Assange should not get a pass

By Solomon Jones

Philadelphia Daily News

As Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has granted interviews to major media outlets in connection with his organization’s release of Hillary Clinton’s emails, his fugitive status has been virtually ignored.

He fled Sweden for England before authorities could interview him (Swedish law does not allow charges to be filed without such an interview). He fought extradition in England’s court system, and, when he lost, he ran to the Ecuadorian embassy in London and sought political asylum. For four years, Assange has been hiding there, questioning the morality of others while simultaneously refusing to face those who have accused him of sexual assault.

For that reason, Assange is a hypocrite of the highest order, but Assange is not alone in his hypocrisy. Media coverage of his story is hypocritical, as well.

No major media outlet would write or broadcast a story about Bill Cosby without stating that he is facing rape charges. Yet Assange repeatedly is interviewed, featured, quoted and highlighted without a word about his alleged sex crimes.

Why the difference in treatment? Cosby is black, Assange is white, and, when it comes to handling such allegations, white privilege is still a thing.

Director Woody Allen continues to make movies, even after his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow said Allen sexually assaulted her when she was 7. Former “7th Heaven” star Stephen Collins’ admission that he sexually abused underaged girls for 20 years went away in a matter of months. And who can forget convicted child rapist Roman Polanski, the acclaimed director who was allowed to hide out in Europe rather than face extradition to the United States to pay for his crime?

Assange is seemingly following in the footsteps of those who’ve gone before him, but he is making an even bigger splash while doing so.

US presidential race

While Assange has hidden away in the Ecuadorian embassy, bemoaning the fact that the U.S. government is pursuing him for illegally exposing government secrets, a movie titled “The Fifth Estate” has been made about his life. He has been the subject of books and news stories. And now, although he is an Australian citizen, he has dipped his toe into the American presidential race, not only by releasing Clinton’s emails, but also by promising to hack Donald Trump’s tax returns.

But even as Assange shows up on our televisions and computer screens with accusations against everyone from presidential candidates to law- enforcement officials, Assange and those who cover him have managed to skip the most important fact about his exile.

Assange is not in hiding because big governments have victimized him. He is in hiding to avoid being extradited to Sweden on rape allegations.

Of course, that’s not how Assange tells it.

“Our D.C. lawyers are delivering a letter tomorrow to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to explain why it is that the now six-year-long national security and criminal investigation being run against WikiLeaks, the reason I have political asylum, has not been closed,” Assange said on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday.

Assange, who went on to compare the length of the WikiLeaks probe to the one-year Justice Department investigation of Clinton’s emails, essentially was asking why he’s still under investigation when Clinton is not.

Perhaps that’s a legitimate question.

However, the bigger question is this: How can Assange be allowed to point the finger at anyone when he is hiding out to avoid extradition on rape allegations?

As a black man, I wouldn’t receive the benefit of the doubt if I were facing those kinds of allegations.

Assange shouldn’t get a pass, either.

Solomon Jones is a columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.