Who’s a Real Journalist? And Why Does It Matter?

Amy Goodman is a popular independent journalist. And in 2016, she covered the Standing Rock protests for her award-winning show, Democracy Now!

North Dakota police issued a warrant for Goodman’s arrest shortly afterward.

Native peoples’ organizing at Standing Rock delayed the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline for weeks. But there was a big backlash. Companies responsible for building the pipeline, like Energy Transfer Partners, hired private military contractors. These contractors attacked Standing Rock protestors and sicced dogs on them.

That’s what Amy Goodman exposed through her journalism.

Yet, according to the Guardian, North Dakota’s “state’s attorney Ladd Erickson alleged that Goodman “was not acting as a journalist.”

Early in 2019, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange has been the target of the U.S. government and its allies ever since 2010, when Wikileaks published classified U.S. national security documents. The Department of Justice alleges Assange worked with U.S. whistleblower Chelsea Manning to obtain classified documents.

Historically, publishers of leaks and classified materials have been protected under the law. The DOJ is accusing Assange of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, rather than simply publishing the secret documents. Labelling Assange a whistleblower rather than a journalist or publisher makes him open to prosecution.

Notable papers like the Washington Post, the Observer, the New York Post, ABC News, and the Atlantic all breathlessly repeated the accusation that Assange was a horrible guest (read: political asylum seeker) in the Ecuadorian embassy — even claiming that he smeared his own shit on the walls. (Where’s the evidence?) Even Bill Keller, former executive editor for the NYTimes (and son of Chevron oil tycoon), threw Assange under the bus — in the same breath as claiming to champion press freedom.

“He’s a narcissistic dick, and nobody’s idea of a journalist,” Keller told The Daily Beast… Keller was quick to stress that “the government should be very careful not to criminalize the act of publication or the legitimate journalistic pursuit of newsworthy information.”

Clearly, the mainstream media did not view Assange as one of them.

Under Obama, there were ”eight prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act — more than double those under all previous presidents combined,” according to the Guardian.

The government has been ratcheting up its attacks on journalists. And no, it didn’t start with Trump. Though Trump might be right. Soon all we’ll have left is fake news.