Why Do Journalists Hate Julian Assange?

Detroit's top fire officials forced out
• Related: Fire Department ousters unlikely to influence investigation of September firestorm • More: Detroit police say crimes decreased in 2010 In an attempt to address that concern -- and amid public scorn over poor response times and a man's body being found by family members instead of Firefighters more than a month after flames tore through a Detroit home -- the city's executive and deputy fire commissioners were forced to resign Friday...

What the Government Might Be After with Its Twitter Subpoena
After a member of Iceland’s Parliament and former Wikileaks volunteer, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, revealed on Twitter yesterday that Twitter has been subpoenaed for details on her Twitter account, Glenn got a copy of the Subpoena. The subpoena was first submitted to Twitter on December 14, and asked for account information for six people as well as any account associated with Wikileaks, going back to November 1, 2009. Of particular note, they ask for: records of user activity for any connect...

DOJ Subpoena Of Twitter For WikiLeaks Info Is Odd
Glenn Greenwald at Salon has a good take on the DOJ Subpoena ordering Twitter to give information about Birgitta Jónsdóttir (pictured), a former Wikileaks volunteer and member of the Icelandic Parliament. What hasn’t been reported is that the Subpoena served on Twitter — which is actually an Order from a Federal Court that the DOJ requested — seeks the same information for numerous other individuals currently or formerly associated with WikiLeaks, including Jacob Appe...

US Government Issues Subpoena To Twitter For Wikileaks, Assange-Related Accounts
The noose around the necks of Wikileaks is now tightening at a rapid pace, with the United States finally getting overtly involved. Last night, Icelandic Parliamentarian and producer of Wikileaks’ “Collateral Murder” video Birgitta Jonsdottir stated she had just been notified that the US Department of Justice had sent Twitter a Subpoena for all of her activity on Twitter- and that of Julian Assange , and anyone involved with Wikileaks. Wikileaks fremeny The Guardian, who ...

Another View of Juan Williams, Ellen Weiss, and NPR
Yesterday I mentioned that Ellen Weiss, an NPR Veteran who in recent years has been its news director, was taking the fall for the rash dismissal of Juan Williams. I made the case for Weiss (whom I don't know personally), saying that misjudgment in one episode was apparently being allowed to trump what she had achieved over the decades. Since then I have received a lot of response from the Public Radio diaspora, most of it saying: right on! But there is a minority view that, for fairness, I shou...

The Media & The Shooter
“ The Tea Party movement won in November. Winners don’t go on shooting sprees. ” This morning we pray for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her family, and the other Victims of the heinous violence in Arizona. It should not be, but the media, under the guise of “a full exposition” of the evil in Arizona, is back to subtly and not so subtly pinning the blame for the attempted Assassination of the Congresswoman and the related shootings on the Tea Party movement, Sara...

STEWART BAKER: Will Julian Assange Protect His Book With DMCA Takedown Notices?
Stewart Baker: Will Julian Assange Protect His Book With DMCA Takedown Notices? ...

Liberals vs. the Constitution
For the first time in the 221-year history of Congress, members of the U.S. House today read aloud the U.S. Constitution. It served as an important reminder for lawmakers to reflect on the limits of their authority and the powers delegated to them. But the mere utterance of “We the people” has set liberals, especially in the News Media, into a tizzy. The Washington Post begrudgingly called it the “Tea Party-ization of Congress.” “The reading embraced by new Speaker ...

Vanity Fair: Julian Assange Threatened to Sue The Guardian
Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison has penned an extraordinary look into the relationship between Wikileaks and the traditional journalism outfits that have collaborated with it: On the afternoon of November 1, 2010, Julian Assange, the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks.org, marched with his lawyer into the London office of Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian. Assange was pallid and sweaty, his thin frame racked by a cough that had been plaguing him for weeks. He was also angry, and his mes...

In the End, Does Everyone He Works With End Up Hating Julian Assange?
Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Vanity Fair's lengthy profile of Julian Assange's contentious relationship with his media associates is out today. It catalogues the myriad negotiations, anxieties, and quibbles over release dates, exclusivity, and redacting names that colored the whole multiple-news-partners/one-leaker arrangement. Polyamory, the whistle-blowing version. The primary focus of the article is the rifts between Assange and reporters he was once close to at the Guardian, his first ma...

Julian Assange Nearly Sued The Guardian, And Other Horror Stories From Vanity Fairs Wikileaks Profile
Say what you will about Wikileaks supreme hero/villain Julian Assange , he has crafted quite the reputation as one of the most difficult men to work with in the world, despite fronting an organization that relies upon collaboration with the media. Vanity Fair’s latest extensive feature goes behind the scenes into how at least one newspaper, The Guardian, kept Assange at the table. Hint: it involved “a great deal of coffee followed by a great deal of wine.” Depicting Wikileaks a...

Two Sicknesses On Display in Arizona
The shooting of Congresswonan Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of several people by gunman Jared Loughner in Arizona yesterday has revealed two sicknesses. The first and most serious is the sickness living in Loughner's head. Evidence in the form of farewell videos, Internet postings, and the recollections of people who knew him reveal a profoundly disturbed person who had veered far into a paranoid world. Loughner's complaints about government mind control and other rants were not "anti-gove...

