What happened to their repentance? In 2019, Caity Johnstone filed a piece that offered hope: “Professional Assange Smearers Finally Realize His Fate Is Tied To Theirs”

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Caitlin Johnstone
ROGUE JOURNALIST

PREFATORY NOTE

On May 25, 2019, Caitlin Johnstone filed the piece reprinted below, which, at the time signaled a dramatic about-face from the presstitutes' nonstop campaign of indifference or vilification of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. The logical assumption was—as the media whores themselves proclaimed—that the establishment press was sniffing danger in giving the government such a broad precedent to go after them, selectively, in the future. But that, too, in my view, has a double-bottom and a big contradiction, because the establishment media, owned by the global billionaires who own the US government and the governments of its allies in the so-called "West", are also the puppeteers of the Deep State, and by definition, the Deep State—or as some also call it, "the permanent War Party"— cannot wage war on itself, especially on one of its crucial organs, the propaganda machine, which day after day sells and legitimates their power. So how could that be possible? The answer may lie in the sheer dimension of the "Western Deep State". As Andrei Raevsky puts it, the War Party is a very big amalgam of forces representing the global class interest of the capitalist oligarchy. It comprises, "the entire US media, the Neocons, the MAGA-GOP gang in Congress, the “non-Biden gang” inside the Democratic Party, the US energy sector, the US MIC, the entire US “deep state” (military and intel bureaucracies, judicial, etc.], the Israel lobby, the Ukie lobby, the UK lobby, the Polish lobby, etc." So where's then the danger to those who see themselves as dutifully "conforming" with the official narrative in the corporate media? Why are they becoming afraid? Maybe because such a huge combination of forces and players is inherently unstable, not in the overarching goal, to protect the capitalists from democracy, but because it may also harbor factions fighting for power to impose their agenda, priorities and methods. In that atmosphere, one faction could eventually use such lawfare to repress and force any "problematic" media organization to toe their line, and the methods could easily become downright unpleasant. To sum up, there's a significant rift in the US ruling class, and probably in ruling circles across "the West". Against this backdrop, the presstitutes' posture toward Assange has varied, from initial collaboration (and thereby tacit approval of Assange as a peer and Wikileaks as a journalistic organization) to vicious hostility and indifference to his plight (a long period that continued until literally the beginning of December), to again a sudden shift in defence of Assange's rights, along with "press freedom", "democracy" and all the other sacred cows corporate journos and politicos piously invoke when they perceive their skin is also at risk. Where they'll go next is anybody's guess at this point. By definition, the trajectory of cowards and opportunists can never be reliably predicted. Incidentally, don't miss the video commentary on Assange and disinformation by Glenn Greenwald, presented in our Appendix. It's superb, and deserves to be widely seen.—PG
—The Editor
—The Editor

Professional Assange Smearers Finally Realize His Fate Is Tied To Theirs

Rachel effing Maddow, the Queen Mother of all tinfoil pussyhat-wearing Russiagate insanity is suddenly supporting Julian Assange after his Espionage Act indictment, as Caitlin Johnstone explains.

By Caitlin Johnstone / First published on May 24, 2019 / CaitlinJohnstone.com

Rachel Maddow has aired a segment condemning the new indictment against Julian Assange for 17 alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Yes, that Rachel Maddow.

MSNBC’s top host began the segment after it was introduced by Chris Hayes, agreeing with her colleague that it’s surprising that more news outlets aren’t giving this story more “wall to wall” coverage, given its immense significance. She recapped Assange’s various legal struggles up until this point, then accurately described Assange’s new Espionage Act charges for publishing secret documents.

“And these new charges are not about stealing classified information or outsmarting computer systems in order to illegally obtain classified information,” Maddow said. “It’s not about that. These new charges are trying to prosecute Assange for publishing that stolen, secret material which was obtained by somebody else. And that is a whole different kettle of fish than what he was initially charged with.”

Even when ostensibly defending Assange, Maddow is still falsely accusing him of being in cahoots with a foreign power (guess which) out to supposedly 'harm America".

“By charging Assange for publishing that stuff that was taken by Manning, by issuing these charges today, the Justice Department has just done something you might have otherwise thought was impossible,” Maddow added after explaining the unprecedented nature of this case.

“The Justice Department today, the Trump administration today, just put every journalistic institution in this country on Julian Assange’s side of the ledger. On his side of the fight. Which, I know, is unimaginable. But that is because the government is now trying to assert this brand new right to criminally prosecute people for publishing secret stuff, and newspapers and magazines and investigative journalists and all sorts of different entities publish secret stuff all the time. That is the bread and butter of what we do.”

Maddow carefully explained to her audience that these new charges have nothing at all to do with the 2016 election or any of the Russiagate nonsense the MSNBC pundit has been devoting her life to, correctly calling what the Trump administration is doing with Assange “a novel legal effort to punch a huge hole in the First Amendment.”

She tied this in with Trump’s common references to the mass media as the “enemy of the people”, finally taking mainstream liberalism into a direct confrontation with Trump’s actual war on the press instead of nonsense about his tweeting mean things about Jim Acosta. She rightly highlighted the dangers of allowing a president with a thick authoritarian streak the ability to prosecute journalists he doesn’t like, and discussed the possibility that the UK may not comply with this new agenda in extradition proceedings.

“I think these 17 espionage charges against the WikiLeaks guy are a huge deal, and a very dark development,” Maddow concluded. “Chris Hayes this evening called it a ‘four-alarm development’, and I absolutely share that.”

