Extra ColdType September 2020 backed austerity economics for the best part of the last 4 decades… [moreover] the UK press enjoys an unrivalled international reputation for producing a diatribe of fake, racist and misogynistic hate speech over anything that can be called journalism’. He rightly concluded: ‘ironically one of the greatest threats to democracy is a press that continues to weave myths in support of its vested interests, and a BBC that continues to uncritically absorb them.’ Assange In the US Crosshairs A longside the Mail on Sunday’s billionaireowned, extremist right-wing attack on climate activists highlighting a non-existent ‘free press’, the paper had an editorial that touched briefly on the danger to all journalists should WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange be extradited from the UK to the US: ‘the charges against Mr Assange, using the American Espionage Act, might be used against legitimate journalists in this country’. The implication was that Assange is not to be regarded as a ‘legitimate journalist’. Indeed, the billionaire Rothermere-owned viewspaper – a more accurate description than ‘newspaper’ – made clear its antipathy towards him: ‘Mr Assange’s revelations of leaked material caused grave embarrassment to Washington and are alleged to have done material damage too.’ The term ‘embarrassment’ refers to the exposure of US criminal actions threatening the great rogue state’s ability to commit similar crimes in future: not embarrassing (Washington is without shame), but potentially limiting. The Mail on Sunday continued: ‘Mr Assange has been a spectacular nuisance during his time in this country, lawlessly jumping bail and wasting police time by taking refuge in embassy of Ecuador. The Mail on Sunday disapproves of much of what he has done, but we must also ask if his current treatment is fair, right or just.’ The insinuations and subtle smears embedded in Read our special 40-page issue of ColdType :fc[Kpg\ @JJL< (/* WRITING WOR TH READIN G ■ PHOTOS WORTH SEE ING MAY 2019 A 8jjXlec`^X\e The Trials Of Julian Assange JG<:@8 C @JJL< K_\ Ki`Xcj f] ;8M@; :IFDN G@C>