After calling out The Guarding for a fabricated story involving its founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks on Tuesday launched a crowd-funding campaign to sue the British daily. On 27th November, The Guardian published a report which claimed that Trump ally Paul Manafort had met WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange months before the emails hacked by Russia were published by WikiLeaks.
The Guardian cites its ‘sources’ which claimed that Manafort had gone to see Assange in 2013 and 2015 and in spring 2016. While The Guardian report mentions that Manafort has denied meeting Assange, the source-based story went on to make further claims that Manafort’s first visit to the Ecuadorian embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum.
WikiLeaks, in a series of tweets, denied any such meeting ever having taken place.
This is going to be one of the most infamous news disasters since Stern published the “Hitler Diaries”.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018
The Guardian’s Luke Harding, the author of the article, had written to Assange’s former lawyer Melinda Taylor before publication of the article to get a statement. WikiLeaks had publicly outed the email and vehemently denied the same. However, The Guardian still ran the story without the denials, claimed WikiLeaks.
The “Guardian”‘s Luke Harding wrote to former lawyer Melinda Taylor just hours before publication. WikiLeaks then tweeted Harding’s email publicly, outing the “Guardian”‘s fake news disaster prior to publication. The “Guardian” didn’t include the denial and ran regardless.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018
WikiLeaks then pointed out how The Guardian changed the headline of the story from an assertion to a ‘source-based’ story.
Ninety minutes after publication the Guardian modifies its “Manafort held secret talks with Assange” headline to add “, sources say”. pic.twitter.com/zcg8cQcYGq
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018
WikiLeaks has even demanded the editor-in-chief to resign owing to the back-pedalling on the story, WikiLeaks claims to be false.
Guardian quietly edits itself away from completely fabricated blockbuster “Manafort visited Assange at embassy” story. Expect more changes. Will editor @KathViner resign? https://t.co/JgEXSTXFzg pic.twitter.com/93mdLRtncb
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018
As of now, WikiLeaks has raised $29,315 from 573 people to sue The Guardian and has urged people to contribute so that it can help “send a signal that the media will pay a price for fake news.”
The GoFundMe created by Wikileaks yesterday to raise money to sue the Guardian over its fake Assange-Manafort story has raised $29,315 from 573 people on its first day. You can boost it and help send a signal that the media will pay a price for fake news. https://t.co/VaoMESN5RO pic.twitter.com/vSC1QnGKlI
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 28, 2018
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media provided by anonymous sources founded by Julian Assange.
