| You asked this: >I have no doubt that many folks who should be protesting Assange's arrest but aren't are acting thus because they dislike him. But I haven't seen anyone actually make that argument explicitly. I am making that argument explicitly, though I don't claim to speak for everyone. Public opinion and sympathy varies from case to case based on perceptions. > Also, being a "private entity" is not a litmus test for whether an entity is public and newsworthy What's newsworthy about leaking someone being on maternity leave? The only newsworthy thing that came out of Podesta's emails was that 4chan and alt right trolls and conspiracy theorists created Pizzagate out of thin air, causing death threats to families and communities. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/john... And someone going to Comet Ping Pong and firing shots. Feel free to point me to Podesta's emails being newsworthy. Not to mention Assange intentionally falsely implying Seth Rich was the real leaker, causing distress to his family. >news orgs aren't barred from publishing secret/confidential material from corporations or entertainment celebrities That's why I never thought Gawker held a high moral ground. What's newsworthy about doxxing almost all women in Turkey? http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/07/why-did-wikileaks-hel... What's newsworthy about publishing details of agents in secret in places like Afghanistan, apart from endangering their lives at the hands of terrorists? What's newsworthy about publishing social security numbers and passwords unredacted? Why should press protections apply to someone that tried to crack a NTLM password of a login of the US military? If anyone else did that, they would be prosecuted, why should Assange get special treatment? Edit: In case you think things like Pizzagate were not aided and abetted by Wikileaks, they helpfully created a wiki for it. https://our.wikileaks.org/Pizzagate Basically helping spread nonsensical fringe conspiracy theories to destabilize the US, just like Russia wants. Their goal wasn't to expose anything, it was to inflame the US and support Trump at any cost to divide the nation and weaken it. |
There was also Hillary's ironic Wall Street speeches and Donna's debate prep. Not a good look!