4 ms·

This always seems to get buried when talking about Assange on HN. The guy was pretty clearly biased in the reports he would send out and they _just so happened_

This always seems to get buried when talking about Assange on HN. The guy was pretty clearly biased in the reports he would send out and they _just so happened_ to harm Hilary Clinton during the 2016 election, in spite of the fact that Republican email servers were also compromised. If he really had an interest in transparency he'd release the Republican emails. But he didn't. So I can only assume the guy is a propagandist designed to sow chaos.

whatshisface 5y ago
Did he have any republican emails? If so that's news to me and I would not mind seeing them.
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  Possibly not, Russia most likely decided not to feed those to WikiLeaks.
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    Well, you can hardly blame Assange for that. I see a lot of shooting the messenger going on with this case.
    - FourHand451 5y ago
      Even if you assume that Assange just released all information that was available to him, I still think it's hard to argue he's completely blameless. It seems naive to think that you wouldn't be made a tool of propagandists, even if you didn't endeavor to be a propagandist yourself.
      - whatshisface 5y ago
        Suppose that Russia gave you a cache of emails implicating a politician of your own favorite party in some kind of massive corruption scandal. Furthermore, suppose that you somehow knew they were real, and also somehow knew it was Russia (the second condition being the least realistic, but I'm working with you here.) Would you hide the emails to protect your former favorite party, allowing the corruption to continue, or would you release them in an action that would appear to help a foreign power? That's a serious question and I am interested which side HN would come down on.
        Booktrope 5y ago
        Nice hypothetical for some political ethics class, but nothing to do with what actually happened. Assange wanted to influence the US election, specifically, to defeat Clinton and elect Trump. He worked with the Trump campaign and the Russians to do everything within his power to make that happen. Meanwhile, Wikileaks was provided with leaked Trump campaign emails and refused to release them, claiming it wasn't important to do that. To portray this as an difficult decision for poor Assange is just absurd. He made clear in his own emails, his entire goal was to bring down Clinton. She lost the election for many reasons, including Assange's efforts but also a very poorly run campaign and many bad decisions on her own part.
        the_optimist 5y ago
        You must release the emails.
- slg 5y ago
  Emails specificially? I'm not sure if that has ever been confirmed, but this is directly from Assange[1]: >“We do have some information about the Republican campaign,” he said Friday, according to The Washington Post. >“I mean, it’s from a point of view of an investigative journalist organization like WikiLeaks, the problem with the Trump campaign is it’s actually hard for us to publish much more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every second day," Assange said. If Wikileak's primary goal is transparency, why not release these docs too? [1] - https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293453-assange-wikileaks-trump-info-no-worse-than-him https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/2934...
- Booktrope 5y ago
  You won't because Wikileaks refused to release them. Their stated justification for this was, so much bad stuff had already been revealed about Trump that there was no need. Reallly.
the_optimist 5y ago
That's because it's nonsense. The US media hypes and kills stories constantly based on political disposition. Is it also designed to sow chaos? Freedom of reportage doesn't have a political party. It is literally ensconced in the 1st Amendment. Attacking messengers when personal causes are impugned by truth: this is a red flag for extraordinary hackery.

whatshisface 5y ago

Did he have any republican emails? If so that's news to me and I would not mind seeing them.

SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
Possibly not, Russia most likely decided not to feed those to WikiLeaks.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  Well, you can hardly blame Assange for that. I see a lot of shooting the messenger going on with this case.
  - FourHand451 5y ago
    Even if you assume that Assange just released all information that was available to him, I still think it's hard to argue he's completely blameless. It seems naive to think that you wouldn't be made a tool of propagandists, even if you didn't endeavor to be a propagandist yourself.
    - whatshisface 5y ago
      Suppose that Russia gave you a cache of emails implicating a politician of your own favorite party in some kind of massive corruption scandal. Furthermore, suppose that you somehow knew they were real, and also somehow knew it was Russia (the second condition being the least realistic, but I'm working with you here.) Would you hide the emails to protect your former favorite party, allowing the corruption to continue, or would you release them in an action that would appear to help a foreign power? That's a serious question and I am interested which side HN would come down on.
      - Booktrope 5y ago
        Nice hypothetical for some political ethics class, but nothing to do with what actually happened. Assange wanted to influence the US election, specifically, to defeat Clinton and elect Trump. He worked with the Trump campaign and the Russians to do everything within his power to make that happen. Meanwhile, Wikileaks was provided with leaked Trump campaign emails and refused to release them, claiming it wasn't important to do that. To portray this as an difficult decision for poor Assange is just absurd. He made clear in his own emails, his entire goal was to bring down Clinton. She lost the election for many reasons, including Assange's efforts but also a very poorly run campaign and many bad decisions on her own part.
      - the_optimist 5y ago
        You must release the emails.
slg 5y ago
Emails specificially? I'm not sure if that has ever been confirmed, but this is directly from Assange[1]: >“We do have some information about the Republican campaign,” he said Friday, according to The Washington Post. >“I mean, it’s from a point of view of an investigative journalist organization like WikiLeaks, the problem with the Trump campaign is it’s actually hard for us to publish much more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every second day," Assange said. If Wikileak's primary goal is transparency, why not release these docs too? [1] - https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293453-assange-wikileaks-trump-info-no-worse-than-him https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/2934...
Booktrope 5y ago
You won't because Wikileaks refused to release them. Their stated justification for this was, so much bad stuff had already been revealed about Trump that there was no need. Reallly.

the_optimist 5y ago

That's because it's nonsense. The US media hypes and kills stories constantly based on political disposition. Is it also designed to sow chaos? Freedom of reportage doesn't have a political party. It is literally ensconced in the 1st Amendment. Attacking messengers when personal causes are impugned by truth: this is a red flag for extraordinary hackery.