Today Show Explores the Softer Side of Julian Assange
NBC's Peter Alexander, on Tuesday's Today show, decided to explore the softer side of WikiLeaks founder and purveyor of U.S. state secrets Julian Assange as he interviewed an investigative journalist from Oxford University who found him to be "funny, intelligent" and "not at all...rigid" and also aired a clip of Assange's mother speaking up for her son as she demanded that the world "stand up for my brave son."
In fact Alexander never aired a clip or interviewed any one who had a negative word to say about Assange but he did reveal some postings Assange allegedly made to an Internet singles site as Alexander reported:
"He writes, 'I am Danger.' And describes himself as 'passionate and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy.' That he's looking for a 'spirited, erotic non-conformist,' concluding 'Do not write to me if you are timid. Write to me if you are brave.'"
(video after the jump)
The following is the full report as it was aired on the December 14 Today show:
MATT LAUER: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to appear in a British court today in relation to the charges of sexual assault that he's facing in Sweden and overnight Assange released his first statement since his arrest last week. NBC's Peter Alexander has details on that. Peter, good morning to you.
[On screen headline: "'I Am Danger' New Personal Revelations From WikiLeaks Founder"]
PETER ALEXANDER: Matt, good morning to you. Julian Assange's hearing is expected to start a short time from now. His lawyer will ask the judge, once again, to set bail for his release. Also overnight Assange's own mother came all the way from Australia, meeting with her son behind bars, and released this statement on his behalf saying quote, "My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them. If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct." And we're learning new details this morning about Assange himself from what seems like an unlikely source. Julian Assange arrived to court this morning, in the back of this prison van, his mother speaking in his defense.
CHRISTINE ASSANGE, JULIAN ASSANGE'S MOTHER: As a mother I'm asking the world to stand up for my brave son.
ALEXANDER: He is the mysterious hacker at the heart of an international storm, but before the scandal exploded Assange was reportedly also a single man looking for love online. The profile of the then 36-year-old, going by the name Harry Harrison includes several photos for potential partners to check out. He writes, "I am Danger." And describes himself as "passionate and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy." That he's looking for a "spirited, erotic non-conformist," concluding "Do not write to me if you are timid. Write to me if you are brave." NBC News cannot independently confirm the profile was created by Assange but OkCupid says it's existed for several years, last updated in December 2006, the same month WikiLeaks published its first document. Now Assange faces possible extradition to Sweden, where he's a wanted man on allegations of sexual misconduct with two women he met at this Stockholm WikiLeak seminar. Allegations Assange vehemently denies. Many Swedes have their own theories about what they suspect happened.
JONAS BJORCK, TV4, SWEDISH TELEVISION: All this fuss about it happened just because one of the partners in this, what you call, triangle was Julian Assange.
ALEXANDER: An aspiring investigative journalist at Oxford University, Isabelle Frazier, spent three days with Assange and his WikiLeaks team this fall, she describes his spark and magnetic personality.
ISABELLE FRAZIER: When you're just chatting to him he's funny, intelligent, you know, and, and loose and, and not at all like this kind of rigid media persona that, that, when you're interviewing him.
ALEXANDER: This weekend Swedish television, SVT, aired a new documentary on the WikiLeaks affair, interviewing the controversial founder, shortly before his arrest.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Every release we do, of material, has a second message and that is we set examples. If you engage in immoral and unjust behavior, it will be found out, it will be revealed and you will suffer the consequences.
ALEXANDER: And if the judge sets bail at today's hearing Julian Assange could actually walk out of this courthouse today, Matt, as a free man. By the way, worth mentioning, the British prime minister today alerted government workers to be on the look out, in case Internet activists, Assange supporters tried to hack into government Web sites again, today. Matt?
LAUER: Alright Peter Alexander in London. Peter, thank you very much.
—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
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Comments
The softer side of Julian Assange is his behind...
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:17pm.
...which I hope to see him sitting on in GITMO before this is over.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
That works for me.
Submitted by Blonde on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:46pm.
The only thing I care about is seeing him locked up for good. Or worse.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
You just know the Today Show
Submitted by Van Halen on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:23pm.
You just know the Today Show women are reading Assange's personal ad there and swooning.
Forgot to add: And some of
Submitted by Van Halen on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:24pm.
Forgot to add:
And some of the Today Show men too...
And some of the Today Show men too...
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 11:49pm.
They have them?
Lord help me.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:24pm.
I'm glad they didn't explore the "softer side" of Julie's lard assed bail bondsman. That would have required a major expedition to explore all of that fat!
My theory is that Assange is
Submitted by shilohcool on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:35pm.
My theory is that Assange is a CIA plant, whose goal is to coax out from under their rocks every bottom feeder hacker who fancies themself a 'brother/sister in arms'. Either way, their emotionalism will get the best of them as they sympathy-hack other sites. Keep poking your heads out, fools!
Seriously?
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:57pm.
Are you really Gordon Duff, Shiloh? See this over at TAH for the explanation:
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=21450
Just curious, as Duff is fixated on the idea that everything is related to the Mossad, probably the CIA is the step child of Mossad.
