The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Julian Assange: the movie

News outlet animates the sexual assault charges against the WikiLeaks founder.

By Samira Shackle Published 23 December 2010 8:54

Oh dear. The Taiwanese team that brought you the animated film of the bullying allegations against Gordon Brown and the latest on Sarah Palin has turned its attention to an altogether more sensitive matter – the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange.

Make of it what you will: I, for one, am not sure that the comedy caper music and picture of a tap to signify a broken condom are the most appropriate choices. It's so wrong that it's . . . well, wrong.

Tags: Julian Assange

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11 comments

Thu, 2010-12-23 10:04 — Luddite (not verified)

Yes RAPE is always fucking wrong.. Some on the political-left need to tread carefully.

Thu, 2010-12-23 10:26 — georgia s (not verified)

definitely oversteps the boundaries of good taste... but pretty funny. probably unintentionally.

Thu, 2010-12-23 10:31 — Lou (not verified)

I agree Luddite. If this was anyone else but Julian Assange, this kind of commentary would not appear. Will we be seeing next a picture of Julian under the heading the radical Jesus? The Messiah status afforded to this man is shameful, no one knows the facts yet and until such time as they do, the women should be afforded some respect and not assumed to be villains and whilst Julian is innocent until proven otherwise, he should not be placed on some holier than thou pedestal by the left just because he published some interesting leaks.

Thu, 2010-12-23 10:42 — georgia s (not verified)

i agree largely, but this video wasn't made by "some on the left" - look at the embedded links to previous examples including gordon brown physically assaulting someone - it was made by a taiwanese news outlet that feels the need to animate world news for some reason.

i don't think this is an example of leftist idealisation of assange; more a misjudged representation of events. solely becasue of the scale of this misjudgement, it's quite funny

Thu, 2010-12-23 10:56 — Lou (not verified)

No georgia, it wasn't made by some on the left but it's being published by some on the left on this left site.

Thu, 2010-12-23 11:21 — georgia s (not verified)

yes it's published on this site but it's clearly prefaced saying that its wrong. i think there's a risk of being overly puritanical here

Thu, 2010-12-23 11:32 — Lou (not verified)

Ah, I am sorry rape and serious sexual assault allegations are something I really should take less of a moral stand on and I should not be so affronted that an animation that makes light of them is worthy of a journalistic piece.

I stand corrected.

Thu, 2010-12-23 11:39 — Mr Shigemitsu (not verified)

Sexual assault charges?
What sexual assault charges?
So far, Assange has not been charged with anything.

Thu, 2010-12-23 11:49 — georgia s (not verified)

i agree with you that they are serious charges that shouldn't be made light of! but i don't think that publishing them HERE necessarily endorses that.

also i'm not sure they are trying to make light of it? the past videos are also unintentionally comical.

but i appreciate your point, and me saying "overly puritanical" could easily be misconstrued - didn't mean it like that

Thu, 2010-12-23 12:59 — Lou (not verified)

I agree Georgia that some of the past videos have been comical but I just think that this isn't a subject that should be made into something comical and put over in that way on here.

I don't want to sit as judge and jury on either of the parties involved in these allegations but I don't think there's any place for comic strip story telling on such an important issue and that it is worthy of airing on here.

It isn't enough to say it's wrong but still run it, we wouldn't accept an article that says 'it is so wrong' but then continues to run an animation on torture that was animated in the lighthearted way that this animation portrays the Assange allegations. It's just not an issue for comicalities.

I know you agree that rape is a serious issue and so is sexual assault, for me it is about the perception attached to women who make sexual or rape allegations, they are made light of too often, treated in a dismissive way before facts are known and not taken seriously. This reinforces that attitude.

I apologise for a soap box moment on my part.