A new news show hosted by Julian Assange debuted yesterday on RT, the global media outlet funded by the Russian government and carried by several of America’s largest cable providers. His first show was devoted to an interview with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (video below), who has not given a television interview since 2006.
The combination of Assange and a Russian-owned TV network has triggered a predictable wave of snide, smug attacks from American media figures, attacks that found their purest expression in this New York Times review yesterday of Assange’s new program by Alessandra Stanley.
Much is revealed by these media attacks on Assange and RT — not about Assange or RT but about their media critics. We yet again find, for instance, the revealing paradox that nothing prompts media scorn more than bringing about unauthorized transparency for the U.S. government. As a result, it’s worth examining a few passages from Stanley’s analysis. It begins this way:
Authorities in Utah say two men have been arrested on suspicion of placing an incendiary device...
More than 2,000 Hollywood figures, including well-known actors and filmmakers, have pledged to boycott the growing...
On the coastal road heading south from Gaza City, thousands of people have begun an arduous...
More than 250 news outlets around the world have signed an appeal that calls for the...
