Julian Assange Trial Exposes False Partisan Narratives With Focus On Donald Trumps War On Journalism by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!
(2020-09-10 at 13:26:11 )

Julian Assange Trial Exposes False Partisan Narratives With Focus On Donald Trumps War On Journalism by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!

The last two days of Julian Assanges scandalously opaque and plainly rigged show trial have brought into focus the reality that the WikiLeaks founders plight is the exact inverse of what the mainstream partisan narratives assert in the nation that is working to extradite him.

A new article about the proceedings in The Evening Standard titled "Julian Assange -targeted as a political opponent of Donald Trump administration and threatened with the death penalty" highlights the undeniable fact that this extradition process is only taking place because of a Donald Trump administration agenda which threatens to strike a deadly blow to press freedoms around the world with the precedent it would set.

The Evening Standard reports on the following testimony on Wednesday by Professor Paul Rogers, a lecturer in peace studies at Bradford University:

Mr. Assanges legal team argue that a decision was taken under President Barack Obama not to prosecute the Wikileaks activist, but that move was overturned under Donald Trump.

"During the Obama presidency there was a greater recognition of the problems and less pressure on those presenting conflicting evidence", said Professor Rogers.

"But since the election of President Donald Trump there has been a vigorous denigration of the Barack Obama era, a return to the outlook of the George Bush administration and even more bitter opposition to those perceived as dissenters, especially those involved in communicating unwelcome information such as Mr Assange."

Julian Assange "targeted as a political opponent of Donald Trump administration and threatened with the death penalty"-Evening Standard September 9, 2020

Mr. Rogers is absolutely correct.

The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald explained in 2018 that the Barack Obama administration was unable to find an avenue to prosecute Mr. Assange for the leaks which began dropping in 2010 without endangering press freedoms, yet the Donald Trump administration worked in concert with London and Quito to drag Mr. Assange out of the embassy and slam him with an extradition request (the sole reason for his continued imprisonment) based on the exact same evidence the Barack Obama administration had access to on those exact same leaks.

Mr. Greenwald explained in The Washington Post that the Julian Assange indictment was "a blueprint for making journalists into felons", writing that "the Donald Trump administration is aggressively and explicitly seeking to obliterate the last reliable buffer protecting journalism in the United States from being criminalized, a step that no previous administration, no matter how hostile to journalistic freedom, was willing to take."

"The argument offered by both the Donald Trump administration and by some members of the self-styled "resistance" to Donald Trump is, ironically, the same: that Julian Assange is not a journalist at all and thus deserves no free press protections," Mr. Greenwald wrote.

Indeed, it always blows Julian Assange-hating Democrats minds when you point out to them that when they defend this extradition campaign they are in fact defending a Donald Trump administration agenda.

Not because it is not true, nor even because the proof that it is true is not publicly available information, but because there has been a massive smear campaign directed at liberal echo chambers to manufacture consent for Julian Assanges silencing and persecution which has been geared toward painting Mr. Assange as a Donald Trump supporter.

Conversely, when you talk to those who espouse the common position of supporting both Donald Trump and Julian Assange, they are unable to wrap their head around the indisputable fact that their president is ultimately responsible for the campaign to extradite Julian Assange and imprison him with a sentence of up to 175 years.

They will claim falsely that this is an Barack Obama-initiated operation.

They will claim falsely that Donald Trump, who could have issued Mr. Assange a full pardon at any time since he took office, is actually working to get Mr. Assange to the United States of America so he can pardon him.

They will claim falsely that Julian Assange, who has been fighting United States extradition tooth and claw for many years, is secretly working with Donald Trump and secretly wants to come to the United States to help him.

Again, this is because of establishment propaganda campaigns like QAnon shaping the Julian Assange narrative in a way that benefits the establishment.

The extradition trial has been exposing those partisan positions for the power-serving lies that they are.

