John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY JOE LAURIA IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has been awarded Consortium News‘ 2020 Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award for courage in the face of an unprecedented attack on press freedom”
I am glad the award was given to this extraordinary man.
Associating him with such honorable names as Gary Webb and Robert Parry couldn't be more fitting.
But I remain troubled by the dreary reality of America’s mainstream press and public officials in the matter. Despite a virtue-signalling squib here or there, as the article cites with Rachel Maddow and The New York Times, it is years of indifference, and worse.
And just the same for dear Chelsea Manning whose only motive was an anguished human response to American war atrocities she saw recorded on video. She has been crushed.
Assange's treatment has been nothing less than police-state stuff, but so few voices have been raised against it outside the alternative press. A few lines here or there, but no serious or sustained effort.
Of course, it is nowhere different with any of America’s contemporary brutal enterprises.
Do we see even one likely Democratic candidate speak to these matters? Do we hear from the heads of great charities or humanitarian organizations? The heads of great universities?
Public assassinations and theft and open contempt for rule of law are embraced. A half-mad, genuinely vicious President is allowed to give his activities new Orwellian names and, with a smile, go on to be widely cheered. No political leaders of either party express their disapproval because they do not in fact disapprove.
There is the added irony that Assange can offer key first-hand testimony around the contrived matter of Russian hacking, but no one wants the truth.
What kind of society has America been building? Truth and honor and human decency have almost no place because they interfere with the exercise of power.
We have about a trillion dollars a year dedicated to destruction, killing, oppression, and massive spying.