WikiLeaks Demands Google and Facebook Unseal US Subpoenas
© Andy Rain/EPA 'Free Julian Assange' protestors demonstrate in Central London before the Wikileaks founder's court hearing in December. Call comes after revelation that US has tried to force Twitter to release Wikileaks members' private details WikiLeaks has demanded that Google and Facebook reveal the contents of any US Subpoenas they may have received after it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter to secretly hand over details of accounts on the micro-blogging site by f...

US Subpoenas Wikileaks Twitter Account Info
The AP reports: U.S. investigators have gone to court to demand details about Wikileaks’ Twitter account, according to documents obtained Saturday — the first revelation about the criminal case Washington is trying to build against those who leaked classified U.S. documents. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he believed other American Internet companies such as Facebook and Google may also have been ordered to divulge information on himself and colleagues. The U.S. District Court ...

US turns to Twitter as WikiLeaks chase continues
The Department of Justice makes its first digital move in its investigation, writes Ellie Harvey. IN THE digital haze of zeros and ones, the world's diplomatic relations can be shaken, crimes can be committed and, increasingly, evidence can be sought. The first signs of the US Department of Justice's Criminal Investigation into the Whistleblower website Wikileaks have emerged, having subpoenaed the activity on Microblogging site Twitter of five people, including the Wikileaks editor, Julian Ass...

US court demands WikiLeaks' Twitter account info
Icelandic lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir poses for this photo Feb. 24, 2010... LONDON (AP) - U.S. investigators have gone to court to demand details about Wikileaks' Twitter account, according to documents obtained Saturday—the first revelation about the criminal case Washington is trying to build against those who leaked classified U.S. documents. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he believed other American Internet companies such as Facebook and Google may also have been ordered to div...

Feds Subpoena Twitter for Wikileaks Supporters User Accounts
My Google Alert for Wikileaks-related news brings me this item, from IT Security & Network Security News: A Federal Court has ordered Twitter to turn over details of accounts tied to several WikiLeaks supporters as part of the government’s investigation into the whistle-blower site. The U.S. Department of Justice obtained a Subpoena for the micro-blogging site Dec. 14 requesting records going back to Nov. 1, 2009, that are “relevant and material&#

Commander In Sleaze
Despite his too-perfect toothpaste commercial smile and his million dollar haircut, had John Edwards become president of the United States he would have been known as the “Commander-in-Sleaze.” He is not alone. Why are such men allowed to rise so high? At this moment, all we can say is that there have been reports that mere weeks after his wife Elizabeth’s long , slow death from Cancer, Edwards has introduced his “Baby Mama” and their Love Child to Elizabeth’s...

Southwest revising frequent flier program, will eliminate blackout dates
Southwest Airlines will introduce a new loyalty program today that rewards its high-spending customers and injects more flexibility into redeeming awards. The program, which takes effect March 1, converts Southwest's current credit model into a point-based system, introduces membership tiers, offers international flights by other carriers as awards and removes restrictions on the number of Southwest seats available for redemption. Customers who buy "Business Select" tickets, the Most Expensive...

Birgitta Jnsdttir
I saw this on Twitter last night, and no denying her updates are fascinating (here, for example). So is her homepage. She's a political radical and former Wikileaks Activist who co-produced the "Collateral Damage" Propaganda video, and a Member of the Icelandic Parliament now in the spotlight with the latest turn in the ongoing Wikileaks investigation See NYT, "U.S. Subpoenas Twitter Over Wikileaks Supporters" (and Memeorandum): The move to get the information from five prominent figures tied t...

OReilly And Williams Gloat Over NPR Resignation
Nothing says “fair and balanced” like two talking heads with the same opinion. But that’s what viewers got last night from The O’Reilly Factor’s “top story,” which was about the Resignation of NPR’s senior vice president for news, the same person who fired Fox’s Juan Williams, after NPR completed its review of its handling of Williams’ firing. There was NPR-phobe and host Bill O’Reilly and guest Williams who, you might say, had so...

On Fox & Friends, MRC's Bozell Blasts NPR As Part of 'Intolerant Left'
Appearing on FNC's FOX & Friends on Friday, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell reacted to the Resignation of National Public Radio executive Ellen Weiss and credited the incoming Republican Congress: "NPR is hearing footsteps, their hearing the footsteps of Republicans, who are saying...what in the world are we doing spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on this network that is completely unnecessary." As NewsBusters' Tim Graham...

Amercans want Wikileaks Twitter info
U.S. officials have issued a Subpoena to demand details about Wikileaks‘ Twitter account, the group announced Saturday, adding that it suspected other American Internet companies were also being ordered to hand over information about its activities. In a statement, WikiLeaks said U.S. investigators had gone to the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. to demand the private messages, contact information and other personal details of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other supporters, includin...

Chatty Cathies
Babble on, Babylon! We're watching you! It's that time of week, once again--and more!-- and the question of the hour is: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who can spot the most blathering idiot of them all?" Once again, it COULD be you! But only if you participate by entering your nomination in the comments below. But First! We have TWO winners to announce this week--the weekly AND the year-end winners! We start with last week's contest, which was won by The Big Hurt's nomination of Judith Mill...

WikiLeaks says U.S. is demanding its Twitter account info
LONDON — Wikileaks' Twitter account details have been subpoenaed by U.S. officials, the secret-spilling site announced Saturday, adding that it suspected other American Internet companies were also being asked to hand over information about its activities. In an e-mail statement, WikiLeaks said that U.S. investigators had gone to the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. to demand the private messages, contact information and other personal details of founder Julian Assange and others linked...