The Indictment of Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalism

Re:The Indictment of Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalism by cedivad on Saturday April 13, 2019 @12:30PM (#19653959)

I have to say, this makes me sad. I visit HN daily, mostly look at the headlines and rarely engage in the discussion, but seeing what are supposed to be smart, thinking people commenting in here just saddens me. Same goes for the other 1k+ comments on the previous thread.

It seems you people think it's ok to have someone end up like this guy for helping a source get us information we all benefited from. You can say trying to protect this source's identity is conspiracy to commit computer hacking, but your head needs to be buried very deep into the sand to pretend this is anything but the excuse used to get him.

The actual crime here is holding governments accountable. Trying, at least.

I understand most of you didn't love him for exposing problems inside a political party otherwise set to win the election. I really do. I understand he didn't do much to be loved by the public. I understand 10 years of propaganda could make most people change their mind about a saint. But here, too?

I listened to his most recent interview today and I really enjoyed his views. I half expect people to point out this is Russian state media, and yes, the reds are out to get you but can listen to it in the background, that way the watermark can't bother you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J98ed6oML2A

I lost one fifth of my karma yesterday defending the guy, let's see if this comment goes the same way.

Edit: funny enough my comment went to -3 in no time before slowing crawling its way back to +1. Almost like if... Nah.

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Re:The Indictment of Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalism by erentz on Saturday April 13, 2019 @02:03PM (#19654640)

I agree with your sentiment of disappointment in the general response on HN to this. And I also have the same disappointment in the general media's response. I thought Tulsi Gabbard's defense of Assange to Tapper on CNN was spot on, and can't believe it's up to a few politicians to defend journalism on a news network instead of the news network itself.

The previous Obama administration went very hard against whistle blowers, but even they ultimately decided that prosecuting Assange for this would be a step too far.

What's happening seems to be people don't like him for various reasons (fair enough), are blind to the larger issues and chilling effects caused by this prosecution, and so with motivated reasoning decide this is not about politics and is about hacking, he's a bad hacker who tried to crack a Government password, and they're just standing up for some principal of not trying to hack Govt passwords or some such.

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Re:The Indictment of Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalism by viivaux on Saturday April 13, 2019 @05:10PM (#19655766)

Would you mind telling me the gist of his comment? Was there a good reason for flagging it?

I could have sworn that you used to be able to still read [flagged] comments here. When did that change, or am I misremembering?

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Re:The Indictment of Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalism by kpU8efre7r on Sunday April 14, 2019 @12:10PM (#19660195)

What is your alternative? People you personally like are not allowed to face legal action?

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