/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Had no idea he was even ill. This and Ellsberg's death made this a really shitty year.

>>477445
>Had no idea he was even ill.
He had Pulmonary fibrosis which causes lung scarring. It's one of those life long diseases that can be slowed down with meds, but eventually catches up. Pilger living till his mid 80s is a decent run. Still i'd much rather see people like Pilger live to be a 100 than these neocon daemon-spawns like Kissinger.

>This and Ellsberg's death made this a really shitty year.
Yeah, seeing the greats log off is tough. But 23 was a shit year for journalism in general, censorship and repression of journalism increased dramatically, and also the rate of reporters getting killed rose. The latter one might not be a trend tho, only an aberration caused by Zionists targeting journalists. It might go down again once the Zionist menace gets btfo'd.

>>477446
Assange and Gonzalo Lira are still in captivity as well.

>>477448
Gonzalo Lira might get out, it looks like the current ukro-regime that took him as a political prisoner is slowly falling apart.

Liberation for Assange seems harder

>>477472
The Assange case is about intimidating investigative journalism.

It used to be the case that investigative journalism was enabled by the state, because intimidation of journalists would be decisively frustrated by the state. But Assange's case shows that this may no longer be true because the state has basically enabled wrongful imprisonment and torture of Assange for investigative journalism. Which has the effect of intimidating other investigative journalists.

That means in order to have free press, either you find a way to make the state go back to how it used to be, or there needs to be a new mechanism that frustrates the intimidation of investigative journalism. Also Assange should be freed, he doesn't need to become a martyr for freedom.

The UK government covertly plotted to discredit John Pilger

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-uk-government-covertly-plotted-to-discredit-john-pilger/
<The legendary foreign correspondent who has died at the age of 84 was monitored and targeted by a covert British propaganda unit, declassified files show.
<Recently declassified files show how the UK government covertly monitored Australian journalist John Pilger, and sought to discredit him by encouraging media contacts to attack him in the press.

If your reaction is "well duh" , i get it. But we kinda need theory about this. Maybe we could call it the "directed press"

>>477531
It feels like all of American corporate media has been subsumed into Operation Mockingbird at this point, to attack on command reporters like Seymour Hersh, Matt Taibi, Grayzone, etc. whenever they get a juicy scoop.

>>477534
>attack on command reporters
I'm not sure how i feel about those. On the one hand these smear campaigns can do reputation damage, but on the other hand it also can be free advertising. Because once you lost trust in corporate media all their attacks on independent media translate into high praise.

>>477448
>>477451
Gonzalo Lira was murdered by the urko-regime.

https://farside.link/nitter/RealAlexRubi/status/1745863733438488629
<It is with great sadness I must announce that Gonzalo Lira @GonzaloLira1968, passed away in a hospital according to his father, who has been fighting to get his son much-needed medical attention for the past weeks.

<Here is a hand-written note from Gonzalo which I received on January 4: "I have had double pneumonia (both lungs) as well as pneumothorax and a very severe case of edema (swelling of the body). All this started in mid-October, but was ignored by the prison. They only admitted I had pneumonia at a Dec. 22 hearing. I am about to have a procedure to reduce the edema pressure in my lungs, which is causing me extreme shortness of breath, to the point of passing out after minimal activity, or even just talking for 2 minutes."

<"I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden," Gonzalo's father wrote.

It's sad to see him go.

>>477549
Rest in peace, coach.

>>477553
Here's what Yves Smith wrote on nakedcapitalism
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/01/gonzalo-lira-is-dead.html

>>477549
Just a couple days ago his father did an interview with the Duran.

>>477564
Damn, that was just 2 days before Gonzalo died.