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The ScheerPost has published a sermon which Chris Hedges gave on Sunday Aug. 20 in Oslo, Norway at Kulturkirken Jakob (St. James Church of Culture) where the actor and film director Liv Ullmann read the scripture passages. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has worked for many years at the New York Times, NPR, and several other publications. In his sermon he expounds on the long-standing problem of speaking truth to power.
Julian exposed the truth. He exposed it over and over and over until there was no question of the endemic illegality, corruption and mendacity that defines the global ruling class And for these truths they came after Julian, as they have come after all who dared rip back the veil on power. "Red Rosa now has vanished too," Bertolt Brecht wrote after the German socialist Rosa Luxemburg was murdered. "She told the poor what life is about, And so the rich have rubbed her out."
We have undergone a corporate coup, where poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where we, as citizens, are nothing more than commodities to corporate systems of power, ones to be used, fleeced and discarded.
Given the massive quantities of disinformation spread over a longer period of time against Julian Assange, and the media blackout on coverage of his case and how it effects journalism as a whole, this is a difficult case to find a concise and accurate summary to link to. The bottom line is that, regardless of what one thinks (or has been told to think) about Julian Assange, the case hinges on factors which will determine whether or not there is a future for investigative reporting.
Previously:
(2023) Australian Lawmakers Press US Envoy for Julian Assange Release
(2023) No NGO Has Been Allowed to See Julian Assange Since Four Years Ago
(2022) Biden Faces Growing Pressure to Drop Charges Against Julian Assange
(2022) Assange Lawyers Sue CIA for Spying on Them
(2021) Key Witness in Assange Case Jailed in Iceland After Admitting to Lies and Ongoing Crime Spree
...
(2015) French Justice Minister Says Snowden and Assange Could Be Offered Asylum
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2023, @10:13PM (7 children)
Was the information the rapist Assange revealed useful? Of course. But he is not a "journalist" nor is he a god.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2023, @10:53PM (1 child)
I see this is going to be an ass kissing thread.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Sunday August 27 2023, @04:33PM
Here is my part then:
From TFS:
I feel confident I would have a great future doing investigative reporting on Donald Trump so, I guess it depends what you do investigative reporting on.
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2023, @11:40PM (1 child)
He's from a different time. Back when there was some semblance of sanity or decorum.
Back when leftists were against big pharma and corporations instead of their cheerleaders.
>New York Times, NPR, and several other publications.
These same outlets spread establishment propaganda with a socialist facade.. and the best part is: former "liberals" have all bought in and try to stone you when you point it out.
(Score: 4, Informative) by therainingmonkey on Sunday August 27 2023, @11:57AM
There are no leftists allowed in the US media.
The American overton window stretches from centre-right liberals to far-right conservatives.
Remember that everhywhere else, "liberal" and "leftist" are completely different ideologies; it's only in America that they've been squashed together.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 27 2023, @05:14AM (1 child)
For the record, there was no rape. Both of the "victims" have stated as much. If Julian was guilty of anything, he violated a social more. Sexual interactions were consensual, but Julian had no condoms on hand when he went back for seconds. Same story with both "victims". If you bother to read up on the encounters, it's interesting that the two stories are so very similar.
Of course, cave hermits can't be expected to understand the subtleties here. Which is exactly the reason American media characterized Assange as a rapist. You've been had, one more time.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2023, @10:47AM
They didn't even complain until later when they were comparing notes and found out he bonked both of them The initial statement to the cops was just an inquiry to ask if they could force him to have an STD test.
Pretty sure that out of town prosecutor who went after him is a CIA asset.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday August 27 2023, @02:19PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Sunday August 27 2023, @12:22AM (3 children)
As Julian feared, he was charged [justice.gov] by the U.S. government in the case of Chelsea Manning for revealing the truth about what was really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't care much for Julian as a person, but I do think he is being punished for telling the truth, a truth that made powerful people uneasy.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Frosty Piss on Sunday August 27 2023, @01:02AM (2 children)
His hubris is his downfall. And unfortunately for him, the chances of the US charges being mitigated or dropped is slim to none. It's unlikely he would qualify for low to medium security lockup due to being a flight risk, and exposure to the "general prison population" would be physically dangerous for him, thus he will likely lose his mind in some sort of protective solitary.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Sunday August 27 2023, @04:43AM
I'm not inclined to take "personal hubris" as a reason to justify excessive punishment and obvious attainder by the powers that be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2023, @06:08AM
Maybe he'll get another chance at a pardon from a President who just doesn't care, such as Biden or Trump.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mendax on Sunday August 27 2023, @04:10AM (7 children)
I'm sorry but I have a great deal of time feeling sympathy for Julian Assange. With regard to the charges the United States has filed against him he is likely an innocent man, but as a human being he's rather awful. I hope he's released soon and allowed to return to Australia, but that doesn't mean that I'll ever like the man. He's just not very pleasant in my eyes.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2023, @05:10AM (4 children)
Have you ever actually met him? Or is your opinion solely due to media manipulation?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 27 2023, @05:24AM (1 child)
You don't have to meet a person to come to some conclusions about them. Mendax thinks he's an unpleasant sort of fellow - and I kinda agree with him. I declare him foolish, and the proof of his foolishness is that he went to an embassy from which there was no escape. He should have run for the border, then if he escaped the UK, he should have kept running until he was beyond extradition. Edward Snowden's story isn't hugely different from Assange, but Snowden understood his odds, and dealt with them appropriately. I also think that I would enjoy barhopping, or dinner, or just idle chitchat with Snowden, far more than I would enjoy Assange's company. Assange is something of a weenie, all things considered. Of course, being a weenie doesn't make you a bad guy, nor does it make you a criminal.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2023, @06:19AM
Snowden got help from Assange, after Assange was stuck in the embassy. Must have been a learning experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Public_positions [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by mendax on Sunday August 27 2023, @06:36AM (1 child)
Of course not, although coincidentally, he and I use the same cyberspace "handle". I think I started using it first, however. Anyway, over the years he just has always struck me as being a jerk.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday August 27 2023, @12:37PM
In Latin, mendax means "lying". Assange took this nick at his age of 16, from Quintus Horatius Flaccus' poetry where it is written as splendide mendax, "nobly untruthful".
It's pure idealism, an adequate nick for that age. You, no doubt, performed the same. That makes jerks two of you. (I am a tengu, I recognize a jerk when I see one...)
Besides, Julian Assange is not a saint, but he is still a victim of totalitarian Injustice.
That's a real shame.
Not of him of course, but of goddess Iustitia.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Sunday August 27 2023, @10:09AM
There's a relatively famous quotation by the American journalist and essayist H.L. Mencken [wikipedia.org] on this very topic:
The question is not whether Assange is a 'good chap', the question is about (investigative) journalistic freedom. I share your view that Assange is not someone I would personally want to spend time with: but I think some of the work he did was, and continues to be, important to defend.
It is a well known technique to assassinate the character of someone whose views you wish to be unpopular. The technique is used because it works. Also, sometimes people with poor characters do good things, which are unnoticed as a result.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2023, @01:27PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange [wikipedia.org]
Reading his Wikipedia article earlier and filling in some of the gaps in his life history I forgot or missed made me like him more. He really likes hacking Nortel lol.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Sunday August 27 2023, @12:24PM
When Wikileaks published "Collateral Murder" https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ [wikileaks.org], exposing US war crimes in Iraq including the murder of two Reuters journalists, he put a target on his back. There was no safe place in the world for him once he pulled the veil off the state sponsored lies.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII