How the MSM loves to smear Assange

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on the establishment media’s constant and obsessive campaign to discredit Julian Assange. Shooting the messenger is an old tactic but now corporate journalists are joining in:

It’s not hard to see why The New York Times, CNN and so many other establishment media outlets are eager to do that. … Serving the Government’s interests, siding with government and military officials, and attacking government critics is what they do.… … That’s their role.…  That’s what makes them the “establishment media.” … Beyond that, the last thing they want is renewed recognition of what an evil travesty the attack on Iraq was, given the vital role they know they played in helping to bring it about and sustain it for all those years… (that’s the same reason establishment journalists, almost by consensus, opposed any investigations into the Bush crimes they ignored, when they weren’t cheering them on).…  And by serving as the 2010 version of the White House Plumbers — acting as attack dogs against the Pentagon’s enemies — they undoubtedly buy themselves large amounts of good will with those in power, always their overarching goal. … It is indeed quite significant and revealing that the John… Ehrlichmans and Henry Kissingers of today are found at America’s largest media outlets. … Thanks to them, the White House doesn’t even need to employ its own smear artists.

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