U.S. journalistic community shuns Assange - not a journalist

[Still a Democrat]

...Some say he is responsible for what's arguably one of the biggest U.S. national security breaches ever. Others say a man who calls for government transparency has been too opaque about how he obtained the documents.

The freedom of the press committee of the Overseas Press Club of America in New York City declared him "not one of us." The Associated Press, which once filed legal briefs on Assange's behalf, refuses to comment about him. And the National Press Club in Washington, the venue less than a year ago for an Assange news conference, has decided not to speak out about the possibility that he'll be charged with a crime...

The problem with speaking up for WikiLeaks now, said Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, one of the country's most prominent defenders of press freedom and one of the groups that backed WikiLeaks in its 2008 court case, is that she doesn't consider Assange to be a journalist.

Assange, she said, "has done some things that journalists do, but I would argue that what the New York Times does is more journalism. They vet the information. . . . They consider outside sources. They take responsibility. They publicly identify themselves. . . .They do some value added. They do something original to it," Dalglish said...

She added that part of her hesitation to back Assange is that the public knows so little about him and how he acquires information.

WikiLeaks "takes secrets. But they are secretive. We don't know who they are. I think one thing journalists pride themselves on is transparency. I think people are a little apprehensive because he was releasing information last summer he had an agenda to bring down the U.S. government," she said. "I think that makes people reluctant to jump into making a statement."



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/09/2007863_p2/us-journalists-back-away-from.html##ixzz1AwtSkPzH

[gratuitous]

1. Very courageous

After all, Assange hasn't been at any of Boehner's cocktail parties, so how could he possibly be in the club?

[Cleita]

2. Has he ever claimed he was a journalist?

I never heard it. What he does claim to be is an underground operative to bring the secrets of the ruling classes out into the light. At least that's what I got from various interviews I have seen him do.

[EFerrari]

8. He's been a member of the big Australian union for years

and they support him fully.

[Canuckistanian]

9. I think he considers himself an "information broker"

His plan has ALWAYS been to let major news organizations do the analysis and writing.

He's just the intermediary between the leaker and the news orgs.

[EFerrari]

11. But his activity is journalistic. The point here being, in order to prosecute him

under our Espionage Act, the DoJ will have to argue that he doesn't qualify for journalistic protection and that is straight up cr@p.

[Canuckistanian]

20. Yes, it definitely is

I see your point.

While he may not be the journalist of record, his job certainly does serve journalism - and nothing else.

[EFerrari]

21. The State Department spokesliar, PJ Crowley, said that in the government's opinion,

Assange wasn't a journalist -- so that is where this discussion is going. :(

[DCKit]

3. All three? nt

[atreides1]

4. I guess they would know

...about him not being a journalist, since not that many of the U.S. journalistic community fit the definition themselves.

[ret5hd]

5. "No True Scotsman" fallacy.

[Autumn]

6. Wait a minute. We have journalists here in the US ?

Color me shocked and surprised. Who the hell knew.:rofl: :rofl:

Typical irrelevant journalist bullshit. I don't believe Assange has EVER claimed to be a "journalist"


Good journalism there Sparky :rofl: :rofl:

[LuvNewcastle]

7. That's good.

I don't think Assange wants to be one of them.

[EFerrari]

10. I put this together when Ben Adler / Newsweek tried this same game

Ben Adler: Bad Reporter

Tag(s): Reporters; Wikileaks

by Elizabeth Ferrari

on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 4:30:02 PM

Newsweek's Ben Adler denies worldwide support among journalists for Wikileaks

: : : :

Ben Adler at Newsweek, "Why Journalists Aren't Standing Up for Wikileaks" apparently has missed the worldwide support journalists have shown for Wikileaks.

Here's a link to his article: click here

And here's some links to journalists who have "stood up" for Wikileaks:

Reporters Without Borders:
http://en.rsf.org/reporters-without-borders-to-host-20-...

Committee to Protect Journalists:
http://www.cpj.org/2010/12/cpj-urges-us-not-to-prosecut...

International Federation of Journalists:
http://wlcentral.org/node/502

MEAA (Austrialian union)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/23/3099859.h...

John Pilger:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/12/08/3087656....

Michael Moore:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why...

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting):
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/p/dia/action/p...

DVJ (German Papers):
http://www.djv.de/SingleNews.20+M5dcd7f31e2d.0.html

Wikileak Central roundup (1 part of 13) on journalists who "stood up" for Wikileaks.
http://wlcentral.org/node/473

I don't think that word means what you think it means -- The Princess Bride

http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Ben-Adler-Bad-Reporter-by-Elizabeth-Ferrari-110104-442.html

[devilgrrl]

12. There are journalists in the United States?

Where?

[librechik]

13. Our journalists are complicit in their own demise as journalists.

As Russert used to say--anything a public official tells me is automatically off the record unless he says otherwise.

That NON-JOURNALISTIC and RADICAL NEW APPROACH is not journalism, but a kind of paid propoganda. And they all do it in the village. They have forgotten that journalists are adversarial; they investigate and make public the brutal facts. They are not public relations consultants.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I totally agree and I believe their own sense of guilt has in large part made it easier

for some of them to so readily diminish the First Amendment as a means to strike back at an institution; whose actions only serve to highlight the conflict of interest laden corporate media's abandonment of its' core ethics and highest moral purpose.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Translation: "He's showing us up by doing what we're supposed to do."

[EFerrari]

15. LOL.

[inna]

16. Unrec. Complete garbage.

See post #10.

[sabrina 1]

18. To their shame, but predictable from the media that is totally

Corporate controlled. No wonder the U.S. media ranks so low on the World's free press scale.

Fortunately, this cowardly woman doesn't get to decide who is and who is not a jouranist. Kind of amusing to see any American 'stenographer' accuse someone who has been responsible for more journalistic scoops than the entire U.S. media, cowards that they are, put together, 'not a journalist'.

I doubt Assange or any other self-respecting journalist would want to be on their list of 'journalists'.

And btw, this article is not accurate. Assange is an editor and publisher, as much a journalist and with the same rights to freedom of the press as Hugh Hefner, Larry Flint and any tabloid or other magazine in this country and throughout the free world.

Also, Wikileaks is supported by Reporters Without Borders and other very prestigious journalistic organizations around the world. Not to mention some of the world's most respected world famous, award winning journalists like Robert Fisk and Matt Taibi among others.

Our MSM is a joke and a disgrace and this is probably the answer to the question being asked around the world 'Why is the U.S. Press so silent on its government's persecution of an award-winning International News Organization?'

So, lazy, cowardly stenographers that they are, they make an unqualified judgement of what a journalist is and use it as an excuse. They will be condemned as they should be for their historical lack of journalistic principles.

This woman is no journalist. Her opinion is worth about as much as this government's on torture.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising."

~ Lord Northcliffe, British publisher 1865-1922

[xchrom]

22. Spot on. Nt