Re: <nettime> The Guardian's Summary of Julian Assange's Interview Went Viral and

["C.Robbins" <cpr@mindspring.com>]

Without question the article on Assange was the epitomy of "bad journalism", "Fake news" or whatever trending tagline one wishes to assign to biased delivery of, and 24/7 consumption of propaganda ... and, yes, Ben Jacobs, accompanied by thousands of other "journalists", should be hung out to dry by his virtual thumbs.

I am extremely grateful to Greenwald for calling this and also assigning proper credit to the original interview.  This may be a hope against hope but perhaps it will offer a modicum of relief to the onslaught what we in the States are experiencing ... and certainly what is to come - as the days (daze) of our lives will be scripted by conspiracy theorists and fake news ( we really do need a better term for this. ) 

What is problematic ( and deeply disturbing to me as I have always reapected Greenwald's views)  is his own thinly veiled bias and, perhaps, blindness to some of the more vile and damning aspects Trump's behavior and speech ( as per Assange) by not offering any other critique:

> In fact, Assange says Trump ?is part of the wealthy ruling elite of
> the United States? who ?is gathering around him a spectrum of other
> rich people and several idiosyncratic personalities.? The fact that
> Assange sees possibility for exploiting the resulting instability for
> positive outcomes, along with being fearful about ?change for the
> worse,? makes him exactly like pretty much every political and media
> organization that is opportunistically searching for ways to convert
> the Trumpian dark cloud into some silver lining


I simply don't assume that Trump is "exactly like pretty much every political or media organization" - far from it.  Those very assumptions contributed to his rise.  With his electoral victory and inauguration, the USA will have lost whatever laminate of democracy - the promise that much of its populace clung to.  Within that loss and subsequent vacuum, there is nothing to replace it other than Trump's autocratic reach  ... or that of the global oligarchy.

Chris


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