Assange a hero-journalist

As an author-slash-long-ago newspaperman, I’m viscerally dismayed over the Spokesman-Review submerging First Amendment hero-journalist Julian Assange’s arrest story on page 3 (April 12).

We’d never have witnessed proof of government-operated drones murdering non-combatant men, women and children – even a respected foreign journalist – but for Assange’s dogged persistence with Chelsea Manning uncovering videos of such shameful events (repeatedly S-R-covered).

Prosecutors threaten Assange with the archaic, obscure, arguably unconstitutional 102-year-old Espionage Act (unearthed by Obama’s administration against Manning) while imprisoning him over facilitating Manning’s access to death drone videos. Never mind that mainstream journalists routinely employ techniques helping sources disclose similar repugnant unlawful secrets.

Kathleen Parker (S-R, April 14) comparing Assange as an alleged thief with deceased Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham as a hero (re: Pentagon Papers publication) is grotesquely unfair:

— Assange doesn’t own asset-rich media conglomerates.

— Unlike Assange and Pentagon Papers disseminator Daniel Ellsberg, media empires’ leaders never were charged with crimes for uncovering unlawfully hidden secrets.

— Assange’s disclosures were never proved to injure anyone.

— Unlike Graham, his publishing never required retractions for inaccuracies.

Unless media outlets heed their collective consciences and demand unconditional releases of persecuted First Amendment heroes, Assange’s heinous imprisonment probably is the death knell for long-cherished press freedoms.

Rob Ethington

Spokane