government transparency advocate living today. Alternative media outlets and independent writers aren’t bound by establishment servitude, so the value of WikiLeaks is clear as day. One’s eyes are only blinded to the pernicious behaviors of power when power is signing one’s paycheck.

Mass media outlets in America and around the world have fully discredited themselves with their failure to defend a publisher who actually holds power to account and brings facts into the light of truth to create an informed populace. Every day that goes by where they don’t unequivocally condemn any attempt to prosecute Assange is another day in the pile of evidence that corporate media outlets serve power and not truth. Their silence is a tacit admission that they are nothing other than stenographers and propagandists for the most powerful forces on earth.

Support Caitlin’s work on Patreon or Paypal.

Opinion by Caitlin Johnstone / Republished with permission / Medium / Report a typo

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* In Nederland durfde de zwaar over een keeshondendrol getilde zakkenwasser Max van Weezel, die zich godbetert journalist durft te noemen, te zeggen 'dat hij zich voor kan stellen bepaalde zaken niet te publiceren.......' Ondanks deze uitspraak en een onnoemelijk aantal andere 'journalistieke' uitglijders, wordt deze kwezel geëerd door het grootste deel van de andere Nederlandse 'journalisten...' Wat dan weer genoeg zegt over 'de kwaliteit' van de Nederlandse reguliere journalistiek...... Voor berichten met blunders van van Weezel, klik op het label met zijn naam, direct onder dit bericht. (als na een aantal berichten het laatste telkens wordt herhaald, even opnieuw op dat label klikken en wel die onder het laatst gelezen bericht)

PS: het is vrijwel zeker dat Ecuador Assange op de Londense straat (hij zit al jaren in de ambassade van Ecuador in Londen) zal zetten en hij na zijn arrestatie zal worden uitgeleverd aan VS......

Zie ook:
'Julian Assange, valse beschuldigingen, Big Brother en VS steun voor terrorisme'

'Westerse massamedia lopen aan de leiband van plutocraten, de neoliberale politiek en geheime diensten'

'Russiagate en Assange: The Guardian wordt nu zelfs door collega's voor zot uitgemaakt'

'The Guardian: ondanks een enorme misser (fake news) gaat men door met de valse beschuldigingen t.a.v. Assange......'

'WikiLeaks belooft The Guardian 1 miljoen dollar als het haar leugens i.z. Assange en Russiagate kan bewijzen.......'

'Julian Assange gedemoniseerd door media die hem zouden moeten steunen, waren ze bevolkt geweest door echte journalisten........'

'WikiLeaks toont aan dat VS en GB een gezamenlijke gewelddadige en bedrieglijke buitenlandpolitiek voeren'

'De prijs op het hoofd van Julian Assange: 1 miljard dollar.....'

'Assange kan niet voor spionage worden vervolgd, immers hij is journalist >> aldus Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) in een video'

'Westerse bevolkingen worden bespeeld door regeringen, massamedia, grote bedrijven, financiële instellingen en geheime diensten......'

'Assange is journalist en zou alleen daarom al niet mogen worden vervolgd, een artikel o.a. voor de huidige 'journalisten' van de reguliere media en de gebruikers van die media'

'WhiteHouse: US, Ecuador Coordinating About Future Of Assange Asylum' 

'Stop de isolatie van Julian Assange!'

'JulianAssange (Wikileaks) haalt hypocriete Britse regering onderuit voorwijzen op belang van vrije en onafhankelijke media'

'Volkskrant en Nieuwsuur Fake News over 'Russische hacks.....''

'VS waarschuwde regering van Zweden voor Wikileaks in aanloop verkiezingen, Assange 'moest en zou hangen', ofwel de zoveelste VS manipulatie van verkiezingen elders......'

Israël omarmt de Europese fascisten (niet voor niets)....

Afgelopen maandag bracht Middel East Monitor (MEMO) een artikel over de relatie van de fascistische Israëlische apartheidsstaat met fascisten in Europa.

Zoals bekend mag worden geacht, gaat het de fascisten in de EU goed af, zo goed dat je kan stellen dat landen als Polen, Hongarije en Oostenrijk worden geregeerd door fascisten en dat andere fascistische partijen, behalve UKIP in GB, bij elke verkiezing groter worden...... 

Israël zou volgens het artikel op MEMO ervan uitgaan dat deze fascistische opmars in de EU niet gekeerd kan worden, vandaar ook dat Netanyahu op bezoek gaat in landen als Hongarije, of de leiders van die landen uitnodigt, waarbij hij een fikse hoeveelheid olie toevoegt aan het anti-islamitische vuur dat steeds groter brand in de EU..... (uitzondering is Polen, met wie Netanyahu op z'n zachtst gezegd sinds begin dit jaar geen goede relatie onderhoudt, dit naar aanleiding van de Poolse Holocaust-wet....)

Het gaat zelfs zover dat Israël wapens levert aan de neonazi's in Oekraïne en wordt de fascistische PVV van Wilders o.a. gefinancierd door Israël....... Niet vreemd dus dat de fascistische partijen en bewegingen in de EU Israël meer en meer omarmen.......

Voorts onderhoudt Israël goede banden met Saoedi-Arabië en Egypte..... Deze landen zijn dictaturen en zijn als de fascistische partijen in de EU, ook aan de uiterst rechterkant van het 'politieke spectrum' te vinden.........

