Ed Wasserman Takes Down NYTimes For Their Trashing Of Julian Assange

[Hissyspit]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/14/v-print/2062773/biting-the-source-that-feeds-you.html

Posted on Mon, Feb. 14, 2011
Biting the source that feeds you
BY EDWARD WASSERMAN
www.edwardwasserman.com

It’s the climax of the 1975 hit Three Days of the Condor. On a Manhattan sidewalk fugitive CIA analyst Robert Redford, having outgunned his assassins, confronts his double-dealing boss, who demands he join the sinister plot to control the world’s oil. No way, Redford says, he’s already blown the whistle. And the camera pans across the street where a truckload of newsprint is being delivered – to The New York Times. Game over.

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The Condor’s triumphant fourth day? Well, no. Sure you’ve handed over official secrets of global significance at considerable personal risk. That’s not enough. You’ve also got to be charming. Make sure your clothes are laundered and wrinkle-free. You may be living out of a backpack and pulling impossible hours culling data, but don’t forget to bathe regularly. And even if one of the organizations you’ve given this material to violates the conditions you set, don’t you dare get angry.

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So you’d have to say that Assange, on balance, has done well by the Times. He provided it with solid information, nothing spun, nothing fraudulent – its authenticity never, to my knowledge, even challenged – and he gave the Times plenty of time, as well as the editorial discretion, to use the material in whatever ways it deemed appropriate.

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What gives? Since when is an honest source pilloried? You would have thought Assange had deceived the paper, like the trusted U.S. officials who in 2002 fed The Times garbage about an Iraqi nuclear program and helped dupe the United States into a murderous and needless war. When will a top Times editor publish an account that even names those sources, let alone belittles them for their wardrobes?

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