Murdoch media steps up Assange smears, calls him a 'work-shy fraud'

Monday, 22 April 2024 09:16

Murdoch media steps up Assange smears, calls him a 'work-shy fraud' Featured

By Sam Varghese

Image by hafteh7 from Pixabay

News Corporation has stepped up its attacks on WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, publishing two articles over the weekend about all the alleged faults of the jailed activist.

One piece, by Alan Howe, a Murdoch veteran, started off by saying: "Julian Assange is a criminal, a fabulist and an undisciplined, arrogant work-shy fraud who lacks an education while remaining a mannerless vulgarian."

The second piece, by Michael Ware a former CNN war correspondent. and Justine Rosenthal, a former executive editor of Newsweek, called for Assange's release but only after considerable criticism of the Australian.

Howe wrote that Assange's "betrayals raise him into treason’s hall of fame alongside Norway’s Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, the Gunpowder Plot’s Guy Fawkes, and Marshal Philippe Petain who led Vichy France".

Exactly why these two articles appeared now is difficult to judge, apart from the fact that Britain is in the process of deciding whether to extradite Assange to the US or not.

A decision is due by 20 May. Assange came up before the UK High Court on 20 and 21 March seeking leave to make a full appeal against his extradition; the only outcome was that the judges sought more assurances from the US before making a decision on whether to give him another chance to make a full appeal.

The US provided assurances last week, but these were dismissed by the Assange camp as being insufficient.

Ware is the same reporter who was involved in a love triangle in Baghdad in 2008, with Lara Logan, then a CBS employee, and Joe Burkett, a married US State Department employee.

Ware and Rosenthal wrote: "As the old fable tells us, when a fearful frog reluctantly agrees to help a scorpion cross a river, the deadly scorpion promises not to strike and poison the amiable frog.

"When he does kill the frog, the scorpion merely professes, 'I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s my character'.

"Is it finally the time to put the tedium of the traitor Julian Assange behind us or is he the unrepentant scorpion?"

They ended by writing: "Though deterrence must always be heavily weighed, to extradite him to the US now is to merely continue the Assange media spectacle, furthering his own self-aggrandisement – with a healthy sprinkle of victimisation.

"But if the scorpion cannot resist the urge to strike again, will he once more profess, 'It’s my character'? In releasing Assange, we will again test his true nature."

Read 1 times

IDC WHITE PAPER: The Business Value of Aiven Data Cloud Solutions

DOWNLOAD WHITE PAPER!

PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE

MORE INFO HERE!