Useful Idiots
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
Julian Assange's Brother: #FreeAssange, Plus Airstrikes on Cuba and An Art Critic on Hunter Biden
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Julian Assange's Brother: #FreeAssange, Plus Airstrikes on Cuba and An Art Critic on Hunter Biden

It's the most important first amendment case that the media completely ignores. Good thing you have a few Useful Idiots to keep you in the loop.

Matt and Katie sit down with Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, and journalist Kevin Gosztola to talk about the astonishing new development in the Julian Assange case, which the mainstream media has kept from you. Namely that the government’s star witness in its extradition case has  admitted that he lied about Assange in exchange for immunity. Why has mainstream media reported only on the Biden administration’s continued efforts to extradite Assange--and its recently won right to appeal a UK lower court’s ruling blocking his extradition--and ignored the fact that the government’s case has unraveled with the recanting by a convicted embezzler and sex offender.  Why do The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC stay silent as the government criminalizes a pioneering digital journalist they once lauded?

In addition, Shipton and Gosztola correct the myth that Assange is charged with anything related to the 2016 election or Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Paul Manafort and a meeting that never happened. Rather all the government’s charges relate to what Wikileaks published in 2010, like the Collateral Murder video, which depicted the US military indiscriminately killing over a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters news staff. 

Shipton and Gosztola urge the media and the public to follow the real story. As Gosztola warns, The New York Times may not care now, but a President Mike Pompeo or or another enemy of a free press could easily decide the paper of record was un-American.

Also in this episode of Useful Idiots:

–Art critic Nina Felshin critiques Hunter Biden’s paintings

–Texas Governor vows to arrest Democrat lawmakers who have fled the state in an attempt to stop an overhaul of election laws.

–Miami mayor calls for airstrikes on Cuba.

–Plus: Is it ethical to murder a drone?

It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.

Useful Idiots
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature on-the-road coverage of the 2020 campaign and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of the politics news of the week. Join Katie and Aaron as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.