I love Mark Twain’s line, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” So here is a story of how I let a good story get in the way of the truth. My motto at the point when this story happened was facts didn’t matter, feelings did. I was young, and …

For a good while one could blame Trump for the prosecutorial monstrosity perpetrated on journalist Julian Assange. But now it’s time for Trump to move over. The single worst assault on the first amendment and a free press in recent centuries is no longer solely his. Biden owns it. Biden could end this state persecution of a journalist today, if he felt like it. A persecution that a U.N. expert has called torture. A persecution that could easily lead to Assange’s death.

Assange’s lawyers have asked the judge to recuse herself. She has refused. By Rev. Dr. Chris Hedges.

Benjamin Franklin, magnetic trees, and erotically-charged séances — Urte Laukaityte on how a craze for sessions of 'animal magnetism' in late 18th-century Paris led to the randomised placebo-controlled and double-blind clinical trials we know and love today.

Rather than federal indictment, Assange deserves a tweaked version of one of Washington’s hottest honors — a Medal of Freedom with a steam whistle. By James Bovard.

Over the past few days, there has been increased activity around the Ecuadorian embassy in London, sparking fears Julian Assange faces imminent detention by British authorities. Helen Razer weighs in on truth, on Assange, and why you should care about both.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and investigative reporter John Pilger takes the gloves off on the continuing attempts to upend WikiLeaks and arrest its founding publisher, Julian Assange, in this interview with Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico.

America's least favorite whistleblower nonetheless did us a great service---and the U.S. case against him could be chilling. By Peter Van Buren.

Rather than a golden ratio or a moral judgment, beauty is more like a radical jolt that awakens us to the world, By Shahidha Bari.

The late publisher of Consortium News was a trailblazer who held lazy reporters and groupthink in the highest contempt. By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos.

Declassification should be determined by the American people, not partisan politicians. By Eric Posner.

The War Nerd’s interview with guest, journalist and author Robert Parry, one of the original crusading investigative journalists who broke the Iran-Contra and Contra-cocaine stories in the 80s, the October Surprise— and experienced first-hand the crushing of independent investigative journalism from Reagan through today. Starts at 33:30. (Mar. 20, 2017)

From pickled sharks to compositions in silence, fake ideas and fake emotions have elbowed out truth and beauty. By Roger Scruton.

An on-the-ground investigation reveals that the U.S.-led battle against ISIS — hailed as the most precise air campaign in history — is killing far more Iraqi civilians than the coalition has acknowledged. By Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal.

The first story in Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘Her Body and Other Parties’ brings up big questions about who we believe and why. By Jane Dykema.

Tips from Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Michael Shermer. By Josh Jones.

By Patrick West.

In the following instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admit to it, either orally, in writing, or through photographs or videos...

“When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are ruled by criminals.” On Democracy Now.

For reporters, deception often is a formative experience. By Ann Marie Lipinski.