Tot slot: Israël nam onlangs de natiestaat-wet aan, waarmee het land officieel een fascistische staat is geworden, een fascistische apartheidsstaat wel te verstaan, daarmee zullen de banden tussen Israël en de EU fascisten nog verder worden aangehaald en zullen de Palestijnen nog gewelddadiger worden aangepakt (ook al is dat bijna niet voor te stellen, gezien de hel waarin deze mensen nu al moeten leven....).... 

Israel Is Embracing Fascism in Europe: Here’s Why

July 30, 2018 at 10:44 pm

Written by Middle East Monitor

(MEMO Op-ed) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on 19 July where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks.

So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders of the so-called ‘Jewish State’?

The answer does not pertain only to Orban and Hungary, but to Israel’s attitude towards the rapidly growing far-right movements in Europe as a whole. Netanyahu and Zionist leaders everywhere are not just aware of this massive political shift in European politics but are, in fact, working diligently to utilize it in Israel’s favor.

On his visit to Israel, Orban asserted that Hungarian Jewish citizens should feel safe in his country, an odd statement considering that it was Orban and his party that deprived many Jews and other members of minority groups of any feeling of safety.

Still, Netanyahu has welcomed Orban as a “true friend of Israel” and Orban called on his European counterparts to show more support for Israel. Mission accomplished.

Netanyahu visited Budapest in July 2017 but that supposedly historic visit did nothing to change Hungary’s official discourse, which is dotted with racism and anti-Semitism. In fact, in March 2018, Orban derided Jews, focusing his criticism mostly on Jewish financiers such as George Soros.

At an election rally campaign Orban said, “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world”.

It is well-known that Israel and Zionist leaders are quite selective in manipulating the definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ to serve their political agendas, but Israel’s attitude towards the racist far-right movements in Europe takes this truth to a whole new level.

Indeed, the ‘special relationship’ between Netanyahu and Orban is only the tip of the iceberg. For years, Netanyahu’s Israel has been ‘flirting’ with radical right movements in Europe.

The unmistakable Israeli strategy, of course has its own logic. Israeli leaders feel that Europe’s move to the far-right is irrevocable and are keen to benefit from the anti-Muslim sentiment that accompanies this shift as much as possible.

Moreover, the EU’s resolve to label illegal settlement products and refusal to heed calls for moving their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is pushing Netanyahu to explore these new routes.

During his previous visit to Hungary Netanyahu met with leaders from the so-called Visegrad-4, which includes Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

On that visit, Netanyahu hoped to find new channels of support within the EU, through exerting pressure by using his new allies in these countries. In an audio recording obtained by Reuters, Netanyahu chastised Europe for daring to criticise Israel’s dismal human rights record, illegal settlement policies and military occupation.

“I think Europe has to decide whether it wants to live and thrive or it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said.

Netanyahu’s arrogance is unbridled, especially as the censure is emanating from a leader who represents an ethno-nationalist state, which has just recently canceled any reference to democracy in its newly-issued Jewish Nation-state Law.

The new basic law defines Israel by an ethnic identity, not any democratic values. Netanyahu is now closer to Europe’s far-right racist groups than to any liberal democratic model, thus the ongoing flirting between Israel and these groups.

In fact, the term flirting is itself an understatement considering that Israel’s ties with various far-right, neo-Nazi and fascist parties in Europe involve high-level political coordination and, in the case of Ukraine in particular, the actual supplying of weapons.

Human rights groups recently petitioned the Israeli High Court to stop Israel’s export of weapons to neo-Nazi groups.

The Israeli far-right embrace touches almost every single European country, including Italy and Germany, whose history of Nazism and Fascism has wrought death and misery on millions.

In Italy, the connection between Italian far-right parties and Israel goes back to the early 2000s, when post-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini laboured to rebrand his movement.

Initially, Fini was the leader of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement), which saw itself as the “heir to the Fascist Party”.

The rebranding of the party required a trip by Fini to Israel in 2003, after changing the name of his movement to the National Alliance*. Interestingly, in his highly-touted visit, Fini was accompanied by Amos Luzzatto, the head of the Italian Jewish community.

Unsurprisingly, far-right leader, Matteo Salvini, Italy’s current Interior Minister, went through the same political baptism by Zionist Israel as Orban and Fini by paying a visit to Tel Aviv in March 2016 to launch his political career and declaring his undying love for the Jewish State.

Israel has passed the Nation-State Law becoming officially an Apartheid State – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The same scenario is being repeated in Germany where the far-right party – Alternative for Germany (AfD) – has risen in ranks to the point that it nearly toppled a government coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

AfD has more in common with Israel than the common anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views. The party which is “derided for anti-Semitic, xenophobic views redolent of the Nazis is also staunchly supportive of Israel,” reported The Times of Israel.

Last April the anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic German party enthusiastically began a campaign pushing for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite Merkel’s views to the contrary.

The story, however, does not end there. What began as Israeli flirting with far-right racist movements is now Israel’s official policy towards Europe. The same story, with different actors and names, can be found in Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO), Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest >> VB) and virtually everywhere else.

It remains to be seen how Israel’s embrace of fascist Europe will bode, both for Israel and the European Union. Will the EU shrivel and disappear, or will Israel finally be exposed for what it truly is, an ethno-nationalist state with no interest in true democracy in the first place?

Creative Commons / Middle East Monitor / Report a typo

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* Alleanza Nazionale (AN)