Amelia Hill is a Dirty Liar 1172

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The Guardian hit a new low in Amelia Hill’s report on Julian Assange’s appearance at the Oxford Union. Hill moved beyond propaganda to downright lies.

This is easy to show. Read through Hill’s “report”. Then zip to 20 minutes and 55 seconds of the recording of Assange speaking at the event Hill misreports, and simply listen to the applause from the Oxford Union after Assange stops speaking.

Just that hearty applause is sufficient to show that the entire thrust and argument of Amelia Hill’s article moves beyong distortion or misreprentation – in themselves dreadful sins in a journalist – and into the field of outright lies. Her entire piece is intended to give the impression that the event was a failure and the audience were hostile to Assange. That is completely untrue.

Much of what Hill wrote is not journalism at all. What does this actually mean?

“His critics were reasoned, those who queued for over an hour in the snow to hear him speak were thoughtful. It was Julian Assange – the man at the centre of controversy – who refused to be gracious.”

Hill manages to quote five full sentences of the organiser of the anti-Assange demonstration (which I counted at 37 people) while giving us not one single sentence of Assange’s twenty minute address. Nor a single sentence of Tom Fingar, the senior US security official who was receiving the Sam Adams award. Even more remarkably, all three students Hill could find to interview were hostile to Assange. In a hall of 450 students who applauded Assange enthusiastically and many of whom crowded round to shake my hand after the event, Hill was apparently unable to find a single person who did not share the Rusbridger line on Julian Assange.

Hill is not a journalist – she is a pathetic grovelling lickspittle who should be deeply, deeply ashamed.

Here is the answer to the question about cyber-terrorism of which Amelia Hill writes:

“A question about cyber-terrorism was greeted with verbose warmth”

As you can see, Assange’s answer is serious, detailed, thoughtful and not patronising to the student. Hill’s characterisation – again without giving a word of Assange’s actual answer – is not one that could genuinely be maintained. Can anybody – and I mean this as a real question – can anybody look at that answer and believe that “Verbose warmth” is a fair and reasonable way to communicate what had been said to an audience who had not seen it? Or is it just an appalling piece of hostile propaganda by Hill?

The night before Assange’s contribution at the union, John Bolton had been there as guest speaker. John Bolton is a war criminal whose actions deliberately and directly contributed to the launching of an illegal war which killed hundreds of thousands of people. Yet there had not been one single Oxford student picketing the hosting of John Bolton, and Amelia Hill did not turn up to vilify him. My main contribution to the Sam Adams event was to point to this as an example of the way people are manipulated by the mainstream media into adopting seriously warped moral values.

Amelia Hill is one of the warpers, the distorters of reality. The Guardian calls her a “Special Investigative Correspondent.” She is actually a degraded purveyor of lies on behalf of the establishment. Sickening.

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1,172 thoughts on “Amelia Hill is a Dirty Liar”

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  • David

    You just have to love these Icelanders:

    “FBI agents landed in Reykjavík without prior notification in an attempt to investigate WikiLeaks operations in the country, but Home Secretary Ögmundur Jónasson found out about the visit and forced them to leave the country, with the Icelandic government then issuing a formal protest to US authorities, according to Islandsbloggen.”

    “Birgitta Jónsdóttir is also one of the people behind a new piece of Icelandic media legislation which will make the country a bastion for freedom of speech and source protection. The law proposal is still a long way from being completed and can still take years before it’s ratified by the Icelandic parliament.”

    http://rixstep.com/1/20130131,00.shtml

  • OldMark

    ‘Shortly after she announced the protest on 9 January (and I mean shortly after – about an hour – Gosh, those Guardian journalists monitoring social media for newsworthy items are very good at finding Twitter accounts of PPE students that have only existed for a day…),’

    Arbed- what are the odds on Simone Webb being the spawn of, or being otherwise related to, a Graun staffer ? Journalism is riddled with nepotism, and there are hundreds of PPE students at Oxford at any given time. What’s so special about her that her witterings get an airing in the national press ?

