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Julian Assange Offers Praise for Matt Drudge and Rand Paul

Julian Assange Offers Praise for Matt Drudge and Rand Paul

In an online video forum hosted by the transparency organization OurSay.org before a live studio audience in Australia on Friday, Campus Reform editor-in-chief Josiah Ryan asked Wikileaks founder Julian Assange his thoughts about Matt Drudge and Rand Paul.

Assange praised Drudge for breaking down self censorship in the United States and publishing stories that the establishment press would not.  When asked if he considered Matt Drudge a friend or foe of the open government movement, Assange was more neutral, indicating that Drudge’s work doesn’t really intersect with that of his own.

Matt Drudge is a news media innovator and he took off about eight years ago in relation to the Monica Lewinsky scandal when he first became famous by publishing information that the establishment press in the United States would not. It is as a result of the self censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform, and of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship.  I think as time has gone by, Matt Drudge was mainly involved in collecting interesting rumors that looked like they might be true and publishing them, social media has largely sort of taken that place.  His political positions, while some I agree with and some I don’t, he doesn’t have that much of an influence on Australia or the sort of work that I do.

Assange then went on to offer his opinion on Sen. Rand Paul and father Ron Paul as libertarians.

I’m a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a  number of issues. They have been the strongest supporters with the fight against the US attack on Wikileaks and on me in the US Congress.  Similarly, they have been the strongest opponents of drone warfare and extra-judicial executions.  And so, that’s quite an interesting phenomenon in the United States, the position of the Libertarian-Republican, for a better description, Right – coming from a principle of non-violence, which is the American Libertarian intellectual tradition, that produces interesting results.  So, non-violence, well don’t go and invade a foreign country; non-violence, don’t force people at the barrel of a gun to serve in the US Army; non-violence, don’t extort taxes from people to the federal government with a policeman;  similarly, other aspects of non-violence in relation to abortion that they hold.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Wikileaks founder having been granted political asylum by Ecuador.  He remains holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London.  Assange has meanwhile been campaigning for an Australian Senate seat.

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Comments

Matt Drudge is a news media innovator and he took off about eight years ago in relation to the Monica Lewinsky scandal

eight years !!! Good grief. Closer to 18

    Paul in reply to Neo. | August 16, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    People like Julian Assange live in their own little quantum time-warp, where time and space have folded in upon themselves, where 18 years suddenly become 8, and where non violence makes an argument for abortion?

    Can you say Cuckoo?

      BannedbytheGuardian in reply to Paul. | August 16, 2013 at 10:26 pm

      I think we can assume he meant 18 . He is answering a triple question & mentally thinking ahead about obscure people ( to an Australian ) . He does well to know Ron & Rand’s positions . Drudge is for many people something they might have taken a look at in the early days of the Internet .

      His position on abortion may be similar to Dr Ron Paul – an obgyn & Rand Paul an ophthalmologist that acknowledges the laws in place but object to the violence . Assange is displaying the current abortion view in his country that the morning after pull is the preferable option rather than the violence of a surgical abortion.

      On the contrary Assange knows very much what is happening . He has walked the walk.

        Banned,

        He’s still cuckoo.

          BannedbytheGuardian in reply to Paul. | August 17, 2013 at 4:08 am

          🙂

          The thing is no ordinary person is going to create something like Wikileaks. For someone under the hammer of the US he is holding up .pretty well.( unlike Aaron Schwartz) .

          I just read tthe Slate article on he FBI infiltration attempts. & yet they still don’t have a case.

          It is going to be a race between Assange & the Benghazi attacks. I think they don’t want either to face trial . Imagine what both know about the Us secret side.

    Pablo in reply to Neo. | August 16, 2013 at 11:35 pm

    Despite all his rage he is still just a rat in a cage. And he’s no Billy Corgan.

I love Drudge! That’s where I go to see the news. And, I use his links. He also “picks out stories” and headlines them. It’s a different world than radio. Which does get lots of ears. While the legacy media went and died on the vine.

The big change (which boosted Drudge) was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And, try as a lot of “established pundits and stars, tried to pull Clinton down. It didn’t work. Clinton got his second term in office. And, the media world changed.

No, it didn’t change for everybody.

And, one reason we know about WiliLeaks. And, we know about Ed Snowden, is that separate from the legacy media … their stories have been heard. Not up to the “newsmen” if they want to run with it. Or not.

The biggest change is that the stories didn’t knock people down. No lynching rope for Assange. And, the world knows Snowden in safe. And, the world thinks very little of America’s reach these days. All because our president is all no fly pajama bottoms. And, little intelligence needed to run most of the agencies. Including the military. Because everyone in it is just concerned about their own advancement.

I mean, on the Net you’re told that Wesley Clark walked out on his wife of 46 years … because she had no magic trick to turn herself into a 30 year old. Colin Powell, and Petreaus fair no better. So exactly where was “”no fly pajama bottoms’ supposed to go and get expert advice?

At least Monica lightened the mood. Because she made it sound like Clinton “listened.”

After Breitbart died his “brand” lives on.

I suspect that Drudge works with others. And, he’s not running his own page 24/7. Though he is masterful at keeping private. (How does he do that?)

Don’t leave out REDDIT!

Among their top headlines, now, is a filmed FAKE scene done by the muslim brotherhood in egypt.

Easy to sell fake stuff to the media if it advances their “angle” on a story.

Now there’s an endorsement to be cherished… By your enemies!

Good gawd, Assange should be in the slammer for a number of transgressions or even better, he’d have simply disappeared if we still had a robust covert CIA operation..

    Sanddog in reply to GrumpyOne. | August 17, 2013 at 12:00 am

    You’ve got to take the good with the bad. Assange is a slimy little weasel but compared to the actions our government has taken against its own citizens, he’s pretty far down on the list of villains.

I’m always amused by folks who just hate what the government is doing. And the only thing they hate more is the people who tell them what the government is doing.