ACTIVISTS & HEROES

OSCAR GRENFELL—Despite the significance of the ruling, and its clear newsworthiness, it has been subjected to an almost complete blackout by the entire media in the US and internationally.

The universal silence on the court decision—extending from the New York Times (which buried a six-paragraph report on the ruling on page 25) and the Washington Post, to “alternative” outlets such as the Intercept, the television evening news programs and the publications of the pseudo-left—can be described only as a coordinated political conspiracy.

ERIC LONDON—The ruling exposes the illegality of the conspiracy by the US government, backed by the governments of Britain, Ecuador, Australia and Sweden and the entire corporate media and political establishment, to extradite Assange to the US, where he faces 175 years in federal prison on charges including espionage.

MICHELLE LLAMAS—If the ads are here to stay, improve them. What consumers really want to know are the costs, harms and trials as well as benefits. For example, simple tables with this information should be featured in print and TV ads. One study in the American Journal of Public Health found even consumers of lower education levels understood information presented in a quantitative table.

PATRICK WALKER—As needed shaming, demanding Trump’s long-overdue impeachment for his way-beyond-criminal policy—and asking Democrats the embarrassing question of why they’ve never thought of it—goes far toward accomplishing the trick. But Democrats (especially in the face of party donors, many tied to fossil fuels) are cowards, so (if you’ll pardon me the pun), climate activists demanding Trump’s climate-based impeachment must ourselves stand on unimpeachable ground.