CNN: Is Julian Assange a 'journalist or terrorist'?

Perhaps CNN could try a little investigative journalism and provide their own answers.

This talking head stuff that passes for tele-journalism is just opinion and the more that media can get people to focus on their own opinions and how to refute the opinions of others, the less time or inclination left to focus on Truth.

Making this about Assange and not about the content and context of the documents is an act of terrorism against the Truth.

Where is the reporting of the actual leaks? Where is the political analysis of the content of the documents that have terrified the American government? Why the limited secondary reporting of the international response to the leaks?

15th December 2010, Day 17 wikileak

Le Monde

The French press comes under scrutiny in the diplomatic cables.

In one six page document in January 2007, the American embassy in Paris wonders why French journalists do not cover ethnic minorities' issues more – particularly integration – and concludes that journalists in France often consider themselves intellectuals whose job is more to analyse events and influence readers than report straight facts.(bolding by teapot)

They also come from the same elitist schools as politicians and do not think their priority should be to challenge those in power.The Guardian

So, it's only French journalists who do not think it's their job to report facts?

reply to post by teapot


Yep that's what happens. It's ironic to because a true intellectual would pride himself on dignity and not manipulating others. You don't have to be brilliant to influence the majority of people. They have let their arrogance run amok and make them poor journalists.

Regardless of whether or not he's a journalist, labeling him as a terrorist is a bit too far. It's like asking whether he's an apple or a Nazi; linking them together is amusing and creates what I consider to be a false dichotomy.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Honest reporting does still happen and there are journalists out there who want to uncover and investigate the facts, who are thwarted in their efforts by the great established media monster.

Other wikileak offerings today include misuse of public funding.

Operation Westbridge has so far cost the taxpayer more than £1m and more than £100m worth of drugs has been seized amid growing UK concern that drug trafficking is becoming institutionalised in west Africa. The UN has estimated that up to 60 tonnes of coc aine, worth £1.3bn, are being smuggled through west Africa, mostly into Europe, each year.

According to the cables, Ghanaian narcotics control board (Nacob) officers working with British officials:

• Actively helped traffickers, even calling the criminals on their mobile phones to tell them when to travel to avoid detection.

• Sabotaged sensitive drug scanners provided to the Ghanaian government.

It's been a couple of years and a change of government but UK taxpayers money is still funding Operation Westbridge.

There are probably thousands of journalists wanting to dig into that one and report on it!

If CNN is going to ask this about Assange, they should ask this about themselves as well.

Originally posted by predator0187
Journalist.

I know all the talk about wikileaks being CIA but then I cannot bring myself to believe that.

He is releasing info that is detrimental to the US government and that in my books is a great thing. They promise transparency and give none. Then someone does it for them and they want him in jail?

He should be free and able to release as many documents as he likes.

He is doing something that the incompetent government cannot do for themselves.

He's a hero in my books.

Pred...

TPTB are using the Wikileaks momentum (chinese/russian hackers leaked info to wikileaks) to shut down the internet.

Don't fall for it.

Starred and flagged.

What I want to know is this: if this information was truly "secret" then why was it so easy for Mr. A to get his hands on it?

I think it's definitely embarrassing to the folks at Foggy Bottom, first because it got out at all, which is a major snafu, with a generous helping of egg on certain faces there, with a side order of humble pie.

It most probably shows any number of covered up gaffs by the state department, perhaps even unto the white house itself.

But a threat to national security? I doubt it.

It probably IS a major threat to some folks getting their rear-ends caught in a sling and losing their jobs though!

I call Journalist.

Glad Mr. A did it, if nothing more than to deflate some of those sanctimonious egos that reside in the "Emerald City" of Washington.

He just guilty of catching the would-be wizards behind the curtain, and they are scrambling to figure what they can do about it.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


Whatever happened to the truth superceding all.

second

reply to post by blupblup


Pilger's a serious journo. Respected in his field and by the general public, he is probably a direct target as well as any publisher or broadcaster who posts his work, for spying and spin. Governments with secrets would want to know what he was up to.

Other Assange supporters have been lampooned as 'luvvies', as if to undermine the social value of their support. Bianca Jaggar, Jemima Goldsmith and Ken Loach are all known for supporting human rights and social justice and Moore is all about freedom of speech. There's not much mention of all the smaller, non media-profile donators. Just loads more MSM focus on 'celebrities' and the use of them to sway public opinion.

The way Assange has managed to annoy the Dbags who run everything, surely ranks him well above journalist or indeed terrorist.
The media has continually tried to discredit him since he began releasing info and that tells me, this man has got something of interest to show the world. We live in a scripted information age, if the media is telling you to think of him as a terrorist then it's most likely the man is a freedom fighter.