The only side I want to see
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:47pm.
The only side I want to see of Assaunge is the dead side. I say we cap him right now.
I have a question. COMPLETELY
Submitted by Liberallies on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 5:52pm.
I have a question. COMPLETELY unrelated to the this forum, but some help would be great.
How can I go about complaining to a school district/public school for their rather insulting and ridiculous HOLIDAY program. Instead of singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas..." they sang, "We wish you a HAPPY HOLIDAYS..." they didn't sing ONE song about Christmas. they call the break, Winter break. They called todays singing program by the first graders, HOLIDAY program.
I asked my first year old why and he told me that his music teacher informed them that they couldn't sing about all of the different religion holidays going on right now. They couldn't mention Kwanza, Christmas and Hanauka, thus the reason why they say Holidays, according to the "logic" of his teacher.
I know the reason why this public school is doing this, but how can I go about with a serious complain to the public school
March Right In
Submitted by miss911ninja on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:53pm.
Why not start out by yanking the school principal's chain a bit. March right in to the office and say with a straight face that you demand they stop using the word HOLIDAY.
Why? Because it means HOLY DAY.
God forbid.
Cajun, Miss9Ninja, et
Submitted by Liberallies on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 1:57pm.
Cajun, Miss9Ninja, et al...thanks for the advice!!!
Yes, I should do that. :-)
The problem I am having in complaining, the more I think about it, is that I do not want the public school that my son is attending to start bothering him or look at him weird or treat him bad, etc, etc because dad is complaining.
I am praying about this and hoping that God/Christ guides me in the best way I can go about this. I feel that I need to complain, but I am a very emotional Latino (yes, I fit right into the stereotypes of Latinos) and I can quickly get very angry and heated, specially if I am given stupid, ridiculous, moronic, not based in fact and history answers. Being calm in heated situations is FAR from my forte.
Old-Fashioned Way
Submitted by miss911ninja on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 2:18pm.
How about writing a letter? A good old-fashioned on paper letter? That way you can completely edit yourself, and say exactly what you want to say without fear of flying of the handle! Also, assuming you get a reply, you will have a record of the correspondence.
Miss9Ninja, Not a bad
Submitted by Liberallies on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 3:03pm.
Miss9Ninja,
Not a bad suggestion. With the internet and all the technology we have today, we forget the good old-fashioned letter writing. I will write it, wait a day or two, peruse it again, make sure it is void or anger, but that it gets to the point.
People must realize that the USA is going through the early stages of what many other nations have gone through before horrific things happened. If one studies the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Cristero Wars, etc. these events in their corresponding nations started with what we are seeing today in the USA. Not enough people stood up on the side of Christ and the horrendous things that Atheist did to Roman Catholics and other Christians, can only be compared to what the Nazis did to the Jews. It is sad that today when we speak of a Holocoust and human rights violations we only think of what the Jews went through under the Nazis. However, the Nazis were not the first ones to mass murder a group of indidivuals due to their religious/cultural background, the Atheists did it in France during the French Revolution, the Atheist did it in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the Atheist did it Mexico during the Cristero Wars.
Atheists have committed the most horrendous human rights atrocities against religious people, against humanity than ANY and ALL religions combined, including Islam!
Pol Pot?
Submitted by miss911ninja on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:31pm.
I think you're right about atheists committing the most horrendous crimes if you specify that they were COMMUNISTS. I'm thinking of Stalin and Mao of course. I almost included Pol Pot on the short list, but I'm not sure whether or not he was atheist.
Good luck with your letter! Let us know how it turns out.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Oh yeah, you're in Chicago, right?
Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:04am.
The school my boys attend actucally have prayer!!! Hard to believe, but they openly pray to God for guidance and the kids' health, future...
The last program they had, the prayer was as long as any I've heard in church. This was the principal leading it, and she was on a roll. Guess we're lucky so far.
God bless Texas.
Restless1, Well, I live in
Submitted by Liberallies on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 3:16pm.
Restless1,
Well, I live in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago. My county is DuPage County, NOT Cook County. DuPage is known for being 100x more Conservative than Cook, our taxes are lower, everything is just a little better here. However, our public schools are run by the State of Illinois. Thus it is the State of Illinois, I believe, that asks public schools from offending people during the Christmas Season.
I just find it a bit amusing that Liberals today are so worried about not offending individuals, but can careless when their stupid behavior in public schools offends Christians. This is where we live today. We can't offend Jews, Muslims, Atheist, Agnostics, but Christians? Let us offend them all we want! Sad, truly sad.
Merry Christmas!
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 8:58am.
Well you could point out that Christmas is a Federal Holiday and that if they continue to defy the Federal Government and refuse to honor a Federal Holiday you will write to your Congress and Senate reps and ask to stop Federal funding for that school.
Start with the
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:00pm.
principal of the building, LL. If you get nothing from him/her, and I don't think you will, go over their head to the Superintendent. If that doesn't work, go to the school board.
