June 12, 2011 journal, CNN today aired the story of Julian Assange founder of wikileaks. Rather than celebrate & decorate Assange the government's going to prosecute him under a 200 year-old so-called espionage law they have used to prosecute other whistleblowers. This is a criminal government and no surprise they do not want their secrets to be shown. The rocketing of a van carrying women and children by an Apache helicopter is murder 1. They probably do not have film of the many atrocities committed by the Predator Drones. Here as the transcribed text of the CNN report of this date, Assange is a hero in my book. "CNN's ballyhooed WikiWars: The Mission of Julian Assange special airing this Sunday evening is an odd amalgam, blending quick cuts, pounding music, and a casually dressed host (at left below) with an attempt at a serious overview of WikiLeaks. Yet, like the recent PBS Frontline probe, it is unbalanced. " > "This is a list of Assange / WikiLeaks critics interviewed (and quoted more than once): David Leigh, Nick Davies, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Adrian Lamo, Brigadier Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt (Ret.). Here is a list of Assange / WikiLeaks supporters interviewed: one unnamed and masked allegedly activist from Anonymous. Other critics who get face time: Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, even Newt Gingrich. Like the PBS Frontline producers, the CNN team appears to believe that quoting Assange alone balances a brigade of critics. This, of course, is silly. Many viewers, naturally, take anything the subject of criticism says with huge grains of salt especially when no one else rises to his or her defense (besides figures in masks). In addition, the hour-long film focuses on WikiLeaks revelations regarding Iraq and Afghanistan - with plenty of time for repudiations - with scant mention of Cablegate, which swung open more than six months ago. And it's amazing the time, talent and resources that poured into both the Frontline and now CNN specials, with virtually no fresh news or insight gained. The correspondent / host Kaj Larsen, whose credibility has been questioned by some based on his 10-year military background, partly as a Navy SEAL, appears to bend over backward to be fair here (and in his current essay at CNN site) but the deck is still stacked in the film. He even cites his own military background in a chat with Gen. Kimmitt but inevitably gives the general the last word in strong denunciations of Assange and WikiLeaks. Larsen clearly aims to appeal to a younger demographic, as he is dressed throughout in tight t-shirt, or shirt hanging out of pants, and/or pea coat. He fails to interview Assange but stands outside a court house and gushes, "I just caught my first glimpse of Julian Assange." The closest we get to the WikiLeaks leader is in informal footage ("rare candid moments" ) shot by freelance journalist Mark Davis during Assange's pre-rock star travels. We even get to see him in happier times working with allies-turned-critics Leigh and Davies inside The Guardian bunker. Actually the first words from Assange in the program, as he enters a press gathering, are a bleeped out "holy shit." Larsen says he is leading "a whistleblowing insurgency" as "a maverick and game changer." His goal: "a new world order....on a mission to change the world one week at time." We briefly visit Julian's boyhood home on Magnetic Island. Assange recalls that he once sold his horse to buy a computer. Then on to his arrest as a pony-tailed teenage hacker. For the many Americans who think WikiLeaks began only last year and as an anti-American organization, we get some helpful background info on the positive leaks relating to Kenya and woeful Icelandic bank. Then we get a few glimpses of the Collateral Murder video from Baghdad but Larsen allows Gen. Kimmit to not only fully absolve the conduct of U.S. troops - the general even charges that the Reuters photographer "shares much of the blame" for his own death for daring to use a long-range lens that could be mistaken for a weapon. The nerve of that guy! The blasting of a van carrying the wounded and children from that scene? It could have had "fighters" inside who might have killed our soldiers, Gen. Kimmit explains. This might be the closest host Larsen has come to torture since he willingly underwent waterboarding back in his Current TV days. For a change, it is Davies, not Leigh, who gets to claim that Assange said that if informers were killed it was no big deal because they may "deserve to die." Although Davies, unlike Leigh, says that Assange said this "in effect," which seems to qualify the quote (Assange denies saying it and keeps promising legal action). Gen. Kimmitt hits Assange's claim that no one has yet been harmed by the war leaks by saying that surely U.S. troops have been put at risk. Domscheit-Berg agrees with Davies' assessment that Assange is a hypocrite for protesting The Guardian publishing leaks of lurid police docs on the Swedish sex case. Then it's on for a sitdown with Lamo in the usual "undisclosed location." We don't meet his goldfish this time, however, as we did via PBS and Al Jazeera. Unlike the PBS Frontline program, Bradley Manning gets relatively little play (though he's clearly treated as the leak source) but the program's final segment on Anonymous should have been reduced and a few minutes given to the dozens of important Cablegate revelations beyond the Middle East. The good that WikiLeaks might do or has done remains hopelessly vague without that. After Newt Gingrich denounces Assange as a terrorist, Larsen concludes that the WikiLeaks founder "dropped a nuclear warhead of information" and no matter how he is viewed, as devil or angel, his "war against secrecy rages on." Greg Mitchell's current books on this subject are The Age of WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, Truth and Consequences, in book and e-book, form. Like this blog post? Read it on The Nation's free iPhone App, NationNow. Greg Mitchell "But now even journalists, the traditional support pillar of whistleblowers and activists, are turning against him." The press has never, ever been the "traditional support pillar of whistleblowers and activists." I actually resent that statement intensely. it is misinformation, press propaganda that leaves those in need of support without it. Everyone believes the press provides it when it never ever has and never will "But now even journalists, the traditional support pillar of whistleblowers and activists, are turning against him." The press has never, ever been the "traditional suppose pillar of whistleblowers and activists." In actually resent that state-ment intensely. it is misinformation, press propaganda that leaves those in need of support without it, because everyone believes the press provides it when it never ever has and never will. What if we all get even more guts? To tell more truth? The CNN essay -- I want to call it a teaser, meant to soften the reception of this upcoming show to avoid the exposure that Frontline received. But I can't do that. I want to say you are being too kind to its author. But I don't know its author well enough to say any of these things. I don't know the editor of this piece at CNN well enough to know for sure. But I can say the essay created this impression: it was an essay that tried really hard to appear fair, but failed because it came only up to the very verge of admitting the press is on trial in America. It didn't say it, and so is fundamentally dishonest. When is Nation going to write in a fully frank way about Lucy Dalglish and the Reporter's Committee's shameful little maneuverings over the shield law? Not all the committee even wanted this law to begin with. And now, it shows its true colors, post Assange, yet no one has the guts to confront it. When are WE going to admit that the press is on trial in America.That thanks to Assange and a holy rolling digital underground, the lines were sharply drawn. Press members' positions became starkly apparent. No less than Wikileaks sparked a democracy movement in the MidEast, it exposed the American press corps for what it has become. When are we going to talk about that matter of factly? Getting to that point would be... 5. posted by: MickSteers at 06/10/2011 @ 5:14pm For all intents and purposes, journalism in the mainstream is a dead letter. It's very sad when corporate media outlets try to address issues of importance, like transparency. There can be no better illustration of the bankruptcy of the news, than watching media stars and their establishment cronies vociferously attacking anyone engaged in real journalism."