  • Habbabkuk

    Hey Karel, good to hear from you again. Trust you’re well and that your Italian grammar’s progressing (remember, it’s “amico degli amici” and not “amico dei amici”!).
    And your grandmother’s belief about flies is just so true! As proved by your very welcome presence here again today!

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Arbed; The DOJ operates with impunity wrt Wiki. Even ‘liberals’ (so called) do not obtain any cautionary tales from their pursuit of Assange and associates. But the pubic sympathy for the likes of Aaron Swartz, could change that mindset. Therefore I see that possibility as a reason to deny FOIA.

    ——————————
    Is there any more evidence we need? The minute Komodo returns after a long absence, he is slimed. Enough already.

  • Clark

    Fred, 1 Feb, 1:09 pm:

    “It has always struck me as odd that the main instigator in the paedophile witch hunt is the Daily Mail who always have an ample supply of young ladies in various stages of undress in a column at the side of their web page.”

    No mystery there. Sexual titillation sells newspapers. Outrage at sexual deviation also sells newspapers. Selling more newspapers or attracting more visitors to the website means that they can charge more for advertising.

    The same goes for war, so it’s no surprise that the corporate media generally promote war.

    Boycott the bastards.

  • Karel

    The idiocy of this lord of the flies, habbabba is beyond belief. The amusing part of him has become rather tedious. I thought and stated few days ago that Hahababa was dead. It seems, that what we have now, is less intelligent imposter.

  • Arbed

    Looks like there were also a few raised eyebrows at Wikileaks regarding news of the US Government’s ex parte application to summarily close down EPIC’s (Electronic Privacy Information Center) FOI request for details of surveillance of Wikileaks supporters as part of its Grand Jury investigation:

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/297341643684712448

    Foreign governments (UK, Sweden, Australia?) giving FBI secret information for WikiLeaks investigation. Read closely http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/doj-wikileaks.pdf …

    Here’s the news report of the US Government motion that I pulled all those eye-popping quotes out of further up the thread:

    http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2013/01/doj-tells-judge-wikileaks-investigation-details-should-remain-secret.html

    and here’s the actual motion itself (pdf)

    http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/doj-wikileaks.pdf

    First, bear in mind what it was exactly that EPIC were asking for in their FOI request:

    1. All records regarding any individuals targeted for surveillance for
    support for or interest in WikiLeaks;

    2. All records regarding lists of names of individuals who have
    demonstrated support for or interest in WikiLeaks;

    3. All records of any agency communications with Internet and social
    media companies including, but not limited to Facebook and Google,
    regarding lists of individuals who have demonstrated, through
    advocacy or other means, support for or interest in WikiLeaks; and

    4. All records of any agency communications with financial services
    companies including, but not limited to Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal,
    regarding lists of individuals who have demonstrated, through
    monetary donations or other means, support or interest in WikiLeaks.

    Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like it’s common or garden ‘citizens’ the FBI’s going after to me, albeit ones with political opinions the US government may not like.

    Ben – and anyone who’s interested in what exactly lay behind the prosecutorial overreach in Aaron Swartz’s JSTOR case and who has read Mary Wheeler’s (of the Empty Wheel blog) multiple postings about the Secret Service involvement in Aaron’s case and the overlap between the JSTOR and Wikileaks Grand Jury investigations should check out page 24 of this pdf. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? These articles give some more context (look at the dates):

    http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N30/wikileaks.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-stallman/protect-your-friends-prot_b_816438.html

    I think Wikileaks tweet is referring to this part of the motion to suppress EPIC’s FOIs:

    “E.O. 13526, § 1.1(a). In section 1.4, the Executive Order establishes eight categories of classification. Of relevance here, the order provides that information may be classified if it concerns: “(b) foreign government information; (c) intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology; [or] (d) foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources.”

    and over the page it says:

    Section 1.4(b) of the Executive Order protects “foreign government information.” That includes “information provided to the United States Government by a foreign government or governments . . . with the expectation that the information, the source of the information, or both,
    are to be held in confidence.” E.O. 13526, § 6.1(s)(1). The protection of such information is critical because, “[t]he free exchange of information between United States intelligence and law enforcement services and their foreign counterparts is predicated upon the understanding that these liaisons, and information exchanged between them, must be kept in confidence.” Hardy Decl. (Ex. 1) ¶ 46. Here, the FBI has determined that numerous responsive documents contain such information.”

