Glenn Greenwald Objects to New York Times Review of ‘Nut Job’ Julian Assange (video)

The mainstream media was bound to gag on the WikiLeaks editor’s new talk show, which is taped under house arrest, airs on Vladimir Putin’s Russia TV and features Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as its first guest. But the Times review in particular has Glenn Greenwald tweeting nonstop.

For one thing, there’s this line: “To some he was a hero, to others a spy, but nowadays [Assange] is most often portrayed as a nut job.” Greenwald’s reaction: “It would be fatal to hold your breath waiting for the NYT to ever use ‘nut job’ to describe anyone w/actual power in DC.”

Greenwald also objected to the paper’s characterization of Russia TV, the Russian government-funded network that carries Assange’s show. According to the Times, “It’s like the Voice of America, only with more money and a zesty anti-American slant. A few correspondents can sound at times like Boris and Natasha of ‘Rocky & Bullwinkle’ fame.” Greenwald isn’t having it: “It makes sense that the NYT scorns RT as a tawdry propaganda outlet because of all the falsehood-driven wars RT helped to start – oh, wait–” (In case you missed it, the Times helped promote Bush administration falsehoods during the campaign to sell the United States and its allies on the 2003 war with Iraq.)

But the paper of record was fair enough to point out that Assange challenged Nasrallah and what it characterized as the house line on Syria: “Unlike RT, Mr. Assange supports the opposition forces in Syria. He took Mr. Nasrallah to task for supporting every Arab Spring uprising except the one against Syria and asked why he wasn’t doing more to stop the bloodshed.” Put it another way, “Mr. Assange is in bed with the Kremlin, but on Tuesday’s show he didn’t put out.”

You can watch the show and judge for yourself below. — PZS