The Globe and Mail runs error filled smear piece on Julian Assange.

Canada's "paper of record" ran a smear piece on Julian Assange filled with factual errors and debunked Russia gate conspiracy theories.

The Canadian newspaper “The Globe and Mail” recently ran a giant smear piece on Julian Assange entitled “Julian Assange was never a journalist or a whistle-blower. But they’re right to free him” written by journalist Doug Saunders. The piece was not only a gross attack on a journalist who has exposed war crimes and corruption around the world but was filled with major factual errors and journalistic malpractice. Below is a list of the false claims, factual errors, and debunked conspiracy theories repeated in the article.

False claim One: “Julian Assange calls himself a whistleblower”

Saunders starts the article by saying “Julian Assange is a fraud who called himself a journalist and a whistleblower while greatly hindering and inconveniencing the cause of journalism and making life much harder for actual whistleblowers.” The first error here is the claim that Assange calls himself a whistleblower. Assange has made clear that he is a publisher and journalist, not a whistleblower. The reporters without borders article “RSF dispels common misconceptions in the case against Julian Assange” responds to the claim that Assange is a whistleblower by saying:

Assange played a different role to that of whistleblower; he did not leak classified information himself, but he published information that was leaked to him

False claim two: “The Collateral Murder Video Put out by WikiLeaks was deceptively edited”

In the article Saunders writes “WikiLeaks first came to mass public attention in the spring of 2010, when it published what it claimed to be an exclusive leak of a U.S. military video of a 2007 incident in which helicopters opened fire on a number of people, including civilians, in Baghdad. The video, edited to remove much of its context, was posted on a WikiLeaks site called Collateral Murder and promoted as a world exclusive.” A basic google search for the collateral murder video on WikiLeaks debunks this claim, as the page shows the seventeen-minute short version of the collateral murder video with the full unedited thirty nine minute video published right below it.

Both videos have been available since on WikiLeaks since they published the story, as corroborated by a 2010 New York Times article that states:

WikiLeaks made public a 38-minute video of the helicopter attack as well as a 17-minute edited version that it called “Collateral Murder.”

False claim three: Wikileaks corroborated with the Trump campaign about 2016 DNC leaks.

In the article Saunders writes “The Robert Mueller special investigation into Russian interference found that the GRU had provided the hacked emails to WikiLeaks, which then communicated with Donald Trump’s campaign and made them aware of the hacks, often in advance of their release.” While it is true the Mueller report accuses Assange of getting the DNC emails from Russia subsequent reporting has raised serious questions around this narrative. Journalist Aaron Mate reported the holes in the timeline of the Muller report accusations in Real Clear investigations. In the article Mate points out that the Mueller report accused Wikileaks of receiving the DNC emails from the alleged GRU run accounts “DC leaks” and “Guccifer 2.0”. The problem with this narrative is that the Muller report alleges Assange’s first contact with this accounts took place on June 14th but Assange had already announced he had information on the DNC on June 12th. As Mate put in the article:

If Assange's "First Contact" with DC Leaks came on June 14, and with Guccifer 2.0 on June 22, then what was Assange talking about on June 12? It is possible that Assange heard from another supposed Russian source before then; but if so, Mueller doesn't know it. Instead the report offers the implausible scenario that their first contact came after Assange's announcement.

Furthermore a 2017 testimony from Crowdstrike CEO Shawn Henry called into question the claim that Russia even hacked the DNC. As the aforementioned Aaron Mate reported in a separate Real Clear Investigations article, Shawn Henry, the CEO of crowd strike, the cyber security firm that first accused Russia of stealing the DNC emails admitted they have no concrete evidence it even happened.

Saunders’ claim that WikiLeaks “communicated with Donald Trump’s campaign and made them aware of the hacks, often in advance of their release” is likely referring to the theory that Roger Stone was communicating with or had a back channel with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. This claim is just provably false. The only proven communication between Roger Stone and WikiLeaks during the 2016 election consists of WikiLeaks telling Stone to “stop making false claims of association”.

