Touch of the REAL...

Journalists, feminists, progressives…
Beware those who conveniently pretend
Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

“It is too easy for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to ‘our’ interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present ‘our’ policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It is the journalist’s job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society.” John Pilger

“Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s freedom was used to invade Afghanistan.”  Naomi Klein

From Pilger’s Wednesday U.S. v. WikiLeaks-era article “Protect Assange, don’t abuse him”

Back in the day
“Political action had failed and only ‘culture’ and introspection could change the world,” journalist and filmmaker John Pilger writes of an intellectual dictum, a creed that permeated the land forty years ago.

“This merged with an insidious corporate public relations campaign aimed at reclaiming western capitalism from the sense of freedom inspired by the civil rights and anti-war movements,” he writes.

“The new propaganda’s euphemisms were postmodernism, consumerism and ‘me-ism.’ … Driven by the forces of profit and the media, the search for individual consciousness all but overwhelmed the spirit of social justice and internationalism. Proclaimed was a new deity; the personal was the political.…”

Regress
Post-Cold War — “The revival of militarism in the west and the search for a new ‘threat’ following the end of the cold war depended on the political disorientation of those who, 20 years earlier, would have formed a vehement opposition.” On September 11 2001, the nail drove deep into the coffin. Those who would have opposed militarism’s revival “were silenced, finally. Many were co-opted into the ‘war on terror.’”

Fake “feminists”
“The invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 was supported by leading feminists, especially in the United States, where Hillary Clinton and other false tribunes of feminism made the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women the rationale for attacking a stricken country and causing the deaths of at least 20,000 people while giving the Taliban new life.

“That the warlords — backed by America were as medievalist as the Taliban — was not allowed to interrupt such a right-on cause.

“… The years of ‘personal’ depoliticizing and distracting true radicalism, had worked. Nine years later, the disaster that is Afghanistan is the consequence.

Rights abolished—slay the messenger
“It seems the lesson must be learned all over again as a group of media feminists joins the assault on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks…. From the Times to the New Statesman, apparent feminist credence is given to the chaotic, incompetent and contradictory accusations against Assange in Sweden…

“The Australian barrister, James Catlin, who acted for Assange in October, says that both women in the case told prosecutors that they consented to have sex with Assange. Following the ‘crime,’ one of the women threw a party in honor of Assange. …

Assange has been charged with nothing. “He has never been a ‘fugitive.’ He sought and got permission to leave Sweden. British police have known his whereabouts since his arrival. [However, this] did not stop a London magistrate on December 7 ignoring seven sureties and sending [Assange] to solitary confinement in Wandsworth Prison.…”

At every turn, there has been a breach of Assange’s basic human rights… “In her public remarks, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has shamefully torn up the presumption of innocence that underpins Australian law. …”

Lone Feminist
However, despite governments’ human rights abuses, “vast numbers of decent people all over the world have rallied to Assange’s support — among them, people who are neither misogynists nor ‘internet attack dogs’ …”  Distinguished feminist Naomi Klein wrote —

“‘Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s freedom was used to invade Afghanistan.  

“‘Wake up!’”

Sources and notes
“Protect Assange, don’t abuse him” (John Pilger in New Statesman), December 15, 2010, http://www.newstatesman.com/global-issues/2010/12/women-rights-pilger-assange

John Pilger
World-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker John Pilger began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia (moved to London in the 1960s). His work as foreign correspondent and front-line war reporter began in 1967 with the Vietnam War.

Pilger regards eye-witness as the essence of good journalism and is an impassioned critic of foreign military and economic adventures by Western governments.

“It is too easy for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to ‘our’ interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present ‘our’ policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It is the journalist’s job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society.” http://www.johnpilger.com/biography

“John Pilger: ‘The War You Don’t See’” (ITV1, by Jane Simon, Daily Mirror) December 14, 2010,
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/tv/todays-tv/2010/12/14/john-pilger-the-war-you-don-t-see-itv1-10-35pm-115875-22782231/

“Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s freedom was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up! [Naomi Klein, wikilieaks 4:12 AM December 8, 2010 via web, http://twitter.com/NaomiAKlein/statuses/12479573723709440

Naomi Klein
Journalist and syndicated columnist Naomi Klein is author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released on bail” Deutsche Welle, December 16, 2010, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6346863,00.html

Julian Assange was released from jail in London today. British High Court Judge Duncan Ouseley handed down his decision, confirming a lower court’s ruling that the 39-year-old Australian could be freed on 200,000 GBP bail (236,000 euros, $317,000) under strict conditions.”

The WikiLeaks founder is reported saying, “‘I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal, as we get it, which we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations.’…

“British prosecutors have been trying to keep Assange behind bars until his extradition hearing, arguing that there was a risk he would flee the country. … Assange has been in jail since December 7, after he turned himself in to British police over a Swedish sex crimes warrant. Two women in Sweden, who are WikiLeaks volunteers, have accused him of rape and sexual molestation.” Assange’s release is under strict conditions and until a ruling is made on a Swedish extradition warrant.

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