Is the Truth So Obscene that the U.S. has to Jail Julian Assange for the Rest of His Life?
Reposting this, originally written Dec. 14, 2018
Is the Truth so Obscene that the US has to Jail Julian Assange for Life?
December 14, 2018 judefleming on Word Press
I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t like porn. I don’t like what it does to the dynamics of sexuality and equality within an erotic relationship. It distorts what I believe to be the gift of sexuality. But the First Amendment has protected persons’ right to create, view, share and sell pornography.
The moral of this blog post is this: Fight for Julian Assange’s right to publish information in the public interest (ie. do journalism) like your access to porn depends on it. It was not that long ago that obscenity laws were being examined to determine what types of sexual visual and audio images could be depicted before it offended the public’s sensibilities or could be criminalized as “obscene”. The debate was very graphic itself. Would breasts, genitals, lips, coitus, anal sex, blow jobs, anal beads, three-somes, orgies, S + M / BDSM sex acts be permitted on movie screens, television, in magazines or other media? It was all up for debate and in the end, laws were drawn up, modified to be progressively more permissive with each revision, and porn became legally protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Here’s the thing: Why is Assange’s work deemed to be outside the protections of the First Amendment? Is Truth obscene? Is the collecting of Truth, viewing, sharing or analysis of the Truth something to be deemed offensive or harmful to the public?
If you ask Mike Pompeo, he’d say yes. If you ask Trump, he’d say yes. If you ask anyone in power who requires the Truth to be monitored, censored, limited or expensive, they would say that the Truth is ok as long as the public can’t access it.
While I dislike pornography and how women are depicted, I understand that the law allows for graphic pornography to be published.
If the porn conveys a criminal act (eg. rape, child abuse, beastiality), it is not considered porn, but evidence of a crime/crimes.
News is not neutral. It has the weight of Truth when it is delivered properly. When Wikileaks publishes documents or news, it is in the public’s interest and will affect how the world is shaped. The stuff Wikileaks publishes is inherently “big” or important. That is why they publish it. It is more than horoscopes or weather forecasts or recipes or tourism pamphlets. It is more than opinion or clashing personalities. The standard for “news-worthiness” in Wikileaks’ books depends on: whether or not the information is accurate and helpful to the public. It is as simple as that.
There is no such thing as “truthiness” in the world of Wikileaks because everything they publish is true. Otherwise they wouldn’t publish it.
It is precisely why Wikileaks is so threatening or repulsive to politicians, corporations or dictators; if Wikileaks publishes it, it has been thoroughly reviewed and verified for accuracy. To pass the Wikileaks standard for publishing is to win an Olympic gold medal in the world of news reporting.
I don’t like porn. But I accept that porn is legal and is published, for profit, en masse on a second by second basis around the world. It is multinational or transnational in so far as it transcends any national boundaries.
I like truth. I need truth. I accept that truth is legal and is published online. In the online world of news, there are lots of lies and half-truths. If I want “hard core” truth, I go to Wikileaks. Freedom of the press needs as much or more freedom than that given to freedom of the porn. Truth needs to be multi-national, transnational and not fixed to a certain State power. Wikileaks is a non-state Truth disseminator.
The case of Julian Assange and Wikileaks runs in parallel to the limits / boundaries of porn and what should be deemed obscene or harmful to the public.
Assange’s case is a parallel universe to the history of obscenity laws and is being argued under first amendment statutes. The Truth must win.
Or we are all fucked. (Yes, porn allusion intended).
FreeAssange