The Times Washes Away Julian Assange

It is no secret that Bill Keller, the editor of the New York Times, detests Julian Assange. It is no secret because the New York Times Magazine just published Keller's extraordinary account of his dealings with Assange, the whole point of which was that Keller detests Assange — and so, by virtue of his enmity, can allow himself the luxury of claiming ethical distance from him. Sure, Keller had to work with Assange and WikiLeaks in order to be in on the release of leaked documents and diplomatic cables, along with The Guardian and Der Spiegel and Le Monde. But that doesn't mean he had to like it, and that certainly doesn't mean he came away from the experience feeling unsullied. Indeed, although Keller's piece at first promised the kind of editorial hand-wringing familiar to any devoted reader of the Paper of Record, what it ended up delivering instead was a hand-washing, an act typically private but this time carried out in public, with ad hominem attack serving as an antibacterial ointment. Imagine what the Bishop of Wittenberg might have written had he been forced to collaborate with Martin Luther on the posting of the 95 Theses, and you'll get an idea of the tone that Bill Keller takes in writing about Julian Assange. He'll do it — but he'll reserve the right to hold his nose.

In this case, the nose-holding is quite literal: One of Assange's problems, according to Keller, is that he stunk. Another is that he, on at least one occasion, skipped down a city street, like Peter Pan. Another is that he wore "beat-up sneakers and filthy socks", until his cause was adopted by "wealthy admirers" who turned him into a kind of Land-Rover radical infatuated by his own celebrity, ensconced in a "mansion in East Anglia" and tricked out in the "fashionably skinny suits and ties" made possible by his "lucrative book deal" (this, in a piece that will also serve as an introduction to the Times's own book-length collection of cables and commentary). How much does Bill Keller dislike — and how fervently does he disown — Julian Assange? Well, at one point he cites, with apparent satisfaction, an editorial published by the Times of London that called Assange "a fool and a hypocrite," marking the first time in recorded history an editor of the Times of New York has permitted himself to relish an attack carried out by a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch.

But Keller's glowing reference to a News Corp. editorial is typical of a piece that....

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/julian-assange-new-york-times-5138774?src=rss

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