October 23, 2010

Julian Assange Walks Out in Shameful CNN Interview

Upon the release of the largest war logs in U.S. history by the transnational transparency organization WikiLeaks, CNN's Atika Shubert had the opportunity to speak with WikiLeaks's founder Julian Assange to discuss the new material. But she thought that the deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians was less important, and less newsworthy than what Assange's opinions were about the organization's former staffers, and the baseless charges of rape that were brought against him by Swedish authorities in August at the behest of the U.S. government. Those charges were quickly dropped, but Shubert didn't bother to mention that point in the interview. She shamefully pressed on about the ongoing smear campaign against WikiLeaks by the U.S. establishment, while failing to enlighten CNN viewers about the massive new details regarding U.S. approved torture in Iraq.

Shubert's disgraceful performance is just a tiny example of how rotten CNN, and other cable television networks in the United States have become. She and her colleagues don't practice serious journalism. They fail to inform American viewers about matters of life and death, truth and deception. Their disrespect for the American, Iraqi, and Afghan people is disgusting.

It is understandable why CNN doesn't want to treat the WikiLeaks war logs objectively, and instead, tries to make the issue about Assange's personal ethics. The network was part of the ugly media propaganda campaign in the lead up to the Iraq invasion seven years and seven months ago. CNN broadcasters and reporters endlessly repeated the false connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and the lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Assange's ethics may be in question for some people, but CNN's ethics is not: the organization is covered in human blood. It doesn't do journalism, it repeats government propaganda that causes mass carnage, and mass death.

Here is the video of Assange walking out of the interview:



The American people should protest CNN's headquarters, along with other TV networks, and shame them into reporting the full truth about the wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Propaganda can't go unchallenged. The same is true in Canada, where CBC and other networks have dropped the ball when it comes to reporting on the factual revelations that lie at the core the 9/11 truth movement, and the depth of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, the Young Turks led a protest at CNN's headquarters in L.A. Here is the video: