It is often said that the reason the legacy media hate Julian Assange so much is that they are jealous of Assange’s rock star status. But it is much more than that. Not only did Assange make the MSM look dishonest; by reinventing Fourth Estate journalism with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange challenged the control of the narrative that is the source of the power of the legacy media.

The man previously known as prisoner A9379AY departed Bellmarsh prison on Tuesday June 25 and returned to Australia on Wednesday June 26. The private jet carrying him on his 36-hour flight to Australia touched down in Canberra that night. As he emerged, incongruously chaperoned by a former Prime Minister, the cheering and applause of his supporters rang out through the darkness. The TV footage showed him acknowledging his unseen supporters by raising his fist in triumph as he stepped onto Australian soil for the first time in well over a decade.

Waiting to greet him were two people who loved him dearly. Emotionally, he embraced his wife, before hugging his father. The footage of his return and his family’s reunion was on high rotation over the following days. It was a moment that many Australians had hoped to see, but thought they never would. For the government, for the parliament, for his supporters, for the Australian people, it was mission accomplished.

Julian Assange had been freed!

Over the phone, Assange spoke with the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and thanked him for saving his life.

At that time of year when our side of the world is at its darkest, his aged father said he felt like doing cartwheels!

Assange’s return was judged to be so momentous that the ABC broadcast it live. Led by Sarah Ferguson, David Speirs and Peter Hartcher, the ABC coverage was exceptionally toxic, rehashing discredited smears, and belittling Assange’s enormous achievements. Like most of the legacy media, many ABC “star” journalists hate Assange.

Host of the 7:30 Report, Sarah Ferguson performed her hybrid interview/ambush technique on unsuspecting US congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene, who had been lured onto the ABC to speak about why she, one of the most prominent MAGA republicans, supported Julian Assange, and why she was urging Donald Trump to pardon Assange.

Not unexpectedly, Sarah Ferguson was not very interested in the congresswoman’s views about the honesty and truthfulness of Julian Assange’s journalism. She spent the majority of the interview off topic, berating Majorie Taylor Greene over the 2016 theft of Hilary Clinton’s emails, regurgitating Clintonesque lies about Russiagate, sneakily smearing Julian Assange in the process as a Putin-loving servant of that Devil Incarnate, Donald Trump! Majorie Taylor Greene summed her up perfectly: “That gal gets her marchin’ orders from the Democrat party!” MTG exclaimed. Precisely. Ferguson is a Clinton junkie, who declared the Russiagate hoax to be the most important story of the twenty-first century: Hillary is her heroin!

Peter Hartcher followed on, explaining why Julian Assange, who has won many of the major English-language awards for journalism, is not a real journalist, like Peter Hartcher. Vanity? Pride? Delusions of grandeur? It was hard to decide. Rounding off the ABC........

© Pearls and Irritations