The failure by journalists to mount a campaign to free Julian Assange, or expose the vicious smear campaign against him, is one more catastrophic and self-defeating blunder by the news media.
The ones who abandoned Julian aren’t journalists, Chris. They are Mockingbird propagandists.
You, Matt, and the other individuals standing up for Julian and the persecuted freedoms he represents are a dying breed, but it is my hope that your courageous examples will spark a renaissance of genuine journalism.
Chris, I recently dedicated my poem “Ode to a Whistleblower” to Daniel Ellsberg and Julian Assange, and I drew heavily from your extensive coverage of Julian’s case for the accompanying article:
Love Chris to pieces a favorite of mind since Occupy and far ahead of popular culture in his vision but not a dying breed except for legacy names on the resume. but a species of truth tellers raging back from extinction. Watch the Scheerpost video and *note the support for Julian in Australia now over 80% of Aussies want him home and view him as heroic.. Stela had a private audience w the Pope..
Washington Mafia has a globe full of enemies and corp "news" is dangerously close to having its disapproval dip into Congress territory in single digits.. scamdemic turned the tables now its ours to lose.. voices like yours emerged from far reaches of cyberspace as constellations of alternatives to central mantras bringing a new ecosystem of learning into being.
It also awakened a huge swath if the globe to the lies & frauds foisted upon us from fascist dictators posing as democratic representatives elected to be Public Servants but exposed as corp tools or worse. It is dire but my optimism has never been higher & thanks for your voice in the chorus!! <3
These are not journalists, but glorified fluffers to power, complete with fancy degrees, or Renaissance courtiers, but without the colorful outfits.
These so-called journalists sleep soundly at night, knowing that they never will utter or even think so much as a symbol that their masters would not approve of. Noam Chomsky's epic takedown of Andrew Marr was entirely on point.
Beat me to it my thoughts exactly these presstitutes have no claim to membership in The Fourth Estate nor any standing with claims to free speech or democracy. In the recent London event w Stela Assange & Matt Kennard posted at Scheerpost they agree its careerism not evil but I disagree. In my book the quote about evil persisting w too many silent is enough to say self serving comforts & cowardice get no absolution... eff em all!!
During an argument with a Colorado Public Radio reporter, in a bar, in Denver, in ~2009, I grilled her on the failure of the fourth estate in the US, re the Iraq War, the NYT, Valerie Plame, etc.
Her final blurted response: We knew we were going to war, whether people supported it or not, so we thought it would be better for the country, if the people supported it.
Does that sound like a CIA-coached talking point? If we were going to war, regardless of public opinion, in the nappies of the early aughts, what shreds of democracy are left to save now?
Obama didn’t prosecute Bush, nor did Congress even bother to question him, over actually endangering the life of at least one CIA agent, with a punitive information leak. There’s more evidence against Bush and Cheney for treason or espionage, in that regard, than against Snowden or even Assange, as he’s being prosecuted as if he were a citizen. Even Reagan had to profess that he “couldn’t recall” participating in the Iran-Contra scandal on CSPAN.
The contrast is stark between myself at 15 sitting in a NYC subway car reading the Times on my way to school -- believing in a functional Fourth Estate -- and the sickening feeling I get now from reading Matt, Stella's ad Chris' words.
Vanguard is the number one investor in the New York Times and The Washington Post. It is also a top owner of the weapons industry, big pharma, etc. Vanguard interlocks with many other corporations by owning stock in the companies and having interlocking boards of directors. These companies have the bulk of the wealth in the Western world, so they finance the political campaigns of the politicians that they want to get elected. This mega-conglomerate owns most, if not all infrastructural industries.
The newspapers, broadcast media and other forms of major public outreach are all owned by the same interests. Reporters work for the same people who own the weapons industry and control the politicians that lead us into war. It is a well oiled machine.
Chris, please take the time to investigate this, and use your platform to inform people! Please research this network. It is easy. I have done so with my laptop computer. Work to have the Sherman Antitrust Act enforced.
I don't know what to say except to be really terrified. A lot of us know we don't get the proper news but it seems people don't care. I have noticed The Guardian becoming more mainstream in the last few years and to be honest can't be bothered to read it.
I tried to bring up Julian Assange on WAPO under requests but so far nothing has been said.
I believe sharing this report to help the awakening of the people will help. And then massive demonstrations, boycotts, strikes and any other actions that will convince the present and future politicians that we had enough.
Many years ago there were those who warned against the corporatization of the media and now we see the end result.
Here in Canada the integrity of the media suffered an early death as we are a colonized country and content is shaved in service to the empire next door, as have our political parties been stripped of their identities. Now all our federal parties are a chorus of war mongers on the public dole.
America is lucky enough to have independent outlets speaking truth to power, also there is an international network of journalists getting the job done. They need our support in every way as they are the emerging alternative.
