While pointing out hypocritical contradictions in the statements of spokespeople for the Anglo-American Empire is starting “to feel too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel,” Caitlin Johnstone compiles a useful collection of quotes from Senate leaders Schumer and McConnell demonstrating their rank hypocrisy, on her website yesterday.
With the arrest of Evan Gershkovich in Russia on charges of espionage, both senators rushed to exclaim: “Let there be no mistake: journalism is not a crime.”
“We demand the baseless, fabricated charges against Mr. Gershkovich be dropped and he be immediately released and reiterate our condemnation of the Russian government’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish independent journalists and civil society voices.”
Where else have you heard the phrase “journalism is not a crime"? In the protests in support of Julian Assange, of course! What do these two U.S. senators, so proudly standing up for press freedom, have to say about the prosecution of Assange for his journalism?
“He has done enormous damage to our country and I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law,” said McConnell in 2010.
“Neither WikiLeaks, nor its original source for these materials, should be spared in any way from the fullest prosecution possible under the law,” said Schumer in 2016. “Now that Julian Assange has been arrested, I hope he will soon be held to account for his meddling in our elections on behalf of Putin and the Russian government,” the staunch defender of freedom tweeted in 2019 after Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Johnstone points out the obvious: “You don’t get to say ‘journalism is not a crime’ while literally working to criminalize journalism.” (https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/04/08/washington-says-journalism-is-not-a-crime-while-working-to-criminalize-journalism/)