    In fact, just read pages 26 to 30 of that pdf. Wikileaks has got it bang to rights.

    Jeez, that is one of the scariest documents I’ve ever read.

  • Karel

    Dear Clark,

    one has to be somewhat hypersexual, like those types raping 80+ year old women, to be titillated by the tits of Daily Mail and other rags of similar calibre. I doubt that there are enough such individuals around to explain the popularity of the gutter press. I suspect that their readers like to read about wars and their looser mentality gets enchanted while reading that “we” are on the winning side.

  • Mary

    Agree on the general content of the Mail but they have had some good investigative pieces and their photo journalism beats the other online papers. The RH column is apparently a big draw for their American market. When I have looked at the printed version, it appears less sensationalist than the online one. Lately they seem not to like Cameron.
    ~~

    Forgot to say that there was a little homily on Prayer for the Day this morning from Rabbi Wittenberg. He speaks in the style of Rabbi Blue, (Good Morning John, Good Morning Jim), in a confidential manner as if we all good friends. Today the emphasis was on the fact that it is Friday, the start of the Sabbath and on the Torah and and the Ten Commandments. Special mention on Thou shalt not kill!! Made me smile.

    ~~

    Was the suicide bomb in Ankara meant as a goodbye for Hillary?

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    I like Tony Benn. I remember (I was there) when Tony supported WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in 2011 at Conway Hall in the West End of London. We also remember at the time, Julian said this:

    “There is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.”

    For the first time ever through intimate, quasi confessional interviews and Tony Benn’s personal, photographic and film archive ‘WILL AND TESTAMENT’ reveals a very human face behind the political mask.

    http://www.tonybennfilm.com/videos.html#clip02

    After the re-screening at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall of this intimate and personal documentary on the life and career of the longest serving MP, Tony Benn. (87yrs) and as a tribute to this great British man, I present Tony Benn speaking to Parliament.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP9LS17iIyM

    Thank-you for watching.

  • doug scorgie

    Mary

    Ruth Porter represents the free-market think tank Institute for Economic Affairs

  • Habbabkuk

    Karel, thank you so much for your posts. We swoon at your limpid yet powerful prose and admire the elegance of your phrases. Could you not make us swoon anew by posting in your favorite language, Italian, next time? I’m certain you will impress as il vero maestro dei maestri! (note correct use of “dei”)

    BTW, in your excellent post at 15h14 you refer to the “looser mentality” of the readers of various rags. You sound disapproving. May we therefore take it that you yourself are, as far as mentalities are concerned, of the “tighter” variety?

  • Habbabkuk

    Mary at 15h18

    “Was the suicide bomb in Ankara meant as a goodbye for Hillary?”

    What a cheap, disgusting comment.

    It was certainly not a present for the family of the security guard who got killed and the family of the woman seriously injured.

  • Mary

    I haven’t looked at Spy Blog for a long time. This is quite recent and worth a read if only to confirm that we have a very undemocratic government.

    An accessible version of the Draft Anti-Social Behaviour Bill
    January 1, 2013 2:13 PM
    on http://spyblog.org.uk/

  • Mary

    Thanks Doug Scorgie. I looked her and them up.

    http://www.iea.org.uk/about/people

    When I saw the neo liberal motormouth Littlewood at the top of the list, I groaned. Free market is the correct description for the IEA – survival of the fittest, the rat race is all. Leave not a thing left of any thing that could be desribed as having a social purpose or concept.

    Then I saw Hintze’s name and gave up the will to live. And the likes of Porter and Littlewood are given endless airtime on our medja.

  • Habbabkuk

    Now Mary (17h10) makes another cheap (and equally disgusting) joke about the death of the Embassy security man.

    Attitudes like that give some inkling of what life would be like if you and your like-minded friends were ever in charge of our society. Thank God you never will be.

    No, don’t reply to this. Hang your head in shame instead.