Not only have journalists abandoned Assange we the public have stood idly by and watched the collapse of a key democratic institution-free of the press. Assange won't be the last victim.
The resurrected fascism of the Western elites appears to have an unstoppable momentum?
Like all things neoliberal the Western media has been "privatized" is service to the despotic elites. The public must reclaim it.
stop it just stop it. 95% of media is owned by 6 corporations. those corporations are the propaganda ministry of the fascist empire. they have been for a very long time. you cannot say journalists "slit their own throats" that is a ridiculous statement anyway you look at it. the journalists who are covering julians case like you, matt taibbi, glen greenwald etc. are the investigative journalists. those working for the lame stream media are merely scribes writing what either they are told or writing what they know will ensure a paycheck. this is 5th generation warfare. it is all about the narrative. he who controls the narrative controls the mind. he who controls the mind is the most powerful.
so please stop saying they are "slitting their own throats" they are doing exactly what they are paid to do. as long as they do they will pay for the mortgage, kids school, kids braces, dance lessons, a college fund, retirement etc. all the while winning "journalism awards"
Yes, but the throat they are slitting is the one of the profession of journalism itself. Eventually nobody will believe any journalist. I believe that is the issue in the report.
I wrote a song for Julian and sent it to my Australian musician mates to play publicly at gigs..no response..even George Galloway in Moats only let me get half wat through it and then being hung up on..I went to my local government representative Tony Bourke leader or the House of Representatives for the current labour government in power in Australia at the moment. I grilled him on Julian Assange just like I told him i was going to...despite this during our discussion he still could not bring to mind "Chelsea Manning's" name ..this really showed me the government laisse attitufe to Julian's case. He used phrases such as "cant be saying anything that will harm Julian's case or look like we are telling the Americans what to do " when asked was he optimistic of Julian's release he said he was "hopeful"
It seems to me that other countries are more vocal and active than Australia which is a country that prides itself on "Mateship" and standing up for your mates makes me want to cry.
If Julian is hoping our government is working for him after we just bought 6 Nuclear armed submarines at the cost of 368 billion dollars from USA & UK governments and giving Ukraine an additional 110 million then I wish him the luck of the Irish.
Tony Bourke when asked by me to at least ease the horrible conditions in which Julian is being detained he told me Stephen Smith ( a weaselly looking lawyer from the labour government of the 80s acting as High Commissioner in UK was acting on it ..I later found out he is also an Albanese appointee to a mates job with the USA on military strategic policy ..so join the dots there.
I sincerely hope and pray for Julians imminent release.
Tell Hedges to get the hell off his sanctimonious soapbox ...
In this article he elaborates on how journalists failed us for not supporting Assange ... there was a time when he as in a position to call out other journalists for standing down on vitally important issues like the plight of Assange, but not anymore ... he's made a number of statements since the MAR '20 lock-downs which strongly suggest that if not bought-off, he has at least allowed himself to be intimidated into a state of selective silence ...
I've found his positions on the following issues to be real head-scratchers:
DIVISIVENESS - He's always been quick to point out the divisiveness among us, but in his recent May 20 piece on the TRUMP-RUSSIA CONSPIRACY THEORY, he chose to reach deep into his bag of wedge issues to deviously resurrect Trump and MAGA ... Hedges is actually a retired activist since the lockdowns ... he is now repelled by hard news and desperately clings to politically safe issues just to maintain his place in the independent media food chain ... and he will resort to divisive rhetoric whenever it suits him ...
In his otherwise terrific 2021 AMERICAN SADISM speech, he brazenly revealed his disdain for those of us who now openly question the motives and tactics of our elected officials ... at the 44:57 mark, he made the following extremely divisive comment ... he said the loss of the elite's credibility "has given rise to spontaneous groups, as well as the LUNATIC FRINGE that embraces conspiracy theories such as Q-ANON" ...
I happen to believe that 9/11 was an inside job, so does that make me a member of his lunatic fringe? ... well guess what, Chris Hedges is actually on record as saying as much ... after a 2014 speech, he was asked to comment on 9/11 and insulted our collective intelligence by saying "I don't want to get into conspiracy theories ... Bush was probably just asleep at the wheel" ...
ACCOUNTABILITY - I'd like Chris Hedges to explain ...
1) Why he refused to stand with the working class against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic he has only said: "it's a tough decision" ...
2) Why he brazenly took sides with big pharma to deftly push the "safe & effective" narrative on us just one month after the explosive FDA FOIA release:
On DEC 2, 2021 ...
The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's internal vax data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ... The FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years!
And then, just 30 days later ...
On JAN 1, 2022 ...
Chris Hedges made the following comment right here on SubStack on the Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast (Episode #54) - go to the 1:08:48 mark ...
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ...
He could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to play it safe and stand with big pharma ...
3) Why he suggested "everybody gets vaccinated" when about 2m after making that comment he actually said he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly, this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ... retired journalists who live with one foot in "their" world and only one foot in our world tend to say things like this ...
