{"id":402946,"date":"2019-04-12T01:22:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/requiem-for-the-fourth-estate-2\/"},"modified":"2019-04-12T01:22:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:22:15","slug":"requiem-for-the-fourth-estate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/requiem-for-the-fourth-estate-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Requiem for the Fourth Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This originally appeared at Consortium News<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is a very sad day for the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s broad-daylight manhandling and kidnapping of Julian Assange from political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London demonstrates in bas-relief that in today\u2019s Anglo-America, the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights are now \u201cquaint and obsolete,\u201d to use the words of pseudo-lawyer, Alberto Gonzales.<\/p>\n

White House attorney Gonzales was referring in January 2002 to other basic principles of international law, the Geneva Conventions, from which he decided he could grant Bush an exemption so he could authorize torture \u2013 which he did on February 7, 2002. (We have that memo.)<\/p>\n

This no secret; we also have the Gonzales\u2019s memo to Bush. For services performed, Gonzales was nominated and confirmed as Attorney General, the chief U.S. law enforcer.<\/p>\n

When WikiLeaks revealed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity chose Julian Assange for its annual integrity award. The award\u2019s \u201cOscar,\u201d a corner-brightener candlestick holder for shining light into dark places, was presented to Mr. Assange by UK Ambassador Craig Murray and Daniel Ellsberg after a major press conference in London on October 23, 2010. Julian Assange became the eighth in what has become an distinguished line of sixteen truthtellers \u2013 awardees of the Sam Adams Associates.<\/p>\n

The citation reads as follows:<\/p>\n

Sam Adams Associates for Integrity<\/b><\/p>\n

Julian Assange<\/b><\/p>\n

It seems altogether fitting and proper that this year\u2019s award be presented in London, where Edmund Burke coined the expression \u201cFourth Estate.\u201d Comparing the function of the press to that of the three Houses then in Parliament, Burke said:
\u201c\u2026but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sits a Fourth Estate more important far then they all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year was 1787 \u2013 the year the US Constitution was adopted. The First Amendment, approved four years later, aimed at ensuring that the press would be free of government interference. That was then.<\/p>\n

With the Fourth Estate now on life support, there is a high premium on the fledgling Fifth Estate, which uses the ether and is not susceptible of government or corporation control. Small wonder that governments with lots to hide feel very threatened.<\/p>\n

It has been said: \u201cYou shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.\u201d WikiLeaks is helping make that possible by publishing documents that do not lie.<\/p>\n

Last spring, when we chose WikiLeaks and Julian Assange for this award, Julian said he would accept only \u201con behalf or our sources, without which WikiLeaks\u2019 contributions are of no significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

We do not know if Pvt. Bradley Manning gave WikiLeaks the gun-barrel video of July 12, 2007 called \u201cCollateral Murder.\u201d Whoever did provide that graphic footage, showing the brutality of the celebrated \u201csurge\u201d in Iraq, was certainly far more a patriot than the \u201cmainstream\u201d journalist embedded in that same Army unit. He suppressed what…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This originally appeared at Consortium News. It is a very sad day for the rule of law. Today\u2019s broad-daylight manhandling and kidnapping of Julian Assange from political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London demonstrates in bas-relief that in today\u2019s Anglo-America, the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights are now \u201cquaint and obsolete,\u201d to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}