People interested in democracy for all don't turn around and trash two women who may have been raped. And people interested in democracy don't spend their entire lives focused on everything but equality.
Equality is forever semi-present in Pilger's narration. "Slavery" is a word he loves to toss around and you get the feeling that, were he 'reporting' in the immediate time after ancient Greece, he'd be making similar remarks. What he wouldn't be doing, of course, is what he refuses to do today: take seriously the inequality around the world when it comes to women.
In the film, Pilger is openly disgusted with CIA tyrant Duane Clarridge (above) over the issue of Chile and the torture and deaths that came about with the CIA-installation of Augusto Pinochet. "But it's worth it?" Pilger asks. "Is that what you're saying? Those crimes are worth it?"
And apparently sexism is worth it to Pilger. He probably never realized how much he had in common with Duane Clarridge but both men believe they "serve" a "higher purpose."
Our own attitude towards Pilger has generally been positive. He can deliberately skew the facts (as Ava and C.I. noted in "TV: The Craziest Sitcom") but, for the most part, he's a solid reporter.
But like so many of his age, class and, yes, political ideology, he has no interest in the rights of women or their historic oppression.
He's spent his entire career avoiding that reality and it's hard to be silent on it when he's basically justifying rape.
That's what he's doing. Regardless of whether Julian Assange raped anyone or not, Pilger's joined the rape justification brigade.
Can you imagine him justifying lynching?
No, of course you can't.
Because our society condemns bias and prejudice against men.
And let's wind down with a bit of truth telling. For weeks, we've heard boo-hoo-ing about Julian Assange and bail. Loonies like Pilger and Naomi Wolf and others have gone on and on about how unfair it is to not give Assange bail (he is now out on bail).
Why?
He was a flight risk. He was very much a fight risk. In fact, he still is one. That was the whole point of the nah-nah-nah-you-can't-catch-me pose he was repeatedly striking prior to London. And many cheered on that pose as it was reported. Eben Harrell (Time magazine) reported it in July of last year: "But Assange -- who reportedly lives an itinerant existence, traveling the world with a backpack and computer -- is himself a shadowy figure." Nikki Barrowclough (The Age) reported last May, "The former teenage hacker from Melbourne, whose mystique as an internet subversive, a resourceful loner with no fixed address, travelling constantly between countries with laptop and backpack, constitutes what you might call Assange's romantic appeal." His friend Vaughan Smith told CBS News at the start of last month, "He lives out of a suitcase, he clearly doesn't have a fixed address." And his periodical of choice, The Times of London, described him last April as "elusive as a modern-day pimpernel." This is someone who would not return to Sweden for questioning. And all of the above would go a long way towards establishing a pattern that someone is a flight risk.
Next time we're forced to tell truths, we'll address the myth of WikiLeaks as opposed to the reality of how Julian Assange operates it.