I have more, but I'll spare you ...
CENSORSHIP - I am here as a creation of the YouTube algorithm ... YT has been blocking and ghosting my carefully researched criticisms of Chris Hedges for the past two years ... and you might ask yourself why ... why would YT shield an avowed anti-corporate independent media figure from criticism? ... you can draw your own conclusions - I know I've drawn mine ...
I agree that Chris is wrong about 9/11, when it comes to the massive incongruities in the official story about WTC7. He should have said that this needs serious investigation. Chomsky was even worse about this, insulting someone in an audience who asked him a good question about it. For the life of me, I don't understand it.
But your other comments reveal that you are an anti-vaxxer or at least very unscientific, and hence irrational. Citing a few short sentences does not topple Chris Hedges in the minds of his readers, in the minds of we who have commented here on this piece, largely because you have shown yourself to be an unreliable narrator.
As imperfect as the official and ever-changing CDC and WHO doctrines were, the POINT was to find the best pandemic protocol for the situation. It was a moving target. Taiwan tried to follow the CDC and the WHO, and its population cooperated and didn't have imbecilic tantrums about losing their "freedom", and guess what, Mister Expert, they had 7 covid deaths during Trump's presidency, while Florida, with the same size population, had 24,000 deaths. Both places were high tech modern democracies with semi-tropical weather and aging populations.
Florida had 2 months to prepare, but fools with beliefs similar to yours made it hopeless. Taiwan, with frequent business flights back and forth between China every day, had zero warning time. Science wins, you lose.
Chris Hedges, a protege of Noam Chomsky, is taking over for Chomsky as America's Wiseman, period. He is not perfect. But he is brave and honest and incredibly intelligent, and he's the closest thing to an extraterrestrial sociologist/scientist, a brilliant observer with no dog in this fight, we've got. Your job is to somehow figure out how to put HIS truths into the minds and souls of working class people you know, who are almost universally brainwashed to the point of being severely crippled as human beings. So brainwashed that they GLADLY send their precious sons to fight and be maimed, captured, killed, or driven crazy, for corporations who HATE them! WTF?!
Please, make a distinction between accepting incongruity or even error, and “not minding at all”. For years many of us have wondered how Chomsky could accept the government line on the Kennedy assassination. But accepting this in him means neither that his myriad other contributions are nullified, nor that we don’t mind at all. These are complicated issues, and until certainty is established all theories about the assassinations, 9/11, or Covid and the vaccines are just theories. That means that we must keep working to establish them as facts.
My belief that COVID is a bioweapon IS NOT a theory ...
I've dropped the names of a few experts right here on Substack ...
You're asking me to be reasonable and now I'm expecting the same of you ... I challenge you to read the work of Dr, Ana Milhacea, MD PhD here on Substack.
You are not willing to have a serious conversation. If it were sports we're talking about, you might understand. The "score" was 7 to 24,000 deaths, and yet, again, like a zombie incapable of reason, you argue for anti-science. Taiwan had few deaths and was able to return to normal life quite quickly, while Florida and the whole USA suffered horrible casualties and huge socital disruption. I pity you and pray you can someday THINK again.
You may disagree with me, but you should not have to resort to calling me names ... I'm not here to annoy you ... you can get the unpleasant truth about the vax right here on Substack ... all of these people have huge followings: Karen Kingston, Steve Kirsch, Dr Ana Milhacea, MD PhD, Andreas Ohler I could go on ... if you feel it necessary to reply, please stop calling me names.
We are tired of your discussion of the vax/covid conspiracy. Everyone understands your position. You should be discussing the topic of this column, the persecution of Julian Assange!
Sorry, but I'm not going anywhere ... I will remain here and I'll be back .... Hedges writes articles about TRUMP-MAGA to further divide us, he pushed big pharma's" safe & effective" narrative when he knew better and in a recent article here on Substack he pushed the globalist's phony climate crisis narrative ... and now here he is again to talk about Assange ... as grossly unfair as the treatment of Assange has been, you'd have to stand on your head to make the case that the plight of Assange is a top-tier working class issue ... an unemployed and divorced mother of four never gives a thought to Assange and Hedges knows it! ... the Assange case has no direct bearing on her ability to find gainful employment at a living wage in a fair union environment ... but Hedges now clings to the Assange case because he has no left to go ...
Those people you cite are insane. Insanity has no respect for titles and degrees. One of the existential problems facing the world is that truth and facts have become meaningless to MOST of Earth's human population, including you. It's IMPOSSIBLE to run an ultra-complicated spaceship with 8 billion passengers on it with adults like you acting like children who still believe in Santa Claus.
I am willing to engage you anytime you have the facts to back up your side ... I started by giving you names and dates and times and places and direct quotes ... and you can't handle it ... those were his words, not mine ...
