Slouching Towards Oblivion

Friday, May 24, 2019

No Time To Check Out


There's a bi-partisan, almost universal, condemnation of Press Poodles. Everybody loves to hate "the media". But the reasons people criticize news outlets are important because there are important differences in that criticism.

"Conservatives" like to paint themselves as the true patriots and defenders of Real America, so they shit on the press for always poking holes in their stories and showing up Republicans (mostly) to be hypocrites and pinch-faced blue-nosed puritans who think politics is about ruling the public instead of serving us.

"Liberals" shit on the media for their constant attempts to substitute "balance" for factual analysis in service to profitability - the standard bullshit of scampering back to "Both sides do it" and "Yeah, but the Democrats..."

What's happening with Julian Assange is a weird thing that does not bode well.

I've been very critical of Assange because I think he was played for a stooge by Putin et al. And I think he crossed the line, moving from "the right to publish once something's been leaked" to "let's help the leaker steal a bunch of embarrassing shit that'll make us a pile of money when we publish it".

It can be a really fine line, but there's a line. IMHO, Julian Assange is not a Katherine-Graham-level hero.

However, things have changed a bit now. Cult45 is going after Assange, not for stealing the stuff, but for publishing it. And that's a whole new bag of fuckery.

Rachel (and pay particular attention at about 15:50, when she gets to the part about Austria):


No comments:

Post a Comment