Wikileaks' Julian Assange: The Cost Of Being The World's Biggest Internet Whistleblower
Posted by Joshua_Kopstein on Thursday, Oct 28, 2010
Image: Leon Neal/Getty
Despite support from countless droves of anti-war advocates on the Internet who tout him as a hero, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange isn’t exactly the most popular guy in the world right now. In the wake of what is being reported as the largest leak of military intelligence in U.S. history, it would seem as if Assange is becoming regarded as some sort of information age pariah in the eyes of the international community – The U.S. government wants his head on a platter, and everyone else seems to be either sharpening Uncle Sam’s knives or simply telling Assange that he’s not invited to their dinner parties anymore. And their countries, too.
Granted, it’s not a surprising situation for a guy who just helped leak 400,000 classified military documents. But regardless of where you stand on the issue, you can’t help but feel a little bad for the man as he struggles to maintain control of his freedom and financial assets in a world that’s increasingly hostile towards him with each passing day. As the endcap of a 4-part interview, Assange discusses briefly recent troubles concerning his application for residency in Sweden, which was rejected, and Wikileaks’ donation account with PayPal competitor Moneybookers, which was terminated.
Top that off with being named on a U.S. government watch list, an Australian government black list and having Wikileaks’ operational homeland of Iceland publicly pressured to crack down on the organization by the international community. Yeesh.
Then there’s the wide world of entertainment news media, where the New York Times is orchestrating personal attacks on Assange, dissecting his early childhood as a “self-acknowledged social misfit,” while FOX News (surprise, surprise) is outright demanding that Wikileaks be considered “enemy combatants” by the United States Government. After the fiasco that is still occurring following last weekend’s big leak, harder times for the world’s biggest whistleblower are most assuredly yet to come.
Assange is keeping his wits about him, however – In interviews, his face reads stern and stoic; an unwavering and impartial harbinger of reason. He even got rid of that middle-aged bizzarro-Clark Kent hairdo in time for his next round of public appearances. But he has his limits: Earlier this week, he walked out of an interview with CNN when the reporter, quite tastelessly and despite several warnings, diverted the line of questioning away from the disturbing human rights abuses described in the leaked documents to demand details on tabloid-fodder rape accusations made against him. But the really interesting thing about all of this materializes when we ask why it is Asange – not Wikileaks – that has become the news media’s whipping boy.
One especially skewering New York Times commentor had this to say:
“Mr. Asange is guilty of one of the worst offenses in American culture: challenging deeply-held beliefs about the benevolence of American foreign policy with facts. It’s no wonder that American media outlets immediately turn the spotlight onto him, and not the actual materials themselves.”
Even in the face of crimes against humanity, shooting the messenger is still fair game for some journalists, it would seem. But with damning evidence of human rights violations, avoidable civilian casualties and military mismanagement staring us in the face, how much longer will it be before news media shifts all its focus away from this dude’s personal life and concentrate solely on what’s actually important, the contents of those documents?
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Electronic musician and computer culture journalist. Contact: josh ◢at◣ motherboard ◐dot◑ tv
