Saturday, April 14, 2012

Looking forward to this




















Looking forward to Julian Assange's new talk show. The first episode is being released via a Russian English channel, I'm guessing it will also be all over youtube.

Oooh, found the trailer, via RT the Russian station:

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I might just check this out. I hope he makes a decent fist of the interviews.

I've been watching RT (formerly Russia Today) for a little while now. Just in case you didn't know, they stream live on the internet 24/7 (in English) and post all their shows in an online archive -- all for free. So there shouldn't be any need to go hunting for the shows on Youtube or anything.

Melba said...

Yes I had kind of worked that out midway through the post once I'd found the trailer. So should be good. I've never really seem him in interview or read any of his stuff (ie 'verbatim') but I'm imagining him to be quite the charismatic for some reason.

Anonymous said...

I'm interested to see, but I don't have any high hopes or anything. Wikileaks was around for a fair while before the whole Manning incident and the "collateral murder" tape and so forth made it a household name. And even before all that I'd read some things that were written by people he'd worked with that weren't painting him in the most flattering light. I think it's unfortunate that so many people I talk to seem to equate Asange and Wikileaks like the whole thing was a one-man operation. A bit like Apple and Jobs I guess.

But I shall keep an open mind and try to be objective.

Melba said...

Interesting point Alex about people not loving him, or being unflattering about him. Does this mean he's a difficult person, possibly a pain in the arse, possible someone who calls people out and isn't easy to be around? Is he 'different' and does he make people uncomfortable? Is he not a team player, not someone you can easily make small talk to?

These are often the reasons I believe people (the masses) don't like other people (the few) or object to them somehow. Is he a control freak?

If it's yes to all or most of those things, I'd want to know what sorts of characters the people are who were disgruntled, and then make my assessment, because to be honest I'd probably go for him not them.

Does this make sense?

Melba said...

Interesting point Alex about people not loving him, or being unflattering about him. Does this mean he's a difficult person, possibly a pain in the arse, possible someone who calls people out and isn't easy to be around? Is he 'different' and does he make people uncomfortable? Is he not a team player, not someone you can easily make small talk to?

These are often the reasons I believe people (the masses) don't like other people (the few) or object to them somehow. Is he a control freak?

If it's yes to all or most of those things, I'd want to know what sorts of characters the people are who were disgruntled, and then make my assessment, because to be honest I'd probably go for him not them.

Does this make sense?

Anonymous said...

It does.

To answer the question, the main criticism I heard was that he was the kind of bloke who had a habit of making unreasonable and constantly shifting demands of people and then belittling them when those demands weren't met.

Of course, there's no way of knowing for sure how true that is. And even if it is, it doesn't really affect whether the show will be good or not. So I'm trying to go in without any expectations at all.

Melba said...

Yeah I suppose. We know he has enemies, that's putting it mildly. I am increasingly learning that people are complex beasts. People aren't all good or mostly good or all bad or mostly bad. Sometimes they can be such a confounding mix, and even then people shift and wobble all over the place. Not saying he's like that but perhaps the people who wrote the things/reported the things you read had had their toes stepped on, or their ideals, or something. Perhaps he is a prick, who knows? And we certainly won't know from a show. But I admire him and am kind of in awe because of what he did, or was involved in (if it was true it wasn't a one-man job; in that case, why is no one else in trouble with the law/facing rape charges?)

Anonymous said...

I seem to recall having a previous conversation with you about the futility of trying to decide if someone was "good" or "bad". About a writer I think. Hemingway?

Anyway, yes, even if every bad thing that has been said about him is true (including the rape allegation), it wouldn't lessen my opinion of what he did with Wikileaks. I try to keep these sorts of things separate in my mind. Credit and criticism both where they are due.

And why has Asange been the only one targeted? Actually, I'm not completely sure that it has just been him. But being the face of Wikileaks and the fact that he was the one who liaised with Manning to get ahold of that stuff from the US military probably has something to do with it. Curiously, Asange actually began a campaign of boosting his public profile a while before that release. I guess critics would say that the whole thing has been about feeding his messiah complex while supporters would say that staying in the public eye is his best defence against having a "quiet accident". The truth is perhaps a little of both?

What time is the show on?

Melba said...

Not sure I guess we shall have to go looking. I'm tied up tonight, did I say it was being released today or tomorrow? I looked again but couldn't see when it's being screened.

Anonymous said...

<a href="http://rt.com/on-air/> Looks like 9:30pm tonight*</a>

*Just in case you're freed up by then.

*And that's QLD time, by the way. Don't know if you're still on daylight savings down there.

*Also, what's with everyone spelling it "tonite" nowadays?

Anonymous said...

9:30pm tonite

Nope, doesn't do it for me.

Melba said...

Bum I think I missed it, did you comment last night or tonight (Wed now 'down here' I think it's the same 'up there' jokes)

Is it on youtube somewhere? Notice how I'm expecting you to do all the work.