If none of those work, home school or look into a non-public school.
Good luck.
LL.
Submitted by cajun2 on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:37pm.
UpNorth has a great suggestion. I had to do the same thing when my children were in elem. school. Go to your states edu. web site. The schools are listed by name and by county. Compare the public schools with private, charter and parochial schools. You will see the academic achievement ratings and graduation rates for each school. It may cost you but your child's education is worth how much?
Thanks Cajun and UpNorth, I
Submitted by Liberallies on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:22pm.
Thanks Cajun and UpNorth,
I know that private schools and home-schooling is WAY better than anything the public school has to offer.
Unfortunately, at this point, we can't afford private schools and my wife is 100% anti-home schooling. I am doing everything in my power to covince her to home school our children, but she is one stubborn woman. LOL I say it lovingly, angry, in between, nothing. She is as stubborn in her beliefs as I am and she is a bit more Liberal too which doesn't help. :-(
I will complain to the principal, et al and will keep on pushing for homeschooling.
~Anti-homeschooling for what reason?
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:26pm.
If she's overwhelmed at the thought of taking charge of their curriculum, PM me and I can allay a lot of her fears. If it's just because she doesn't want to put that kind of time and effort in, well, I can't help with that.
Was that sort of like "the
Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:05pm.
Was that sort of like "the softer side of Charles Manson"?
He's a rapist. Pathetic,
Submitted by johnsonl on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:15pm.
He's a rapist. Pathetic, creepy, miserable, sorry-assed excuse for a human being.
~Depends on your definition
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:22pm.
of rapist. Not to defend the little twerp, it just sounds like crap to me.
PFC Bradley E. Manning, Is the guilty pos.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:45pm.
Julian's wikileaks is just a place to post the cables.. Next year there may be 1,000 sites that do the same thing....
The key is to keep the secrets in the computers in the first place.
Manning should never ever again be able to see the light of day.
What's next... the leaking of Top-secret info... Kiss millions of man years of labor good bye.
You Didn't Build That.
upcountrywater_the place to keep the secrets..
Submitted by Gary Hall on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 9:45pm.
To be fair, I believe that some national figure noted this last week:
"If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET,' store them where President Obama hides his college transcripts and birth certificate."(;~/ gary
Gary, Dang it, if i heard it I would have given a h/t...
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 10:04am.
It seams almost no msm outlets ever mentioned the pos Manning, sure was hard to find his name, sifting through all the media,
(finally found his name on wikipedia, for spell checkin).
You Didn't Build That.
Today show coverage
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 6:54pm.
What would the coverage by the Today Show be like if Julian Assange had leaked:
President Obama's school records
An accurate and full account of President Obama and his "associates"
Where the Gore family has gotten their money
Exactly how the Clinton's used the FBI files
All foreign money involved in presidential elections going back 20 years
To name a few
He probably would have been
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:01pm.
He probably would have been sniped by the government and an UN-official gag-order would be put into place not to discuss it in the MSM. You don't ever touch the DIM's and get away with it. Not a conspiracy freak, but the Clinton's have some major clout. You know it and I know it.
~Whoever got a hold of all that
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:23pm.
Would make it about ten steps before he got Jimmy Hoffa'd.
The trivialization operation
Submitted by Chris Norman on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 7:18pm.
The trivialization operation on this crime by the media is well underway. Their goal is to make it just another pop culture issue - something that isn't serious - a story of no consequence - a People magazine story...
Assange might think he is
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 11:18pm.
Assange might think he is fighting for freedom of speech; however, his ridiculous charade is only going to make "less than free" countries supervise MORE of the internet. You know, like China for instance?
A legend in his own mind...
Submitted by docjohn52 on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 4:12am.
"My name is danger."
"Hi Dan! You wanna put your pants back on?"
"I told you my name is danger."
"And I was gonna call you Morty!"
His name is now offiicially
Submitted by HockeyKid on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:24am.
Julian AssDanger.
No wonder Manning took to him.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Puppies....
Submitted by Pilgrim1949 on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 9:21am.
Gee....and I thought I read somewhere that Hitler loved puppies, too.
I just can't remember if it was grilled, broiled or in a savory stew.
But how can you dislike someone who likes puppies? Isn't that awfully mean?
Main soft spot for Julian is that cancerous tissue between his ears...
"Ye canne change the laws of physics....." but some politicians believe that with the right legislation you can pretend they don't really apply to your own pet projects...
Look at it this way.
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 10:05am.
The UK is letting this creep out on bail. The probably were threatened that he had some bad documents about the UK so they folded (UK is becoming France Deux).
See Lockerbie release for not very noble reasons as indication for where the UK honor has gone (can you say down the toilet).
The UK courts are insane anyway - must be all that wig powder
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 10:37am.
Not surprising Assange got bail considering they regularly release avowed islamic terrorists back onto their own freakin' streets on minor technicalities. Or sometimes they just do it to be "humane."
Hmmm...flight risk?
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 1:37pm.
Hmmm...flight risk?
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