The Atlantic

The ‘Enemy of the People’ Is the Real Target of the Assange Prosecution

Going after the WikiLeaks founder for publishing state secrets places journalists at risk.
Source: Carlos Barria / Reuters

It was treason.

The conservative commentator Ann Coulter said The New York Times’ reporters had done something that “could have gotten them executed.” Bill Kristol, now known as a prominent anti–Donald Trump Republican, said the Justice Department “had an obligation to consider prosecution.” The radio host Rush Limbaugh declared, “I think 80 percent of their subscribers have to be jihadists. If you look at The New York Times and the kind of stories they’re leaking and running and the information they’re getting, it’s clear that they’re trying to help the terrorists. They’re trying to help the jihadists.”

In 2006, right-wing-media figures were apoplectic over the exposure by of without warrants or subpoenas,

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