I spend a lot of time on Twitter defending WikiLeaks and Julian Assange from media lies. I wrote this story to help others see why it’s necessary, and how to do it. This is just one recent episode. Sadly, it never ends. The good news is there’s a wonderful online community ready to help. Join the fight for truth and justice. Get involved! Follow @WLTaskForce and hashtag #DefendWL.
When I saw this tweet from from an Australian ABC News journo, I knew there was trouble ahead:
The link was to rightwing US racist David Duke, a former Klu Klux Klan leader, thanking WikiLeaks for exposing Hillary Clinton.
Of course rightwing voters have been going apeshit over WikiLeaks during the US election campaign, because Julian Assange’s brave team of truth-tellers are the only thing keeping their candidate Donald Trump in the race. But that doesn’t mean WikiLeaks supports Trump, or welcomes endorsements from bigots like Duke. Sadly, the media have continually been making such false links. So I jumped in to head off any possible trouble (bottom tweet first):
Next morning however, despite my efforts, I woke up to this blatant lie: “WikiLeaks supporting Donald Trump”!
The interviewee, a failed London Labour councillor named Michael Harris, had recently published a lie-filled smear attack on Julian Assange in The Independent newspaper. I knew about it because I had tried in vain to get him to fix his lies at the time. Yes, I do spend a fair bit of time on Twitter doing this shit.
WikiLeaks had already jumped in:
I was outraged:
So were lots of other people on Twitter. I repeated the tweets I had sent to Michael Harris and the Independent (citing the key resource justice4assange.com), hoping Matthew Bevan and ABC News would have the good sense to cancel the interview.
But Bevan seemed more excited about the prospect of getting the famous Julian Assange on his show:
Bevan pretended he hadn’t ignored my tweets:
But his own tweet had already condemned him:
By this time many other WikiLeaks supporters, including @FlickRubicon and @GreekEmmy, were already adding their voices. It was too late to stop the interview from airing, but discerning listeners were unimpressed:
So what did we achieve? Well, for one thing, we let the bastards know their lies were being noticed. We also got a chance for a WikiLeaks spokesperson to respond on air the following day:
And of course we energized the Twitter community with some wonderful Truth-telling goodness! Sadly, Mr Bevan continued complaining that he was the victim of abusive tweets.
Multi award-winning journalist Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained (per UN ruling) in the UK for nearly six years, including ten days solitary confinement in Wandsworth Prison, his reputation has been trashed repeatedly by global media, his family have suffered immensely, and he has faced multiple calls for his assassination from senior US politicians. But Matthew Bevan is the victim here? Cry me a river.
UPDATE: ABC Breakfast radio received “over 300 angry tweets” in response to their interview with Michael Harris. You can listen to their follow up interview with a WikiLeaks supporter here.
As I said at the start, this is just one example of media spreading lies about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. It happens every day, all round the world. WikiLeaks represents a serious threat to the status quo, exposing the corruption of politicians and corporations. They are constantly targeted by journalists who choose to act as stenographers and gate-keepers of power. While these so-called journalists survive in their jobs at the mercy of the boardroom, WikiLeaks is 100% funded by people like you and me. Please help keep them strong.
