WikiLeaks issued 14 pages of guidance yesterday to media outlets, enumerating 140 “false and defamatory” things journalists are to refrain from saying about its leader. A sample:
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange bleaches his hair.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange stinks.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange has ever tortured a cat or dog.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange does not use cutlery or does not wash his hands.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange lives, or has ever lived, in a basement, cupboard or under the stairs.
The kicker? The “radical transparency” organization sent the email marked “Confidential legal communication. Not for publication.” Of course, it was published anyway. WikiLeaks responded by publishing and republishing its own “confidential legal document” that was “not for publication,” allegedly editing it several times to remove embarrassing bits that attracted widespread mockery on social media.
It’s a thoroughly ridiculous document, not just because of the 140 verboten statements but because of the supercilious, aggrieved and self-aggrandizing tone. It reads as if Donald Trump, Les Moonves and Glenn Greenwald farted in the same elevator and the foul vapors swirled together, achieved a rudimentary sentience and gained access to a keypad.
Anyhoo, it doesn’t matter in the slightest what that rapey, basement-dwelling, unhygienic, bleached out skid-mark decrees. But the missive stands as an example of how unmoored from reality and reason so many folks have become in this new Golden Age of Megalomania.
Open thread.
WikiLeaks: Assange isn’t a smelly kitty-abuserPost + Comments (172)