God Bless Jim Acosta’s Lunch Pass
While Julian Assange rots to death, the so-called press plays dress up.
In 2018, Jim Acosta was banned from the White House press corps for a time. The reason? He confronted Trump about the overblown Latin American “invasion” story at the border (interesting that he doesn’t question Biden). However, when I saw the exchange I thought Acosta was behaving like a spoiled asshole, eager for his sound bite. I agree wholeheartedly in relentlessness where politicians are involved. They’re not our friends, nor are they a spirit animal or celebrity. They work for us. After asking several questions in a row, and having them answered, Acosta kept going at the expense of other journalists in the room and had clearly run out of gas himself. Now, he was just being rude.
Trump had him booted from the White House press room. The mainstream press was in a rich lather, running around, hair on fire, that we were becoming a fascist state. Two main things that they love to ignore; a) had this been Barack Obama facing down a Fox or Sky News reporter, the reaction would have been quite different and b) true press freedom was under attack in the continued imprisonment of one Julian Assange. Of course, it’s not CNN, NPR or MSNBC’s job to actually perform the feat of journalism, so I have to stop expecting that.
In February, 1996, Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act. Since 1934, the main point of that legislation was to prevent any one person or company from possessing a monopoly and subject to anti-trust laws. Wm. Randolph Hearst notwithstanding, this worked. In 1996, there were over two hundred media companies. Now, there’s only five. They own and run everything we see, read, and hear on the internet or radio. They own newspapers, magazines, cable and the internet. They can ban, de-platform and jail anyone they see fit. That, of course, wasn’t in the bill. It’s the direct result of what this kind of unchecked consolidation can and is doing.
Hence, Julian Assange. This week, UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel approved the request of the U.S. to extradite Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Before we continue it is imperative to note that, since it’s foundation in 2006, the publisher has never had to print a retraction, or gotten a story wrong. Also, I find it interesting that when they busted the war crimes of the Bush administration, Assange had his own Ted Talks. He went after Obama and was chased into the Ecuadorian embassy, years before he broke the Hilary Clinton emails.
Of course, they can and will appeal. However, it’s pure evil and criminal to keep someone not charged by the UK government in Belmarsh Prison, while the U.S. does its damndest to extradite him for the crime of journalism. After his physical and mental health deterioration, he’s facing 175 years in jail. Why? He embarrassed the American war machine. An important note here; no nation is speaking up on his behalf. Of course, the usual U.S. lapdog suspects, Israel, most of South and Central America, and the EU, are quiet. But so are most of the African nations, the middle east, China and Russia. Understand, Wikileaks has exposed their chicanery as well. It’s a long list.
Sadly, the typical, chewy blue toddler, so-called liberal thinks this is about 2016 and Hilary Clinton losing to an orange game show host. One thing their failed logic makes laughable is that she won the popular vote. So, how did Putin and Assange rig the Electoral College? Yeah, kind of like listening to a four year old explain how the Martians came and ate all the cookies before dinner. I guess we could just ask Jim Acosta.
As I always say in these tender moments, quit watching TV.
Abe Abdelhadi hosts the Bitter Truth with Abe Abdelhadi on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
If the country exists in more or less of its originally intended form for another hundred yrs Assange will be a national hero/martyr
Yep.