The Conflict at the Core of Mainstream Assange Coverage

The jubilation found last week in the mainstream media upon Julian Assange's arrest has given way to a more ominous assessment. A good example is Michelle Goldberg's opinion piece "Is Assange’s Arrest a Threat to the Free Press?" While Goldberg relishes the jailing of a principal Russiagate conspirator, most of her column is spent arguing that the U.S. indictment of the Assange is very bad news for press freedom:

“It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning took measures to conceal Manning as the source of the disclosure of classified records to WikiLeaks,” says the indictment. Most if not all investigative journalists take such measures to protect their sources. The indictment says, “It was part of the conspiracy that Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States.” Journalists often do this when they urge whistle-blowers to come forward. “It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning used a special folder on a cloud drop box of WikiLeaks” to transmit classified information, the indictment continues. Like many news organizations, The New York Times does something similar, soliciting tips through an encrypted submission system called SecureDrop.

There is a conflict at the core of how the mainstream media is covering Assange's arrest. On the one hand, there is a recognition that the U.S. indictment of the WikiLeaks co-founder paves the way for arrests of reporters who work for legacy media outlets; on the other, Assange continues to be demonized, a good example of which is "As Ecuador Harbored Assange, It Was Subjected to Threats and Leaks," by Nicholas Casey and Jo Becker. The reader is supposed to feel pity for poor Lenin Moreno who had photos leaked of his eating lobster in bed. All I came away feeling was that it was likely the CIA or an allied intelligence service hacked Moreno so that WikiLeaks would take the blame and Assange would be ousted from his refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy.

It will be interesting to see how this conflict plays out. The mainstream media exists primarily to paint villains for the government; but in the case of Assange, to continue to do so will further destabilize an already shaky newspaper industry.