Obama has/has a lot of power. Obama may not have given a list like this, but he didn’t need to. He was able to say “this isn’t true” and he has enough followers that the message will have the effect of combating falsehood.

Assange doesn’t have that. This is an odd little release, but you’ve gotta consider more than “public figure” and look into what means the public figure has to get a message out.