The Lesson of Salman Rushdie's Stabbing for an Increasingly Censorious U.S.

[AUFAN78 3,890]

Preach!

https://www.newsweek.com/lesson-salman-rushdies-stabbing-increasingly-censorious-us-opinion-1734252

[AUDub 11,131]

This is a pretty stupid article. Let's start with this one.

Quote

Consider the case of Julian Assange, who has been held in traumatic captivity for the last decade and is undergoing extradition to be punished in the United States—all for the crime of exposing civil rights abuses and government corruption. Assange's WikiLeaks released classified footage of U.S. military human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealing information on the extent of civilian casualties that were previously unknown to the public. For this, he is considered a criminal

There's more to it than that.

The problem is Assange leaked a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with war crimes and compromised a lot of agents and assets, with some of those informants having never been heard from again. Exposing war crimes is one thing, leaking national secrets along with them and claiming you're just doing it to expose war crimes is another. He put a lot of people in danger.

There's a word for what he did, Espionage. You can't just do that and claim you were doing a journalism. 

[AUFAN78 3,890]

1 hour ago, AUDub said:

This is a pretty stupid article. Letn s start with this one.

There's more to it than that.

The problem is Assange leaked a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with war crimes and compromised a lot of agents and assets, with some of those informants having never been heard from again. Exposing war crimes is one thing, leaking national secrets along with them and claiming you're just doing it to expose war crimes is another. He put a lot of people in danger.

There's a word for what he did, Espionage. You can't just do that and claim you were doing a journalism. 

In your opinion and you are cherry picking to boot.

And like this author many agree and argue the case regarding Assange to include New York Times, CNN, AP, The CATO Institute, Stephen Vladek professor Univ of Texas School of Law, Suzanne Nossel of PEN America, Eva Jolly magistrate and MEP, Sevim Dagdelem a German Bundestag MP who specializes in international law and press law, Dick Marty, a former attorney general of Ticino and rapporteur on the CIA's secret prisons for the Council of Europe, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Independent United Nations rights expert Agnes Callamard,  Amnesty International's Massimo Moratti,  Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch,  The Times,  American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),  Reporters Without Borders,  Human Rights Watch,  Freedom of the Press Foundation, The French Union of Journalists, The Guardian, HuffPost, The Nation, to name a few. 

The Obama administration had debated charging Assange under the Espionage Act but decided against it out of fear that it would have a negative effect on investigative journalism and could be unconstitutional. 

The New York Times commented that it and other news organizations obtained the same documents as WikiLeaks, also without government authorization. It also said it is not clear how WikiLeaks' publications are legally different from other publications of classified information.

The Associated Press said Assange's indictment presented media freedom issues, as Assange's solicitation and publication of classified information is something journalists routinely do.

Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, stated that what Assange is accused of doing is factually different from, but legally similar to what professional journalists do.

Ben Wizner from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) speculated that if authorities were to prosecute Assange "for violating US secrecy laws [it] would set an especially dangerous precedent for US journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest.

According to Ron Paul, Assange should receive the same kind of protections as the mainstream media when it comes to releasing information. He said "In a free society we're supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble." 

[AUDub 11,131]

46 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

In your opinion and you are cherry picking to boot.

I'm not. People literally died due to Assange. Ask the Turkish opposition to Erdogan. 

[AUDub 11,131]

5 minutes ago, AUDub said:

I'm not. People literally died due to Assange. Ask the Turkish opposition to Erdogan. 

Or the homosexuals in Saudi Arabia, or the Jews in Baghdad. 

Some stuff is kept secret for a damn good reason. 

[AUDub 11,131]

The thing that's really going to hang him is the revelation that he provided assistance to Manning to perform the hack. That's what the indictment actually hinges on.

That’s like a “journalist” giving a bank robber a vault key and then publishing what the banker robber stole. That's a very big no no from a journalistic ethics standpoint.

Most of the allegations are 1st amendment muddy waters. The government hinging the case on theft makes things much clearer. 

[homersapien 11,354]

8 hours ago, AUDub said:

Or the homosexuals in Saudi Arabia, or the Jews in Baghdad. 

Some stuff is kept secret for a damn good reason. 

Revelation of means and sources is a threat that many (nonprofessional) people tend to ignore.

This is often more critical than the actual information that is leaked. 