Jeff, I agree. The problem with many people today is that they are brainwashed by the very same media we are discussing today and, in addition, they don't understand the way that science works.
Dr. Priyamvada Natarajan in her book "Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos" explains:
"Given all this, why are we still witnessing the most vehement denial of science? In my opinion, what fuels rampant denialism is not lack of knowledge of scientific facts but rather ignorance about how science and scientific reasoning work. Pulling back the curtain on the scientific process for the public to watch and understand will quell the disbelief."
Thanks. And just think of the American kids who missed over a year of real school due to covid, and did their section on genetics, ecology, and political science on Zoom with a frazzled teacher who had no way of knowing they were scrolling on TikTok while attending her class.
One of the many simultaneously converging existential catastrophes barreling down on us is the loss of value of truth and facts in public discourse. Without adherence to truth and facts, it's IMPOSSIBLE to run a complicated spaceship with 8 billion passengers, especially when the passengers are managed by 10 major psychopathic captains who don't even have their hands on the controls because they're too busy getting passengers to fight one another to prop up their power and the power of the elites who support them!
True. And those American kids are getting further behind from the Chinese kids in Sciences and Mathematics, while we continue wasting our limited resources fighting the war in Ukraine instead of education. China must be celebrating our lack of good leadership.
Man, are you ever right!! I taught English conversation in a girl's high school for a summer in Taiwan 30 years ago, and I had 63 16-year-old Chinese (Taiwanese) girls in each of 9 classes. They were middle-class girls, and yet they ALL knew calculus and trigonometry, and many of them were nearly fluent in English, as well as speaking 2 or 3 dialects of Chinese (my wife, a high school teacher in Taiwan I met on an airplane over Thailand, speaks Hakka, Taiwanese, and Mandarin). During the last 5 minutes of class, 4 girls would suddenly get up, grab brooms, squeegees, and rags, and clean the classroom.
I returned home to my San Francisco Bay Area job as a high school substitute teacher, where I had 30 kids in each class, and it was like being in a zoo. It Taiwan, the kids came ready to work, but in the Bay Area (in several different cities -- Hayward, Richmond, Oakland, and Union City -- the kids came unprepared and had to spend at least 5 minutes finding someone who would share their book, borrowing pencils and paper, and getting settled down. Once we got going, there were always some who had a desperate need to go to the bathroom, for which I had to stop the class and write them a pass. I predicted there and then that the Chinese were going to beat us up and take our lunch money, and that's exactly what's happening.
When Bush became President in 2000, we were the only global megapower and had NO significant enemies. We had an 8-year window of time when we could have become a TRULY great country. But our government had already been completely bought and paid for by corporate power, and instead we re-created the Vietnam War, and now our country is terminally ill, to the point that we elected an insane con-man clown and have one mass shooting a day. Only 17% of Americans can name the 3 branches of government and 90% of the 3rd graders in Detroit read far below grade level.
Only by dialing down the military-industrial complex by about 75% do we have any hope of saving this terminal patient, our broken America.
You're right about China celebrating. Their civilization is about 7,000 years old and they are good chess players. They're following Napoeon's rule: "Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake."
Great experience. I'm glad that when you were teaching, the students didn't shoot at you. These days teaching has become a very dangerous profession. To add to the general ignorance, some conservative governors are banning history books and trying to eliminate our public schools.
rational conclusions require a foundation of evidence and logic.
You just suggested that YouTube and the Deep State conspired to protect Chris Hedges and censor your work: Post hoc ergo propter hoc - or conspiracy theory. Take your pick.
Think for a moment of the years that have been stolen from Julian Assange by various governments. And then look at the US government's reluctance to use the same tactics against Donald Trump. The contrast is striking and sickening. Assange deserves support and respect for exposing the crimes of Empire.
Soon! Very soon our democracy will be lost to totalitarianism. Mainstream media is simply government biased reporting. Like Trump. You lie long enough and begin to believe it as the truth
The ones who abandoned Julian aren’t journalists, Chris. They are Mockingbird propagandists.
You, Matt, and the other individuals standing up for Julian and the persecuted freedoms he represents are a dying breed, but it is my hope that your courageous examples will spark a renaissance of genuine journalism.
Chris, I recently dedicated my poem “Ode to a Whistleblower” to Daniel Ellsberg and Julian Assange, and I drew heavily from your extensive coverage of Julian’s case for the accompanying article:
• “Ode to a Whistleblower” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/ode-to-a-whistleblower)
Love Chris to pieces a favorite of mind since Occupy and far ahead of popular culture in his vision but not a dying breed except for legacy names on the resume. but a species of truth tellers raging back from extinction. Watch the Scheerpost video and *note the support for Julian in Australia now over 80% of Aussies want him home and view him as heroic.. Stela had a private audience w the Pope..
Washington Mafia has a globe full of enemies and corp "news" is dangerously close to having its disapproval dip into Congress territory in single digits.. scamdemic turned the tables now its ours to lose.. voices like yours emerged from far reaches of cyberspace as constellations of alternatives to central mantras bringing a new ecosystem of learning into being.
It also awakened a huge swath if the globe to the lies & frauds foisted upon us from fascist dictators posing as democratic representatives elected to be Public Servants but exposed as corp tools or worse. It is dire but my optimism has never been higher & thanks for your voice in the chorus!! <3
Fun flashback Mike Rartner Julian's lawyer Chris mentions in London event in one of my best Loraxlive shows Feb 2013 https://anonymous-france.info/michael-ratner-vanishing-rule-of-law-in-usa.html
Beautiful poem. The ending is sublime:
"We will trill your truth.
We will warble your song.
We will whistle your secret
to the world, until there are
too many of us to silence."
I wish "we" will continue supporting the whistle blowers and retract any allegiance from those guilty politicians.
Thank you so much, Julio, and I sincerely hope it can be used to help Julian and other brave journalists and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden.
I like your poem.
🙏
These are not journalists, but glorified fluffers to power, complete with fancy degrees, or Renaissance courtiers, but without the colorful outfits.
These so-called journalists sleep soundly at night, knowing that they never will utter or even think so much as a symbol that their masters would not approve of. Noam Chomsky's epic takedown of Andrew Marr was entirely on point.
Beat me to it my thoughts exactly these presstitutes have no claim to membership in The Fourth Estate nor any standing with claims to free speech or democracy. In the recent London event w Stela Assange & Matt Kennard posted at Scheerpost they agree its careerism not evil but I disagree. In my book the quote about evil persisting w too many silent is enough to say self serving comforts & cowardice get no absolution... eff em all!!
https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/08/video-the-death-of-journalism/
During an argument with a Colorado Public Radio reporter, in a bar, in Denver, in ~2009, I grilled her on the failure of the fourth estate in the US, re the Iraq War, the NYT, Valerie Plame, etc.
Her final blurted response: We knew we were going to war, whether people supported it or not, so we thought it would be better for the country, if the people supported it.
Does that sound like a CIA-coached talking point? If we were going to war, regardless of public opinion, in the nappies of the early aughts, what shreds of democracy are left to save now?
Obama didn’t prosecute Bush, nor did Congress even bother to question him, over actually endangering the life of at least one CIA agent, with a punitive information leak. There’s more evidence against Bush and Cheney for treason or espionage, in that regard, than against Snowden or even Assange, as he’s being prosecuted as if he were a citizen. Even Reagan had to profess that he “couldn’t recall” participating in the Iran-Contra scandal on CSPAN.
The contrast is stark between myself at 15 sitting in a NYC subway car reading the Times on my way to school -- believing in a functional Fourth Estate -- and the sickening feeling I get now from reading Matt, Stella's ad Chris' words.
Mr. Chris Hedges,
Vanguard is the number one investor in the New York Times and The Washington Post. It is also a top owner of the weapons industry, big pharma, etc. Vanguard interlocks with many other corporations by owning stock in the companies and having interlocking boards of directors. These companies have the bulk of the wealth in the Western world, so they finance the political campaigns of the politicians that they want to get elected. This mega-conglomerate owns most, if not all infrastructural industries.
The newspapers, broadcast media and other forms of major public outreach are all owned by the same interests. Reporters work for the same people who own the weapons industry and control the politicians that lead us into war. It is a well oiled machine.
Chris, please take the time to investigate this, and use your platform to inform people! Please research this network. It is easy. I have done so with my laptop computer. Work to have the Sherman Antitrust Act enforced.
I don't know what to say except to be really terrified. A lot of us know we don't get the proper news but it seems people don't care. I have noticed The Guardian becoming more mainstream in the last few years and to be honest can't be bothered to read it.
I tried to bring up Julian Assange on WAPO under requests but so far nothing has been said.
Keep talking to us.
Thank you.
What they’re doing to Julian breaks my heart wide open
I have cried many many tears for this HERO
He’s amazing and brave - and this situation alone makes it clear we are in the grips of world totalitarianism
How on EARTH can we win?
I used to have hope, but it’s fading
I cry a lot now
This honest reporting brought more despair and tears
I want to see a way out SO MUCH
But ...
Truly
How?
WHEN??
WHAT can be DONE?????
😰
I believe sharing this report to help the awakening of the people will help. And then massive demonstrations, boycotts, strikes and any other actions that will convince the present and future politicians that we had enough.
Many years ago there were those who warned against the corporatization of the media and now we see the end result.
Here in Canada the integrity of the media suffered an early death as we are a colonized country and content is shaved in service to the empire next door, as have our political parties been stripped of their identities. Now all our federal parties are a chorus of war mongers on the public dole.
America is lucky enough to have independent outlets speaking truth to power, also there is an international network of journalists getting the job done. They need our support in every way as they are the emerging alternative.
