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Media and Entertainment politics

Julian Assange and the Assassination of the Free Press

Public officials around the world have called for the assassination of Julian Assange. As many are already aware by this time, Assange has inspired international outrage due to embarrassing information he recently released on his web site WikiLeaks.

The thing I find most interesting about the whole thing is the lack of widespread public outrage. Basically, only butt-hurt government officials and wannabe leaders seem to be the ones calling for Assange’s head. As a US citizen, I’m embarrassed at the lengths my government has gone to to suppress the leaked cables including trying to wipe the site off of the internet. They should know by now that once the genie is out of the bottle and on the internet, it cannot be put back into it. Indeed, these efforts are just drawing more attention to it. I think the efforts to suppress free speech and freedom of the press are more embarrassing than the leaked information itself. I’m doubly disappointed to see this happening on President Obama’s watch. We all expected better than this further affront to the reputation of the United States.

Some have likened Assange to a spy, but the truth of the matter is that he is more like a journalist than spy. If/when Assange turns up dead, I think it will be the international free press that will have been assassinated. One could argue that with the professional press being a for profit organization owned by giant media conglomerates, there really isn’t a free press anymore. Maybe Assange’s real crime was that he wasn’t already owned by the right people.