[AUDub 11,131]

Quote

Moreover, the Biden administration also has incredibly close ties to Saudi Arabia, despite the country's notoriously undemocratic regime, which ordered a targeted killing of a journalist critical of the Saudi ruling family. President Biden abandoned his 2020 campaign promise to "turn the Saudis into pariahs" in order to appease the regime and to make up for energy deficits in the face of hostilities with Russia.

That unfortunately was always going to happen.

We maintain ties with the Saudi's pretty much because we have to, for both economic and diplomatic reasons. Economically because Americans like their stable oil prices, diplomatically because they form an important part of the bulwark against Iran (a bulwark that includes Israel, btw, who has been quietly cozy with Saudi Arabia for quite some time).

The human rights abuses are awful, and we are pushing them to modernize, but there's really no other option other than to not engage with them diplomatically at all, which is a ridiculous proposition on its face. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by AUDub

[homersapien 11,354]

30 minutes ago, AUDub said:

That unfortunately was always going to happen.

We maintain ties with the Saudi's pretty much because we have to, for both economic and diplomatic reasons. Economically because Americans like their stable oil prices, diplomatically because they form an important part of the bulwark against Iran (a bulwark that includes Israel, btw, who has been quietly cozy with Saudi Arabia for quite some time).

The human rights abuses are awful, and we are pushing them to modernize, but there's really no other option other than to not engage with them diplomatically at all, which is a ridiculous proposition on its face. 

As much as I hate it, I have to agree. 

Realpolitik is a bitch, but nevertheless necessary, at least sometimes.

Edited August 19, 2022 by homersapien

[CoffeeTiger 5,084]

This writer sure was wildly grabbing random things out of the air for this piece. 

 

It's like she was handed the assignment, "Write a story comparing the Salman stabbing to Democrats...and it's due in an hour"

 

welp...uhhh......how about Assange? We can blame Democrats for that...and uhh. Chapelle was attacked one time by a mentally unstable homeless man, that's basically the same thing....and uhh.....Democrats control social media!...yeah, Republicans already believe that conspiracy, so throw that in there and compare it to Iran...

 

uhh.yeah...so in conclusion Democrats are going in the same direction of Iran and SA, and Biden is authoritarian.

 

 

 

 

 

[AUDub 11,131]

Looked her up. She's a bit of an idiot. Watch this and die a little inside. 

 

[AUDub 11,131]

11 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

This writer sure was wildly grabbing random things out of the air for this piece. 

 

It's like she was handed the assignment, "Write a story comparing the Salman stabbing to Democrats...and it's due in an hour"

 

welp...uhhh......how about Assange? We can blame Democrats for that...and uhh. Chapelle was attacked one time by a mentally unstable homeless man, that's basically the same thing....and uhh.....Democrats control social media!...yeah, Republicans already believe that conspiracy, so throw that in there and compare it to Iran...

 

uhh.yeah...so in conclusion Democrats are going in the same direction of Iran and SA, and Biden is authoritarian.

My main concern is when did Newsweek become a blog for people with stupid takes trying to be edgier than a razorblade factory? 

[Didba 5,256]

1 hour ago, AUDub said:

Looked her up. She's a bit of an idiot. Watch this and die a little inside. 

 

I refuse to watch

[Didba 5,256]

57 minutes ago, AUDub said:

My main concern is when did Newsweek become a blog for people with stupid takes trying to be edgier than a razorblade factory? 

It sells to the dum-dums

[AUFAN78 3,890]

11 hours ago, AUDub said:

I'm not. People literally died due to Assange. Ask the Turkish opposition to Erdogan. 

So you are concerned with the people that die due to Manning, but okay with those dying due to cancel culture? Makes sense. 

[AUDub 11,131]

44 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

So you are concerned with the people that die due to Manning, but okay with those dying due to cancel culture? Makes sense. 

*Jew as they're getting stoned to death in the square in some podunk Iraqi town*

"Well it could be worse. I could be getting ratio'd on Twitter right now"

Edited August 19, 2022 by AUDub

[Leftfield 2,585]

3 minutes ago, AUDub said:

*Jew as they're getting stoned to death in the square in some podunk Iraqi town*

"Well it could be worse. I could be getting ratio'd on Twitter right now"

That's funny as hell.

[AUDub 11,131]

3 hours ago, Leftfield said:

That's funny as hell.

I have my moments lol