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Trump’s “Nuclear Option” Against a Free Press: What Paved the Way?
The suspension of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House press pass has caused a major controversy, with a judge Friday morning ruling against the White House and granting CNN a temporary restraining order.
The Wall Street Journal reports Friday morning that “U.S. Is Optimistic It Will Prosecute [WikiLeaks Founder] Assange.”
In “Trump and Big Media: Clash or Collusion?,” Institute for Public Accuracy senior analyst Sam Husseini, who was expelled from the Trump-Putin news conference in Helsinki and locked up, recently wrote that beneath the heated rhetoric, there is a symbiotic relationship between Trump and establishment media. Husseini who covered the Helsinki summit for The Nation, noted, for example, that mainstream outlets at times ignore or even facilitate attacks on WikiLeaks, himself and other non-establishment media. Ironically, CNN invoked a legal precedent established by Robert Sherrill, who also wrote for The Nation and died in 2014, see obituary by Victor Navasky: “A Man Who Never Kissed Ass.”
ExposeFacts, a project of IPA, released a statement by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg in 2017, “Trump Threats to WikiLeaks ‘Nuclear Option’ Against the First Amendment,” which stated: “Obama having opened the legal campaign against the press by going after the roots of investigative reporting on national security — the sources — Trump is going to go after the gatherers/gardeners themselves (and their bosses, publishers). …
“If journalists and publishers fail to call this out, denounce and resist it — on the spurious grounds that Julian is ‘not a real journalist’ like themselves — they’re offering themselves up to Trump and Sessions for indictments and prosecutions, which will eventually silence all but the heroes and heroines among them.”
JOE EMERSBERGER, jemersberger at aol.com, @rosendo_joe
Emersberger recently wrote the piece “Assange Case Shows Support for Free Speech Depends on Who’s Talking” for the media watch group FAIR. He writes: “The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in February 2016 that the governments of the UK and Sweden had forced WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange into a condition of arbitrary detention in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been since 2012. The group’s press release stated: ‘The expert panel called on the Swedish and British authorities to end Mr. Assange’s deprivation of liberty, respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement, and afford him the right to compensation.’
“Assange has never been charged with a crime in Sweden. At the secret urging of the UK government, Sweden refused for several years to question Assange in London regarding sexual assault allegations. That kept the case in ‘preliminary investigation’ limbo, while Sweden also refused to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to the United States, where he is likely to face prosecution for his work as a publisher.
“Emails between UK and Swedish officials show that Swedish officials were getting ‘cold feet’ in 2013, and were considering dropping the ‘preliminary investigation’ into Assange, but the UK argued forcefully against it. Last year, Sweden finally dropped the investigation (shortly after it finally agreed to interrogate Assange in London, as it could easily have done years earlier), but the UK has been using the allegation that Assange skipped bail as a way to hold the threat of extradition to the United States over his head.
“In March of this year, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno made the conditions of Assange’s arbitrary detention much worse. For seven months, Assange has been without any means to directly communicate with the public — in other words, to defend himself from relentless attacks and ridicule in Western media. Moreno has not only cut off Assange’s internet and telephone access, but also severely restricted visits. Moreno has openly stated that he silenced and isolated Assange because he objected to Assange’s political statements, but rather than blast Moreno for trampling Assange’s right to free expression and other basic rights, the international press and prominent ‘human rights’ organizations have responded with silence, distortions and even smirks.”
Blog Posts
Statement on NAFTA’s “Kafkaesque” Turn
The supposedly concluded renegotiation of NAFTA has reached a Kafkaesque stage. As the United States Trade Representative has stated: "The United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement in principle, subject to finalization and implementation." Not only the negotiations have not been finalized, and without Canada, but the texts remain hidden from the public.[more]What’s the Cost of Medicare for All?
Even a Koch-backed think tank finds Medicare for all would cut health care spending. In a report released by the Mercatus Center, a single-payer health care system would offset costs with even greater savings. The Intercept and other media reporting on this are citing the work of Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. They are distinguished professors of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School. They have written an analysis of the work of the Koch-backed think tank, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is shown below.[more]Trump Team Hired Israeli Spy Firm Used by Harvey Weinstein to Attack Obama Officials on Iran Deal
"Aides to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a 'dirty ops' campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to 'get dirt' on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal."[more]
News Items
Manuel Pérez-Rocha in “New York Times”
After appearing in a recent IPA news release, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, was quoted in the article "Trump and Mexico’s New Leader, Both Headstrong, Begin With a ‘Good Conversation’."[more]Activist Kathy Kelly talks Afghanistan on Democracy Now!
After appearing on an IPA press release, Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was interviewed by Democracy Now! today to discuss the significance surrounding Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's announcement of an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban.[more]ExposeFacts Panel Discussion on War, Journalism and Whistleblowers on “Flashpoints”
Thomas Drake, Katharine Gun, and other key 21st century whistle blowers featured in a special panel discussion sponsored last week by the Institute for Public Accuracy, on the radio program "Flashpoints," 15 years after Katherine Gun blew the whistle on U.S. dirty tricks to try influence the UN on the invasion of Iraq.[more]
From the NYT: Robert Parry, Investigative Reporter and Founder of ConsortiumNews, Dies at 68
Robert Parry, a tenacious investigative reporter and author who exposed details of the Reagan administration’s secret support for Nicaraguan rebels in the 1980s, died on Saturday in Arlington, Va. He was 68.[more]Christine Ahn, Founder of Women Cross DMZ, on “The Real News”