“And, you know, I know you,” Maddow continued, pointing to the camera. [NB. The passage below marked in red is a typical big lie by Maddow, a dangerous smear liable to be used against him at a later date.]

“Given everything else that we know about the WikiLeaks guy, I can feel through the television right now your mixed feelings about what I am saying. I can feel what may be, perhaps, a certain lack of concern about Julian Assange’s ultimate fate, given his own gleeful and extensive personal role in trying to help a hostile foreign government interfere in our election in order to install their chosen president with WikiLeaks’ help. Okay? I know. Okay, I feel ya. I got it. But, it is a recurring theme in history, heck, it is a recurring theme in the Bible, that they always pick the least sympathetic figures to try this stuff on first. Despite anyone’s feelings about this spectacularly unsympathetic character at the center of this international drama, you are going to see every journalistic institution in this country, every First Amendment supporter in this country, left, right and center, swallow their feelings about this particular human and denounce what the Trump administration is trying to do here. Because it would fundamentally change the United States of America.”

Wow. Make no mistake, this is a hugely significant development. This isn’t just some columnist for The New York Times or The Guardian, this is Rachel effing Maddow, the Queen Mother of all tinfoil pussyhat-wearing Russiagate insanity. This same pundit was just a couple of months ago not just smearing but outright lying about Assange, deceitfully telling her audience that the new legal rings closing around Assange were about his 2016 publications then instructing viewers not to Google anything about it because they’ll get computer viruses. Now that she’s recognized that this could actually hurt her and her network directly, she’s finally feeding her audience a different narrative out of sheer enlightened self-interest.

The fact that such a hugely influential figure in mainstream liberal media is now pushing back against Assange’s prosecution, and doing so in a way that her mainstream liberal anti-Trump audience can relate to, cannot be over-appreciated. Maddow’s credulous audience would eat live kittens if she told them to, so the way she’s pushing back against a dangerous legal precedent in language they can understand will make a difference in the way American liberals think about Assange’s predicament. It won’t make them like him, it won’t make them value the things he’s done, but it will get them to finally begin resisting something that badly needs to be resisted. And that’s huge.

The danger has always been that this fatal blow to journalism would be meted out with total compliance and support from a population hammered into docility by the ongoing narrative war which has been waged on Assange’s and WikiLeaks’ reputations with the help of the mass media. There was a very real danger that thought leaders like Maddow were going to choose their feelings over reasoning when the foot finally fell and the charges that criminalize journalism as “espionage” were finally put into play.

I don’t think anyone would have been surprised if she’d applied that giant intellect of hers into making it possible to ignore it without upsetting her audience, and try and figure it out later when it was too late and the legal precedent was set. It would have been so easy to keep feeding into the dominant “Assange is bad so everything bad that happens to him is good” sentiment, but she didn’t. She directly contradicted it.

She actually chose to do the right thing. I’m gobsmacked, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that my hope for humanity sparked up a little today.

If the resting smugfaced apex of liberal psychosis is getting this one right, then many more will surely follow. And indeed, many already are. In addition to Hayes’ coverage of the story, MSNBC’s Ari Melber also did a segment harshly criticizing the implications of Trump administration’s new charges. We’re seeing multiple segments from CNN about the grave dangers of the legal precedent that is being set with the superseding indictment, as well as urgent warnings about the new charges from major publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. The outlets which have been smearing Assange relentlessly are now finding themselves forced to defend him.

A typical comment under Maddow’s YouTube share of this segment reads “This is very strange. Very alarming! There we go again. The GOP is preparing the country for a Dictatorship.” And okay, that’s not exactly what is happening (this has been a bipartisan push and it’s not just preparations, we’re in full swing), but whatever, now this viewer can actually see the monster’s outlines. Finally, the Maddow crowd which has been fruitlessly expending all their energy so far on punching at Russian shadows will actually be attacking a real thing.

And I’m quietly excited about that. I’m eager to see what happens to the #Resistance if it actually starts #Resisting something. It doesn’t matter that this is only happening because mainstream liberal media outlets realized that they might be next on the chopping block; it matters that it’s happening, period. 

For years mainstream liberals have been fixating on the fake Russiagate psyop and rending their garments about Trump’s rude tweets while commentators like me desperately implored them to pay attention to the actual dangerous agendas that this administration is actually advancing. They’ve been in a holding pattern of adamantly refusing to do that, and now, because it’s threatening them personally, we’re suddenly seeing a sharp deviation from that holding pattern.

As Bill Murray said at the end of Groundhog Day, something is different. Anything different is good.

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This is a dispatch from our ongoing series by Caitlin Johnstone


Caitlin Johnstone is a brave journalist, political junkie, relentless feminist, champion of the 99 percent. And a powerful counter-propaganda tactician. 
 

 

APPENDIX 

The REAL disinformation comes from the main, gigantic engines of mass communication controlled by the oligarchy. Outfits like NBC.

Dec 16, 2021

Is MSNBC all of a sudden seeing the light? 

Calls For Biden Administration To Put A Stop To Assange Extradition
Dec 13, 2021

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange looks set to be extradited to the U.S. following a ruling by the U.K.'s high court. The repercussions of this decision could fall much farther than just with Assange himself. Free press advocates also warn it sets a dangerous precedent for the safety and security of journalists' right to report freely. Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, says it’s in the hands of the U.S. Government to protect the freedom of the press. (Bold ours)

And again, this item:

Julian Assange’s Brother On His Imminent Extradition | Ayman

Dec 11, 2021

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 NOTE : ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS.