Re: <nettime> Pilger on flow of information

On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 1:55 PM John Young <jya@pipeline.com> wrote:

Fine for offense for estabished, seasoned
journalists beholden to commercial publishers to
promote the industry as defenders of, well, the
superstructure varies, but usually rests on the
advertising foundation, or generous benefactors
of the NGO species, not to overlook the evenly
more capaciously-backed GOV-supported enterprises, BBG, RFE, Tor, Signal, etc.

But, upon careful scrutiny of the
WikiLeaks/Assange saga, the voluminous outpouring
is not yet so applicable to WL/Assange despite
innumerable journalists making use of it/him for
their purposes, as done by the press for the
history of WikiLeaks, Assange doing his part to
play along with the rather over the top
comedic-melodrama customarily deployed by used vehicle salespersons.

Hang out with journalists for an earful of their
venomous hatred of publishers and advertisers and
public relations practitioners, and, not least,
lawyers devising and running the plays of what
can be published with limited risk to owners/investors of the press.

Assange once castigated journalists for their
cowardice but elected to tone that down after
being joined by a coterie of "seasoned" jounos
and 1A lawyers who advised to wear the costume of
press privilege, to shade releases enough to
forestall official armageddon, that is, prevent
and/or dry-up funding, to perform "responsibly,"
and quietly vet with authorities. Assange's
indictments, original and superceding, appear
crafted with the 1A industry prime target.

The very exaggerated defense of press sanctity in
the Assange case certainly betrays venal
opportunism with least risk to journalism and
maximum publicity. Pile it on, so seldom does a
group of usually vicious competitors get to
choral a glorification of a sacrificial victim:
they can only hope Assange is paraded for months
and years "on the way to the gallows." Cliche gold mine awaits.

At 01:43 PM 6/16/2019, you wrote:
>Dear nettime,Â
>
>This interview is an impressive account, if you
>have not read one—and by one of our most
>impressive brothers—- of the at attacks and
>governmental punishment of journalists in a
>several countries, and the falling down of free
>press and flow of information in liberal
>democracies which are still pretending to be liberal democracies.Â
>
>John Pilger - such a commanding voice for these
>times - a supporter of Assange—gives us history and aanalysis:
>
><https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/14/john-pilger-the-global-war-on-assange-journalism-dissent/>https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/14/john-pilger-the-global-war-on-assange-journalism-dissent/
>
>Molly
>
>
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