Not only have journalists abandoned Assange we the public have stood idly by and watched the collapse of a key democratic institution-free of the press. Assange won't be the last victim.
The resurrected fascism of the Western elites appears to have an unstoppable momentum?
Like all things neoliberal the Western media has been "privatized" is service to the despotic elites. The public must reclaim it.
The only purpose of censorship is to hide the truth.
'Yo mismo" excuse my ignorance but could you tell me who is the person in the picture and what is the gift?
stop it just stop it. 95% of media is owned by 6 corporations. those corporations are the propaganda ministry of the fascist empire. they have been for a very long time. you cannot say journalists "slit their own throats" that is a ridiculous statement anyway you look at it. the journalists who are covering julians case like you, matt taibbi, glen greenwald etc. are the investigative journalists. those working for the lame stream media are merely scribes writing what either they are told or writing what they know will ensure a paycheck. this is 5th generation warfare. it is all about the narrative. he who controls the narrative controls the mind. he who controls the mind is the most powerful.
so please stop saying they are "slitting their own throats" they are doing exactly what they are paid to do. as long as they do they will pay for the mortgage, kids school, kids braces, dance lessons, a college fund, retirement etc. all the while winning "journalism awards"
Yes, but the throat they are slitting is the one of the profession of journalism itself. Eventually nobody will believe any journalist. I believe that is the issue in the report.
I wrote a song for Julian and sent it to my Australian musician mates to play publicly at gigs..no response..even George Galloway in Moats only let me get half wat through it and then being hung up on..I went to my local government representative Tony Bourke leader or the House of Representatives for the current labour government in power in Australia at the moment. I grilled him on Julian Assange just like I told him i was going to...despite this during our discussion he still could not bring to mind "Chelsea Manning's" name ..this really showed me the government laisse attitufe to Julian's case. He used phrases such as "cant be saying anything that will harm Julian's case or look like we are telling the Americans what to do " when asked was he optimistic of Julian's release he said he was "hopeful"
It seems to me that other countries are more vocal and active than Australia which is a country that prides itself on "Mateship" and standing up for your mates makes me want to cry.
If Julian is hoping our government is working for him after we just bought 6 Nuclear armed submarines at the cost of 368 billion dollars from USA & UK governments and giving Ukraine an additional 110 million then I wish him the luck of the Irish.
Tony Bourke when asked by me to at least ease the horrible conditions in which Julian is being detained he told me Stephen Smith ( a weaselly looking lawyer from the labour government of the 80s acting as High Commissioner in UK was acting on it ..I later found out he is also an Albanese appointee to a mates job with the USA on military strategic policy ..so join the dots there.
I sincerely hope and pray for Julians imminent release.
Thank you !! An incredible effort and synthesis.
Tell Hedges to get the hell off his sanctimonious soapbox ...
In this article he elaborates on how journalists failed us for not supporting Assange ... there was a time when he as in a position to call out other journalists for standing down on vitally important issues like the plight of Assange, but not anymore ... he's made a number of statements since the MAR '20 lock-downs which strongly suggest that if not bought-off, he has at least allowed himself to be intimidated into a state of selective silence ...
I've found his positions on the following issues to be real head-scratchers:
DIVISIVENESS - He's always been quick to point out the divisiveness among us, but in his recent May 20 piece on the TRUMP-RUSSIA CONSPIRACY THEORY, he chose to reach deep into his bag of wedge issues to deviously resurrect Trump and MAGA ... Hedges is actually a retired activist since the lockdowns ... he is now repelled by hard news and desperately clings to politically safe issues just to maintain his place in the independent media food chain ... and he will resort to divisive rhetoric whenever it suits him ...
In his otherwise terrific 2021 AMERICAN SADISM speech, he brazenly revealed his disdain for those of us who now openly question the motives and tactics of our elected officials ... at the 44:57 mark, he made the following extremely divisive comment ... he said the loss of the elite's credibility "has given rise to spontaneous groups, as well as the LUNATIC FRINGE that embraces conspiracy theories such as Q-ANON" ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGCFVc-5yTM
I happen to believe that 9/11 was an inside job, so does that make me a member of his lunatic fringe? ... well guess what, Chris Hedges is actually on record as saying as much ... after a 2014 speech, he was asked to comment on 9/11 and insulted our collective intelligence by saying "I don't want to get into conspiracy theories ... Bush was probably just asleep at the wheel" ...
ACCOUNTABILITY - I'd like Chris Hedges to explain ...
1) Why he refused to stand with the working class against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic he has only said: "it's a tough decision" ...
2) Why he brazenly took sides with big pharma to deftly push the "safe & effective" narrative on us just one month after the explosive FDA FOIA release:
On DEC 2, 2021 ...
The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's internal vax data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ... The FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years!
And then, just 30 days later ...
On JAN 1, 2022 ...
