How a cooked Assange quote ended up media gospel

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/29/how-a-cooked-assange-quote-end.html

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Really tasty quotes are hard not to run with. Just look at the famous Ahmadinejad quote about “wiping Israel off the map” that never even included the words “Israel” or “map” but is quoted to this day by anyone who wants to get hawkish on Iran.

Or for that matter that Bernie Sanders ever planned to tax the 1% at 90%.

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There is also the sequence of tales-improved-in-the-retelling in which RT acquired a series of e-mails hacked from Sidney Blumenthal’s AOL account, and Zerohedge managed to conflate these into 20,000 e-mails purportedly hacked from Clinton’s own server and now in the possession of the Kremlin. From where it entered the hive-consciousness of right-wing punditry.

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I must admit to falling within the small overlap on a Venn diagram of BB and ZH daily readers. Both sites have their flaws and both have their strengths. ZH provides an interesting contrarian perspective to the mainstream, especially with regard to financial and economic news. The forums on ZH are particularly unreadable, while BB’s are hit and miss.

I would add that Zerohedge is nearly twice as popular as Boingboing, at least by Alexa’s rankings.

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I keep reading this as “a coked Assange quote”. He looks like the type to me.

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So, has he dumped all he’s got? Or is there more to come?

I read earlier today that he has more that he hasn’t released. But you know, it seems we can’t believe everything we read on the internet these days.

This whole thing messes with my head. On one side, I like transparency, and I think we all deserve to know more about the true nature of the candidate we’re all about to vote for. On the other side, we’re finding this out due to the malicious actions of a semi-hostile nation, for whom Assange acts as a proxy in an attempt to maintain his own relevance. They’re all interfering with our election, and not even-handedly. And Assange is being sheltered by Ecuador while he does this. If we put pressure on Ecuador to turn Assange over to us, they might. But then that will feed into right-wing and left-wing conspiracy theories that the fix is in and the US government is trying to get HRC elected. And if we manage to stop Wikileaks, then the transparency I mentioned above will go up in a puff of smoke, because of course the government isn’t going to release any stolen data.

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Saw a Skype interview with Assange on I think MSNBC just before the DNC started. He said they had emails from the DNC and the RNC. So why hasn’t Wikileaks released the RNC leaks?

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Assange’s talking style/manner is slow and very precise. He speaks like programmers, er, program.

I’d really, really, really be surprised if he had said something like that, without actually saying it. (You do know what I mean, no?)

heh, calling Zero Hedge an investment blog is like calling Boing Boing a blog about LOL-cats. they both cover some much other subject matter.

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Yes, I took that out.

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props for mentioning ZH :slight_smile:

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Well, shit. I now think that Assange is just a swell guy.

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We live in times where whistle blowers are put in jail by our standing government, and dishonesty is used even for worthwhile causes like defeating Trump. I dare say that we need these disclosures, and the misstep is actually Russia’s, who does not seem to realize that this helps and strengthens our democracy, not weakens it. If he really wanted to detroy us he would let our corruption stand unchecked.

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Having just looked over Zero Hedge, I’d say it has more racist dog-whistling and pro-Russian propaganda than I’d care for in my media diet.

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And why is he being sheltered in Ecuador? Because of a Swedish extradition charge for him to be tried for rape. But I’m sure that’s a trumped-up charge by a US plant. Or just another woman trying to get rich. I’m sure there’s no way in hell he actually raped someone.

/s

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Yeah. I’m sure we’ve already put a lot of pressure on Ecuador. It’s now a different situation. Someone on Ecuadoran soil is actively and openly engaged in activities harmful to the United States, and Ecuador doesn’t do anything to stop that person.

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Try Naked Capitalism for a kinder and gentler alternative to ZH, though you have to wade into the water cooler comments to get full benefit from the site.

Or you can do like the majority of 'muricans and turn your blinders up to 11 on Facebook and filter in only ideas that you agree with, because after all comfort (or lack of discomfort) is paramount around here.

They’re probably just jealous about how popular Ahmadinejad is.

“Activities harmful to the United States” isn’t in and of itself a criminal act. “Rape” is. If they can’t get him extradited to face court for rape charges, they won’t be able to get him extradited for “stuff that isn’t necessarily illegal, but we really don’t like what he’s doing now”. You may or may not be able to come up with a criminal charge to try him for, but I doubt it would be as bad as the rape charge he’s not facing.