  • David

    habby dribbled

    “admire the elegance of your phrases”

    “phrasing” would be so much better there, but not to worry. We’ll introduce you to gerunds next term.

    Ding a ling. Time for tea.

    Nurse!!

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    A certain smell of hypocrisy pervades the assertion ‘cheap and disgusting’ when one also reads personal and odious questions that immediately pounce on the wrong antonym to construct a statement light years away from the original context.

    An example is ‘may we therefore take it that you yourself are, as far as mentalities are concerned, of the “tighter” variety?

    Okaaaay!

    Does the question address the tactics of a football game? No! it does not.

    Conceivably it may be a hit on sexuality or feminist goading and irritation with a hint of lust thus further exposing a twisted and abnormal mind.

    I would prefer to use the term ‘fighter mentality’ for any female subjected to this type of debasement. One might go further. Fear of men turns women into victims. Yet women are potentially very strong, much stronger than they think they are.

    At my son’s martial arts centre it is women and girls who dominate the class and learn very quickly that a quick jab to the groin area is not only enough to escape it also implants a ‘komodo’ type aura of fearlessness.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    A certain smell of hypocrisy pervades the assertion ‘cheap and disgusting’ when one also reads personal and odious questions that immediately pounce on the wrong antonym to construct a statement light years away from the original context.

    An example is ‘may we therefore take it that you yourself are, as far as mentalities are concerned, of the “tighter” variety?

    Okaaaay!

    Does the question address the tactics of a football game? No! it does not.

    Conceivably it may be a hit on sexuality or feminist goading and irritation with a hint of lust thus further exposing a twisted and abnormal mind.

    I would prefer to use the term ‘fighter mentality’ for any female subjected to this type of debasement. One might go further. Fear of men turns women into victims. Yet women are potentially very strong, much stronger than they think they are.

    At my son’s martial arts centre it is women and girls who dominate the class and learn very quickly that a quick jab to the groin area is not only enough to escape it also implants a ‘komodo’ type aura of fearlessness..

  • Arbed

    Ben Franklin – I see it was you who passed on to Marcy Wheeler at Empty Wheel the article about the US attempt to suppress EPIC’s FOI request for surveillance data on Wikileaks supporters:

    http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2013/01/doj-tells-judge-wikileaks-investigation-details-should-remain-secret.html

    Well, she’s dug down into it in her usual inimitable style and done her own piece now:

    http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/02/01/doj-we-cant-tell-which-secret-application-of-section-215-prevents-us-from-telling-you-how-youre-surveilled/

    Yes, she too – like you do – thinks that this motion to suppress EPIC’s FOI might have something to do with the unholy shitstorm that would erupt if Aaron Swartz’s name was on one of these “numerous responsive documents” concerning the targeting of Wikileaks supporters for surveillance. I concur with that.

    And she’s very confident that it’s the Patriot Act, esp. Section 215, that’s being used in this targeting of completely innocent citizens who have no more to do with the leak of classified documents than being consumers and readers of such once Wikileaks had published them. That’ll be the “secret interpretation of the Patriot Act” that the US executive won’t even let Congress – let alone the American public – see then.

    I particularly liked this line:

    “Media outlets take note: The government is, in fact, investigating a publisher as a spy. You could be next.”

    Lots of detail in Marcy’s article, and she promises a follow-up article more specifically focused on how all this relates to the primary target: Julian Assange. She’s also pretty sure that they’ve been unable to identify any indictable criminal activity on Wikileaks’ part, but says she’ll go into this more in the next article.

    Hopefully, that one will cover the role of foreign governments in supplying information for the Wikileaks Grand Jury that Wikileaks tweet this morning highlighted, and which I’ve tried to expand on in my earlier posts here.

    This is really explosive stuff. The Legal Times blog, Marcy’s article and the Motion to Suppress pdf are all highly recommended reading as a measure of where we’re at on the secrecy > police state > transnational totalitarian state continuum at this point in time.

  • Arbed

    @ Venceremos 6.00pm

    Oh yes, that had not passed me by…

    I prefer to refer to him as DAG. So much more descriptive than his full name. 😉

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