In good news for the free speech movement: Julian Assange is free. In bad news: Joe Biden criminalized journalism by forcing Assange into a plea deal that vindicated the DOJ’s weaponization of the Espionage Act. So how do journalists and activists continue the fight for a free press without the totemic symbol of the legendary publisher gagged behind bars?
The answer is simple to state, but difficult to manifest: solidarity.
Chris Hedges, in his eloquent essay, “You Saved Julian Assange,” argues that Assange “was not released because the Biden White House and the intelligence community have a conscience.” Instead, Hedges writes, Assange was freed from Belmarsh Prison because “day after day, week after week, year after year, hundreds of thousands of people around the globe mobilized to decry the imprisonment of the most important journalist of our generation.” If activists want systemic freedom and not just the release of one man, then the tenuous coalition to which Hedges refers needs to seize this moment, recognize its key catalysts, and go further.
Hedges is one such catalyst, as are Glenn Greenwald, Joe Rogan, Assange’s inspiring wife, Stella, and his brother, Gabriel, among others. And of course, Assange had a brilliant legal, media and political team holding his ground. But let’s be clear. The Assange conversation was not trending every day in your hometown or on Facebook, MSNBC, or CNN.
The home field for the Assange movement was X (formerly Twitter), and the decisive political pressure on Biden didn’t come from Donald Trump or establishment Democrats – it came from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the only serious presidential candidate who pledged to pardon Assange on day one. Only that pardon and a Kennedy presidency will eradicate the Biden administration’s precedent of weaponizing the Espionage Act. So how does the country move from freeing one man to restoring the First Amendment of the Constitution?
I recently spoke to Trevor FitzGibbon, a former public relations adviser to Glenn Greenwald, Amnesty International, Pearl Jam, and WikiLeaks. When I asked him about the Assange case and the future of the movement, FitzGibbon brought up Elon Musk, the man who blew the whistle on Twitter and turned the platform that banned a president’s account into the home turf for the Assange defense and the Kennedy campaign.
“I think that Musk has done much,” FitzGibbon said. “But he could do much more. I hope he has a timeline for taking next steps to call for the pardon of Snowden and for endorsing Bobby Kennedy.”
FitzGibbon claims that “nobody knows how to quantify what an endorsement like that would mean,” but thinks the time is ripe.
“It’s an incredible time,” he said. “The vast majority of the American public doesn’t trust the media at all. We’ve been pummeled by information operations on COVID, Ukraine, and Assange. You have an electorate that’s been battered. Nobody knows what to believe. So, when Elon says something, it matters.”
According to the BBC, Kennedy is “the most popular independent or third-party candidate in decades.” New York Times polling has found that Kennedy beats both Presidents Trump and Biden among young and independent voters. Kennedy is within single digits of Trump and Biden among all voters in key swing states like Michigan, and Independent Voter News reports that in Utah, Kennedy is the first independent candidate in decades to catch up “to one of the two establishment parties in a statewide poll.”
Therefore, victory for Kennedy, a full pardon for Assange, and the restoration of the Constitution is possible. But how, with censorship on Meta and a mainstream media blackout, can Kennedy close the gap and insure victory? One piece of the puzzle could be the endorsement from Musk that FitzGibbon prescribes. If Musk gets behind the independent movement, Kennedy just might be able to overtake the establishment.
A Kennedy-Musk alliance would counter the power elite’s dangerous and demonstrable preference for the traditional two-party system. And Kennedy has the momentum. The independent campaign recently received a boost from one of Assange’s most vocal supporters: Edward Snowden.
On July 4, in the wake of Biden’s debate performance, Snowden went viral. The famous NSA whistleblower wrote, on X: “darkly amusing to watch panicked dems suddenly searching under the couch cushions for a candidate when kennedy [sic] is literally standing right there.”
Will Musk join Snowden in saying the quiet part out loud? Again, solidarity is easy to talk about, but hard to marshal. And, as FitzGibbon says, “The vast majority of the American public doesn’t trust the media at all.”
Kennedy has a strong base of support, but many Democrats and progressives are wary of Kennedy because he only checks eighty to ninety percent of their boxes. We, however, at Honest Media ask the American people to consider a rhetorical question: Is a perfect candidate possible?
The question now goes to Musk, who likely won’t make a formal endorsement, if at all, until after the party conventions. Musk has been tentative thus far, conducting a viral poll on Assange and Snowden back in 2022 and recently endorsing Kennedy’s alternative presidential debate on X.
Certainly, with his entanglements in government and his precarious relationship with the establishment media, Musk would risk upsetting the apple cart by endorsing Kennedy outright, even if it was in the name of the admirable goal of restoring the First Amendment.
But who is the alternative? Joe Biden? Donald Trump? Staying on the fence? Like Assange and Kennedy, Musk has taken considerable risks on behalf of independent journalism. Is this self-described “free speech absolutist” absolutely committed to free speech?
If so, now is the time to speak up.
Musk has risked it all for this country - this is the obvious next step
I don't know who they're polling, but the folks I know who support Kennedy are both old and left! The sane left, the left that cared about people, community, peace with justice, free speech, adherence to the Constitution, and bodily sovereignty -- including for women. The two major parties are sowers of dissention; both are beholden to Big Pharma and Industrial Ag, as well. Kennedy has worked to bridge differences, and he listens to people: listening to mothers is what got him labeled "anti-vax" in an era where truth and integrity matter little when labels, and ad hominem attacks, make far better soundbites. Real life is not soundbites.