Yes. Assange is an excellent barometer for this. When the info Wikileaks was publishing primarily supported the MSM agenda, he was a hero who was fighting for t

Yes. Assange is an excellent barometer for this. When the info Wikileaks was publishing primarily supported the MSM agenda, he was a hero who was fighting for transparency. When it began to counteract that agenda, Assange was denigrated as "a patsy of Russian intelligence", and now "liberal" circles consider everything from Wikileaks tainted. It is especially sad, but not surprising, to see many in the hacker community fall for this blatant propaganda and turn their backs on Wikileaks and Assange so quickly. The entire playing field is rife with people looking to manipulate and exploit. That should be no mystery to anyone. They do it because it's what works. It's the same in every country. Try to run a noble campaign that exempts itself from the game and you end up like Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders, just as trying to run a business while exempting yourself from the game results in fourth-rate also-ran status. Trump pulled off an amazing feat in destroying this whole apparatus that was set against him (in many cases by simply beating them at their own game -- I'm not trying to claim that his side necessarily used clean tactics), and for anyone who thinks that can all be written off as "fake news" or the even more laughable "Russian interference", well, I have a bridge to sell you. That is a highly simplistic worldview that clearly demonstrates an overriding interest in allegiance to the Democrat tribe more than any serious consideration or critical thinking. To the extent that smart people are involved in propagating these myths, they are doing it for personal gain (see above about playing the game).