Chris Hedges made the following comment right here on SubStack on the Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast (Episode #54) - go to the 1:08:48 mark ...
https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-54-audio-chris-hedges#detail
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ...
He could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to play it safe and stand with big pharma ...
3) Why he suggested "everybody gets vaccinated" when about 2m after making that comment he actually said he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly, this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ... retired journalists who live with one foot in "their" world and only one foot in our world tend to say things like this ...
I have more, but I'll spare you ...
CENSORSHIP - I am here as a creation of the YouTube algorithm ... YT has been blocking and ghosting my carefully researched criticisms of Chris Hedges for the past two years ... and you might ask yourself why ... why would YT shield an avowed anti-corporate independent media figure from criticism? ... you can draw your own conclusions - I know I've drawn mine ...
I agree that Chris is wrong about 9/11, when it comes to the massive incongruities in the official story about WTC7. He should have said that this needs serious investigation. Chomsky was even worse about this, insulting someone in an audience who asked him a good question about it. For the life of me, I don't understand it.
But your other comments reveal that you are an anti-vaxxer or at least very unscientific, and hence irrational. Citing a few short sentences does not topple Chris Hedges in the minds of his readers, in the minds of we who have commented here on this piece, largely because you have shown yourself to be an unreliable narrator.
As imperfect as the official and ever-changing CDC and WHO doctrines were, the POINT was to find the best pandemic protocol for the situation. It was a moving target. Taiwan tried to follow the CDC and the WHO, and its population cooperated and didn't have imbecilic tantrums about losing their "freedom", and guess what, Mister Expert, they had 7 covid deaths during Trump's presidency, while Florida, with the same size population, had 24,000 deaths. Both places were high tech modern democracies with semi-tropical weather and aging populations.
Florida had 2 months to prepare, but fools with beliefs similar to yours made it hopeless. Taiwan, with frequent business flights back and forth between China every day, had zero warning time. Science wins, you lose.
Chris Hedges, a protege of Noam Chomsky, is taking over for Chomsky as America's Wiseman, period. He is not perfect. But he is brave and honest and incredibly intelligent, and he's the closest thing to an extraterrestrial sociologist/scientist, a brilliant observer with no dog in this fight, we've got. Your job is to somehow figure out how to put HIS truths into the minds and souls of working class people you know, who are almost universally brainwashed to the point of being severely crippled as human beings. So brainwashed that they GLADLY send their precious sons to fight and be maimed, captured, killed, or driven crazy, for corporations who HATE them! WTF?!
Jeff, the science actually makes it very clear that the vax is a bioweapon ...
Hedges had sufficient reason to at least not take sides on the vax, but he did it anyway ...
I continue to be amazed at how people could so blithely dismiss the FDA FOIA release ...
But Hedges knows his flock and he knew you wouldn't mind at all ...
Please, make a distinction between accepting incongruity or even error, and “not minding at all”. For years many of us have wondered how Chomsky could accept the government line on the Kennedy assassination. But accepting this in him means neither that his myriad other contributions are nullified, nor that we don’t mind at all. These are complicated issues, and until certainty is established all theories about the assassinations, 9/11, or Covid and the vaccines are just theories. That means that we must keep working to establish them as facts.
My belief that COVID is a bioweapon IS NOT a theory ...
I've dropped the names of a few experts right here on Substack ...
You're asking me to be reasonable and now I'm expecting the same of you ... I challenge you to read the work of Dr, Ana Milhacea, MD PhD here on Substack.
You are not willing to have a serious conversation. If it were sports we're talking about, you might understand. The "score" was 7 to 24,000 deaths, and yet, again, like a zombie incapable of reason, you argue for anti-science. Taiwan had few deaths and was able to return to normal life quite quickly, while Florida and the whole USA suffered horrible casualties and huge socital disruption. I pity you and pray you can someday THINK again.
You may disagree with me, but you should not have to resort to calling me names ... I'm not here to annoy you ... you can get the unpleasant truth about the vax right here on Substack ... all of these people have huge followings: Karen Kingston, Steve Kirsch, Dr Ana Milhacea, MD PhD, Andreas Ohler I could go on ... if you feel it necessary to reply, please stop calling me names.
We are tired of your discussion of the vax/covid conspiracy. Everyone understands your position. You should be discussing the topic of this column, the persecution of Julian Assange!
"WE are tired ..."
How on earth do you presume to speak for others?
Sorry, but I'm not going anywhere ... I will remain here and I'll be back .... Hedges writes articles about TRUMP-MAGA to further divide us, he pushed big pharma's" safe & effective" narrative when he knew better and in a recent article here on Substack he pushed the globalist's phony climate crisis narrative ... and now here he is again to talk about Assange ... as grossly unfair as the treatment of Assange has been, you'd have to stand on your head to make the case that the plight of Assange is a top-tier working class issue ... an unemployed and divorced mother of four never gives a thought to Assange and Hedges knows it! ... the Assange case has no direct bearing on her ability to find gainful employment at a living wage in a fair union environment ... but Hedges now clings to the Assange case because he has no left to go ...
