Advancing Propaganda for Evil Agendas Is the Same as Perpetrating Them – Consortium News

Caitlin Johnstone blasts The Guardian for its belated defense of Julian Assange and its harmful coverage in the past.

By Caitlin JohnstoneCaitlinJohnstone.com

The Guardianhaspublished an editorialtitled The Guardian view on extraditing Julian Assange: dont do it, subtitled The US case against the WikiLeaks founder is an assault on press freedom and the publics right to know. Thepublicationseditorial board argues that sincethe Swedish investigation has once again been dropped, the time is now to oppose U.S. extradition for the WikiLeaksfounder.

Swedens decision todrop an investigationinto a rape allegation against Julian Assange has both illuminated the situation of the WikiLeaks founder and made it more pressing, the editorial board writes.

Oh okay,nowthe issue is illuminated and pressing. Not two months ago, when Assanges ridiculous bail sentence ended and he was still kept in prisonexplicitly and exclusively because of the U.S.extradition request. Not six months ago, when the U.S. government slammed Assange with17 charges under the Espionage Actfor publishing the Chelsea Manning leaks. Not seven months ago, when Assange was forcibly pried from the Ecuadorian embassy andslapped with the U.S.extradition request. Not any time between his April arrest and his taking political asylum seven years ago, which the Ecuadorian governmentexplicitly granted himbecause it believed there was a credible threat of U.S. extradition. Not nine years agowhen WikiLeakswas warningthat the U.S. government was scheming to extradite Assange and prosecute him under the Espionage Act.

Nope, no, any of those times would have been far too early forThe Guardianto begin opposing U.S. extradition for Assange with any degree of lucidity. They had to wait until Assange was already locked up in Belmarsh prison and limping into extradition hearingssupervised by looming U.S.government officials. They had to wait until years and years ofvirulent mass media smear campaignshad killed off public support for Assange so he could be extradited with little or no grassroots backlash. And they had to wait until they themselves had finished participating in those smear campaigns.

This is after all the sameGuardianwhich published thetransparently ridiculousandcompletely invalidatedreport that Trump lackey Paul Manafort had met secretly with Assange at the embassy, not once but multiple times. Not one shred of evidence has ever been produced to substantiate this claim despite the embassy being one of the most heavily surveilled buildings on the planet at the time, and the Robert Mueller investigation, whose expansive scope would obviously have included such meetings, reported absolutely nothing to corroborate it. It was a bogus story which all accusedpartieshaveforcefully denied.

This is the sameGuardianwhichran an article last yeartitled The only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuadors embassy is pride, arguing that Assange looked ridiculous for remaining in the embassy because The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the U.S.

The article was authored by the odious James Ball, whodeleted atweetnot long ago complaining about the existence of UN special rapporteurs after one of them concluded thatAssange is a victim of psychological torture. Balls article begins, According to Debretts, the arbiters of etiquette since 1769: Visitors, like fish, stink in three days. Given this, its difficult to imagine what Ecuadors London embassy smells like, more than five-and-a-half years afterJulian Assangemoved himself into the confines of the small flat in Knightsbridge, just across the road from Harrods.

This is the sameGuardianwhichpublished an articletitled Definition of paranoia: supporters of Julian Assange, arguing that Assange defenders are crazy conspiracy theorists for believing the U.S. would try to extradite Assange because Britain has a notoriously lax extradition treaty with the United States, because why would they bother to imprison him when he is making such a good job of discrediting himself?, and because there is no extradition request.

This is the sameGuardianwhichpublishedaludicrous reportabout Assange potentially receiving documents as part of a strange Nigel Farage/Donald Trump/Russia conspiracy, a claim based primarily on vague analysis by a single anonymous source described as a highly placed contact with links to US intelligence. The sameGuardianwhich just flushed standard journalistic protocol down the toilet by reporting on Assanges ties to the Kremlin (not a thing) without even bothering to use the word alleged, notonce, buttwice. The sameGuardianwhich has been advancing many more virulent smears as documented inthis article byThe Canarytitled Guilty by innuendo: the Guardian campaign against Julian Assange that breaks all the rules.

You can see, then, how ridiculous it is for an outlet likeThe Guardianto now attempt to wash its hands of Assanges plight with a self-righteous denunciation of the Trump administrations extradition request from its editorial board. This outlet has actively and forcefully paved the road to the situation in which Assange now finds himself by manufacturing consent for an agenda which the public would otherwise have found appalling and ferociously objectionable.Guardianeditors dont get to pretend that they are in some way separate from whats being done to Assange. Theycreatedwhats being done to Assange.

The deployment of a bomb or missile doesnt begin when a pilot pushes a button, it begins when propaganda narratives used to promote those operations start circulating in public attention. If you help circulate war propaganda, youre as complicit as the one who pushes the button. The imprisonment of a journalist for exposing U.S. war crimes doesnt begin when the Trump administration extradites him to America, it begins when propagandistic smear campaigns begin circulating to kill public opposition to his imprisonment. If you helped promote that smear campaign, youre just as responsible for what happens to him as the goon squad in Trumps Department of Justice.

Before they launch missiles, they launch narratives. Before they drop bombs, they drop ideas. Before they invade, they propagandize. Before the killing, there is manipulation. Narrative control is the front line of all imperialist agendas, and it is therefore the front line of all anti-imperialist efforts. When you forcefully oppose these agendas, that matters, because youre keeping the public from being propagandized into consenting to them. When you forcefully facilitate those agendas, that matters, because youre actively paving the way for them.

Claiming you oppose an imperialist agenda while helping to advance its propaganda and smear campaigns in any way is a nonsensical and contradictory position. You cannot facilitate imperialism and simultaneously claim to oppose it.

They work so hard to manufacture our consent because theyneedthat consent. If they operate without the consent of the governed, the public will quickly lose trust in their institutions, and at that point its not long before revolution begins to simmer. So, dont give them your consent. And for Gods sake dont do anything that helps manufacture it in others.

Words matter. Work with them responsibly.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularlyat Medium. Follow her work onFacebook,Twitter,or herwebsite. She has apodcastand a new bookWoke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.

This article was re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those ofConsortium News.

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Advancing Propaganda for Evil Agendas Is the Same as Perpetrating Them - Consortium News