Donald Trumps "War On Journalism" Takes Centerstage At Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearing

Read kgosztolas report from Day 3 of this months hearing:-Shadowproof September 9, 2020

In an article titled "Trumps -War On Journalism- Takes Centerstage At Julian Assanges Extradition Hearing", Shadowproofs Kevin Gosztola gives more detail to this Wednesday exposition:

Trevor Timm, the executive director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), told a magistrate court judge, "[President Donald] Trumps administration is moving to explicitly criminalize national security journalism, and if this prosecution is allowed to go forward, dozens of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere would also be in danger."

In Mr. Timms statement to the court, Mr. Timm highlighted how Donald Trump has "attempted to stifle press freedom at all levels."

The United States Press Freedom Tracker, which FPF uses to track press freedom violations in the United States, has tallied over 2,000 examples, where Donald Trump tweeted "negative remarks, insults, or threats to the press" since his presidential campaign in 2016. He has referred to journalists as "enemies of the people."

The liberal echo chamber has been enthusiastically taking up the banner of "Donald Trumps war on the press", but has been pointing its "resistance" to this war at its most inconsequential and downright idiotic aspects rather than at an extradition trial which would set a precedent that could arguably constitute a greater leap toward Orwellian dystopia than the Patriot Act.

"Just embarrassing to have treated this coddled, pompous, self-absorbed windbag who is a threat to nobody like he is some kind of press freedom martyr, while ignoring what would be by far the most dangerous precedent for press freedom in years if Julian Assange is successfully prosecuted," Mr. Greenwald recently tweeted with a screenshot of a self-aggrandizing book by CNNs Jim Acosta.

"But that perfectly captures Donald Trump-era journalism: hysterically exaggerating deranged conspiracies & sideshows while ignoring real threats unfolding with little attention. Mean tweets about Chuck Todd and Jim Acosta are treated as grave threats to the Republic while this is ignored."

But that perfectly captures Trump-era journalism: hysterically exaggerating deranged conspiracies & sideshows while ignoring real threats unfolding with little attention. Mean tweets about Chuck Todd & Jim Acosta are treated as grave threats to the Republic while this is ignored.-Glenn Greenwald September 8, 2020

The theme of Donald Trumps assault on world press freedoms also featured in the previous day at court. Former United Kingdom ambassador Craig Murray wrote the following of the testimony by Professor Mark Feldstein, Chair of Broadcast Journalism at Maryland University, on Tuesday:

[Defense attorney Mark] Summers asked about the Barack Obama administrations attitude to Wikileaks. Mr. Feldstein said that there had been no prosecution after Wikileaks major publications in 2010-11. But Barack Obamas Justice Department had instigated an "aggressive investigation". However they concluded in 2013 that the First Amendment rendered any prosecution impossible. Justice Department Spokesman Matthew Miller had published that they thought it would be a dangerous precedent that could be used against other journalists and publications.

With the Donald Trump administration everything had changed. Donald Trump had said he wished to "put reporters in jail". Mr. Pompeo when head of the Central Intelligence Agency had called Wikileaks a "hostile intelligence agency". Mr. Sessions had declared prosecuting Mr. Assange "a priority".

[Prosecuting attorney James] Lewis said that Mr. Feldstein had stated that Barack Obama decided not to prosecute whereas Donald Trump did. But it was clear that the investigation had continued through from the Barack Obama to the Donald Trump administrations. Mr. Feldstein replied yes, but the proof of the pudding was that there had been no prosecution under Barack Obama.

Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 7 - CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH

This morning we went straight in to the evidence of Clive Stafford Smith, a dual national British-American lawyer licensed to practice in the United Kingdom. He had founded Reprieve in-Craig Murray September 9, 2020

Maybe it is a good thing this trial is not being televised. The head explosions it would cause among the United States of Americas propagandized partisan hacks would destroy the nation.

This all highlights the fact that it is impossible to gain an accurate understanding of what is going on in the world through partisan perceptual filters.

Partisan echo chambers exist solely to distort peoples understanding of events to the advantage of the powerful, whether you are talking about ensuring the dominance of establishment political factions, the advancement of status quo-preserving wars, or the elimination of voices who punch inconvenient holes in power-serving propaganda narratives.

Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. The source of our worlds problems is the fact that the powerful understand this, while ordinary people do not.

Things will not change until a critical mass of people begin waking up to this fact.

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