Those people you cite are insane. Insanity has no respect for titles and degrees. One of the existential problems facing the world is that truth and facts have become meaningless to MOST of Earth's human population, including you. It's IMPOSSIBLE to run an ultra-complicated spaceship with 8 billion passengers on it with adults like you acting like children who still believe in Santa Claus.
I am willing to engage you anytime you have the facts to back up your side ... I started by giving you names and dates and times and places and direct quotes ... and you can't handle it ... those were his words, not mine ...
Jeff, I agree. The problem with many people today is that they are brainwashed by the very same media we are discussing today and, in addition, they don't understand the way that science works.
Dr. Priyamvada Natarajan in her book "Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos" explains:
"Given all this, why are we still witnessing the most vehement denial of science? In my opinion, what fuels rampant denialism is not lack of knowledge of scientific facts but rather ignorance about how science and scientific reasoning work. Pulling back the curtain on the scientific process for the public to watch and understand will quell the disbelief."
Thanks. And just think of the American kids who missed over a year of real school due to covid, and did their section on genetics, ecology, and political science on Zoom with a frazzled teacher who had no way of knowing they were scrolling on TikTok while attending her class.
One of the many simultaneously converging existential catastrophes barreling down on us is the loss of value of truth and facts in public discourse. Without adherence to truth and facts, it's IMPOSSIBLE to run a complicated spaceship with 8 billion passengers, especially when the passengers are managed by 10 major psychopathic captains who don't even have their hands on the controls because they're too busy getting passengers to fight one another to prop up their power and the power of the elites who support them!
True. And those American kids are getting further behind from the Chinese kids in Sciences and Mathematics, while we continue wasting our limited resources fighting the war in Ukraine instead of education. China must be celebrating our lack of good leadership.
Man, are you ever right!! I taught English conversation in a girl's high school for a summer in Taiwan 30 years ago, and I had 63 16-year-old Chinese (Taiwanese) girls in each of 9 classes. They were middle-class girls, and yet they ALL knew calculus and trigonometry, and many of them were nearly fluent in English, as well as speaking 2 or 3 dialects of Chinese (my wife, a high school teacher in Taiwan I met on an airplane over Thailand, speaks Hakka, Taiwanese, and Mandarin). During the last 5 minutes of class, 4 girls would suddenly get up, grab brooms, squeegees, and rags, and clean the classroom.
I returned home to my San Francisco Bay Area job as a high school substitute teacher, where I had 30 kids in each class, and it was like being in a zoo. It Taiwan, the kids came ready to work, but in the Bay Area (in several different cities -- Hayward, Richmond, Oakland, and Union City -- the kids came unprepared and had to spend at least 5 minutes finding someone who would share their book, borrowing pencils and paper, and getting settled down. Once we got going, there were always some who had a desperate need to go to the bathroom, for which I had to stop the class and write them a pass. I predicted there and then that the Chinese were going to beat us up and take our lunch money, and that's exactly what's happening.
When Bush became President in 2000, we were the only global megapower and had NO significant enemies. We had an 8-year window of time when we could have become a TRULY great country. But our government had already been completely bought and paid for by corporate power, and instead we re-created the Vietnam War, and now our country is terminally ill, to the point that we elected an insane con-man clown and have one mass shooting a day. Only 17% of Americans can name the 3 branches of government and 90% of the 3rd graders in Detroit read far below grade level.
Only by dialing down the military-industrial complex by about 75% do we have any hope of saving this terminal patient, our broken America.
You're right about China celebrating. Their civilization is about 7,000 years old and they are good chess players. They're following Napoeon's rule: "Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake."
Great experience. I'm glad that when you were teaching, the students didn't shoot at you. These days teaching has become a very dangerous profession. To add to the general ignorance, some conservative governors are banning history books and trying to eliminate our public schools.
rational conclusions require a foundation of evidence and logic.
You just suggested that YouTube and the Deep State conspired to protect Chris Hedges and censor your work: Post hoc ergo propter hoc - or conspiracy theory. Take your pick.
Yes, among other things, that's exactly what I'm saying ...
And you can't handle it!
We’re all journalists/the press now… besides, millionaire newsman just don’t have the hustle to find stories!
Think for a moment of the years that have been stolen from Julian Assange by various governments. And then look at the US government's reluctance to use the same tactics against Donald Trump. The contrast is striking and sickening. Assange deserves support and respect for exposing the crimes of Empire.
Soon! Very soon our democracy will be lost to totalitarianism. Mainstream media is simply government biased reporting. Like Trump. You lie long enough and begin to believe it as the truth
Truth. Tough to control people efficiently when they are allowed to hear and speak the truth.