Julian Assange: Media Coverage of Bradley Manning’s Imprisonment is ‘Appalling’

by Lizzie Manning | 10:15 am, May 27th, 2011

» 9 comments

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief recently gave an interview to the Huffington Post that was remarkably critical of the media coverage of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s imprisonment. Manning is accused of leaking thousands of classified documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay and the State Department to WikiLeaks.

PBS’ Frontline is calling Manning’s passage of information the “largest intelligence breach in U.S. history.” In an hour special on the subject that aired Tuesday, PBS outlined the specific information flow inside the Pentagon that allowed a low level analyst (Manning), to have access to such classified documents, Manning’s relationship with Assange and other information pertaining to Manning’s detainment in addition to a long profile that focused on very detailed account of his life.

PBS claimed that they only wanted to shed light on what might cause a government employee to release such crucial information but Assange calls this delving into personal information “appalling”. Assange says that speculation that Manning was depressed, discussions of his parent’s divorce and examination of his Facebook page is “irrelevant”.

“That we saw, for example, with Frontline last night—once again a concentration on salacious and really quite irrelevant personal factors. There are many, indeed, perhaps most, people in the United States from divorced parents. But how many have spent the last year without conviction in a military prison? The answer is one.”

This brings up a lot of interesting issues. Does the media pay too much attention to salacious, behind-the-scenes stories? Is the fact that Manning wrote on his Facebook status that he was “beyond frustrating with people and society at large” relevant to his case? It’s not unfair to say that most people, particularly those in their early 20′s, feel that way upon occasion. Should we also be examining that Manning “liked” Glee? PBS was clearly trying to give some back story to an ambiguous figure, but one can reasonably wonder if they were right to do so when Manning is in prison and unable to speak for himself

Bradley Manning, Frontline, Julian Assange

http://endisfar.com theendisfar

To Hell with Bradley Manning. He sold out his nation and while transparency in general is quite a good thing, the people he gave the info to are selectively producing information that is profitable to themselves and their various ‘progressive’ causes.

He should be thankful he is alive and taken off of suicide watch.
http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

Media coverage of prison in general is appalling. Rape is okay, even encouraged, just so long as you’re incarcerated. Why don’t we codify that into our justice system? “If you commit crime X, you will be non-consensually fcvked in the ass by a large African-American male.” Oh, that’s right, people would be offended by explicitly seeing what they implicitly endorse.
greg454

Manning is a traitor, he should have been executed long ago.

THE FOOD POLICE VS. RONALD MCDONALD.
http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/2011/05/war-against-ronald-mcdonald.html
Harry Flashman

So….the Huffington Post did an interview with this weasel.

Figures.
BarneyFranken

Manning did it knowing full well what could happen to him. I hope he stands trial soon for what he did.

Bradley Manning has made the world and America less safe. He made himself an enemy of the state.

Assange however, is just a two bit hacker with a bloated sense of self worth. The only thing he is good at is sleeping on couches and forcing himself on women.

He used Bradley Manning and then left him high and dry.
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Kallisti

What I find appalling are the ignorant comments left here.
murphy0071

Bradley Manning is an American Hero. Who else would expose the hypocritical behavior on the part of so many who are leading people to their deaths for lies, money, power, and greed. Manning’s act was selfless and brave in a world filled with ignorance, where America finally is at the top of the list in something.
Anonymous

Please supply one incident provoked or an ally harmed as a result of Manning’s behavior. It was only a blow to American ego. From a psycho-dynamic viewpoint, Manning’s release of secret information was programmed in as he lived in fantasy and something secret had to be released. It is obvious he was not properly vetted for his position and that falls upon the Command.