While Stone attempted to establish a connection to WikiLeaks through the liberal comedian Randy Credico and the conservative conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi there is no evidence either of them had any contact with WikiLeaks or Assange during the 2016 election. For Credico his only contact with Assange was a public interview with Assange on his radio show on October 25th of 2016. They did not speak again until April 11th of 2017. In the case of Jerome Corsi the Washington post article “Inside the special counsel’s long hunt to uncover whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia” reported that despite extensive investigation into it, the Muller investigation could find no contact between Corsi and WikiLeaks or Assange.

False claim four: DNC emails contained nothing incriminating.

In the article Saunders writes “The emails contained nothing incriminating or even especially embarrassing about the Democrats…” This claim is just baffling. The BBC article “18 revelations from Wikileaks' hacked Clinton emails” lists multiple scandals revealed through emails including Clinton saying she would secretly intervene in Syria, saying she had “private and public positions”, that Clinton was fed a CNN debate question ahead of time and expressing support for open trade and open borders. “The Wrap” article “7 Most Shocking Revelations in Hacked DNC Emails Released by WikiLeaks” lists some of the big scandals revealed by the DNC emails. The emails revealed that the DNC was secretly plotting against Bernie Sanders despite pretending to be neutral publicly. This includes pitching stories about the Sanders campaign being an “unorganized mess”, attempting to use Sanders religious beliefs to turn voters against him and reducing polling locations in pro Sanders areas. These scandals were so impactful that they caused Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign from her position as DNC chairwoman and caused CNN to cut ties with Donna Brazile.

False claim five: Assange said his source for the DNC emails was probably Russia.

This is by far the worst part of the article and one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice I have ever seen. In the article Saunders claims “Though he later denied it, Mr. Assange said at the time that he believed the leaks were “probably” coming to him from Moscow.” On the online version of the Globe and Mail this passage links to an article on the Hill titled “Assange: Some leaks may have been Russian”. The article states

On Sean Hannity’s radio show, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that hacked Democratic documents sent to reporters at Gawker and The Hill may have come from Russia. But, he said, he is confident the emails he received did not come from the same source. 

This is clearly concerning as Saunders is claiming Assange admitted the leaks he was receiving were coming from Russia by linking to an article that quotes Assange fully rejecting the idea that his source was connected to Russia. While up until this point the article has been filled with factual errors this is by far the most egregious. Saunders is attributing a fake quote to Assange while linking to an article that quotes him saying the exact opposite of what Saunders claimed he said. The only plausible explanations for this major error are that the Globe and Mail do not fact check articles before publishing or they are okay with publishing articles that contain blatant lies and misrepresentation.

False claim six: Roger Stone went to prison for his connection to WikiLeaks.

In the article Saunders claims “In the end, Mr. Trump’s agent Roger Stone went to prison for using WikiLeaks to interfere with the election…” This is another claim that can be debunked by a basic google search. According to the United States Attorney’s Office press release :

Stone was found guilty of obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress, and tampering with a witness.

Nowhere does the conviction mention anything to do with a connection between Stone and WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. This claim is also evidence free as shown above.

The Globe and Mail has written multiple articles concerned about misinformation and disinformation. If they are seriously concerned with misinformation they would issue the following corrections to this article.

1. Julian Assange never called himself a whistleblower and has always referred to himself as a publisher and journalist.

2. Wikileaks published the full version of the collateral Murder video in 2010 along with the short version.

3. There is no evidence that Roger Stone had any connection directly or indirectly with Wikileaks during the 2016 election.

4. The DNC and Podesta emails contained impactful stories that led to resignations at the DNC and CNN

5. Assange has denied his source for the DNC emails was Russia.

6. Roger Stone was convicted of obstruction of a congressional investigation, making false statements to Congress and witness tampering not for any connection to Wikileaks during the 2016 election.