Side note...Assange and rupert murdoch are both Australian, perhaps the Aussies sent him here to make up for all of murdoch's disinfo news networks

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


Who else will become a terrorist if he does? What weapon has he used?

Could other peaceful whistle-blowers, investigative journalists, or awkward legal or political challengers on corporations or non-defence/intel state organisations be next in line?

Exactly how will the state/media define where public interest ends and threatening behaviour begins...?

How will that impact on foreign policy, for instance how do you relate to things like Tibet/China...or Burma..or the UN?

Will they start to define friendly and non-friendly terrorists?

Madness

reply to post by teapot




The usual story then isn't it.... deflection and using personalities to distract people away from the actual story.
Nobody is talking about these cables/leaks any more.

Just which celebrity is backing him and whether or not he will get bail and whether he is a terrorist or not.


The MSM are doing their job as instructed by the governments...

It's a very sad state of affairs man.

reply to post by Havick007


After watching this Documentary I have came to the conclusion that anyone who exposes scientology,chemical companies for killing people and other corporations and organizations from covertly hidding data about these activities is revolutionary and although in past posts i have been judgemental about the motives of Assange I apologize as There is a definite requirement for exposure especially when needless peolple are dying because of ruthless scumbags.
Originally I made asperations to assange being overtly motivating a movement for internet sensorship,I still believe that to be true or at least the agencies will use it for that,however I no longer hold the opinion he is a government lacky,I applaude this indepence from journalist editorial processes and support it as long as it remains indepenant, which is hard to prove or disprove.This can only be evident on future revelations,I will be watching as I distrust many movements that are promoted by mainstream media,I ask others to view the video.very interesting.
Note I will continue observance of this subject and continue to make a free judgement on the bases of that,afterall is`nt that what wikileaks is trying to achieve.

reply to post by gringoboy


Yep it was a great insight into the beginnings of and the future of Wikileaks, i'm happy you watched, also i have misplaced the thread with the original link ( i read way too many threads on here per night ) but credit for the link to the OP of the link.

What affected me most was when the journo showed the collateral damage clip to the iraqi victims family. Man i can't begin to imagine their pain, but man what a disgrace!!

Also yeah come on he is an Aussie, i can vouch for him lol. Us Aussies stick together!!

Although their was some recent threads about a CIA mirror that was set up, phycorg or something link that??

I looked it up not so long ago and used robtex.com to track the URL and IP, oddly enough, the WHOIS contact info led back to a Melbourne,AU based organisation and person and yet on the original thread the whois lead back to somewhere in Oregon??

I found it interesting that there were many conflicting information pages on this URL and domain. There was also a letter issuess from the WWW organistaion the controls / regu;ates internet traffic and domains, a pdf letter that was sent to the person running that domain advising they had to be more diligent in updating whois info online... just thought id add to the topic, i probabaly should have started a thread on it but yeah hmm, wikileaks will prob end up getting its own subject forum like BP lol.


Robtex info on psytek: www.robtex.com...

I may start a thread although as it is old news, we will have to wait and see how it goes...

reply to post by John_Rodger_Cornman


Good. They were going to try and control it anyway. At least now we are forcing their hand, it's very public, and it demand's more people's attention so we have a chance.

Here is some more of the quality, ground-breaking investigative journalism we've come to expect from CNN:

He had just launched WikiLeaks, a little online operation with big ambitions. Assange hoped it would exemplify a value he held high: All information should be public, no matter how sensitive or embarrassing. Only then could justice be served and corruption end. All in all, he seemed to think he was a pretty good catch. So that December, Assange, then 36, evidently created a profile on the free dating site OkCupid.com.

That's some exceptional work there, CNN.

Don't bother looking at the memos. Don't report on the secrets uncovered. Never mind the wars, graft, corruption and looting at the top. Attack the messenger. Ridicule the brave. Rubbish the truth. Distract, deflect, cover the tracks of your masters.

CNN's motto should be "Create Ignorance."

reply to post by Nicorette


LOL!

CorpoNews Network seems to be giving Faux News a run for their money in recent times!

I just posted the following interview they gave Ron Paul, where he dissects the gov's motives in relation to these leaks:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Now the really interesting thing that some of our ATSers pointed out is this use of NLP techniques by the 'interviewer' to try and steer the viewership, and sort of mock Dr. Paul.

It appears they are stepping up their game in the brainwashing attempts of their audience!

reply to post by Nicorette


We should thank them really. This issue has shown the mainstream media up for what it is. Bloated lazy and corrupted by money. It was obvious Fox was corrupt, CNN did a better issue of hiding it.

Vote with your wallet. Take a yearly subscription to one of the honest outlets. Reward integrity.