Julian Assange Signs $1.3 Million Memoir Deal
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been offered a deal to write his memoirs:
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to write a memoir, U.S. publisher Random House confirmed, receiving an advance that Mr. Assange said totals more than $1 million for U.S. and U.K. rights as he seeks to pay mounting legal bills and keep the document-leaking website in the black. Random House, a unit of Germany's Bertelsmann AG, expects the manuscript to be delivered at some point in 2011 but doesn't yet have a timetable for publication, Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for the U.S. publisher, said Sunday...In an interview published Sunday with U.K. newspaper the Times, Mr. Assange said he would receive £325,000 ($502,000) from U.K. publisher Canongate Books Ltd. and $800,000 from U.S. publishing house Alfred A. Knopf, itself a unit of Random House, for writing an autobiography."
Also, I didn't get a chance before the holiday to post Cenk Uygur's 12/22 interview with Assange. In the interview, Assange goes after politiicians and the media, FOX News in particular:
"They believe that if they sell us out, if they say, well he's not really a journalist, they can have the Washington authorities target us and destroy us and somehow steer clear of the crossfire..but I have a message to them: they're going to be next."
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
TERMITE
Posted by: ophu | Dec 27, 2010 10:17:22 AM
Wow, how shocking (yawn). And of course he claims that all the money will be used for "noble" purposes, though he already has funding from many wealthy people.
I suspect that by the time of the memoir most people won't care much about this story, and peddling it as a memoir is a mistake. No one wants to read about how young Julian realized that rich governments keep secrets (!) and need to be exposed. I suspect the only things he's ever done of much interest have been in the past year or two---and if the sexual assault charges are true, he shouldn't be given a bigger platform.
And if he receives serious charges, the book deal with die. (Not to mention, he'd be an idiot to expose his sources and approaches---which is clearly what Random House wantS---so most of the book will be dull navel-gazing.) His revelations have been pretty dull, and his ego is obnoxiously outsized.
Posted by: Paul R | Dec 27, 2010 10:31:17 AM
Nothing brings out the Log Cabins like a Julien Assange comment thread
Posted by: christopher | Dec 27, 2010 10:42:03 AM
I don't see what Wikileaks is doing as anything different than what the Washington Post did with Watergate; or what any newspaper did with the Clinton/Lewinsky story. Wikileaks is simply taking information given them and putting it out for everyone to see.
Posted by: james | Dec 27, 2010 10:48:07 AM
Keep talking Paul R and you'll remain as obsequiously irrelevant as ever.
Posted by: Nanny McBone | Dec 27, 2010 11:05:58 AM
It would be so much easier for Assange to get his valid views to resonate with Americans if he were interviewed by intelligent reporters who had some clue about law, both domestic and international. There were some wasted opportunities there- especially the point that was missed about Manning not having been "convicted". The problem is that he has not been charged as of yet.
Posted by: clifford | Dec 27, 2010 11:15:01 AM
Looks like your hero has sold out.
Posted by: niles | Dec 27, 2010 11:30:37 AM
I suppose it will be easy to get an advance copy.
Posted by: hank | Dec 27, 2010 11:53:23 AM
Manning will be charged, no question. And he'll be convicted and receive a hard prison sentence. Bradley Manning gave Assange his present fame [infamy] since the American cables leak/dump is Wikileaks main claim to fame, nothing else has come close. Has he and Wikileaks lived up to their promise of helping Manning, especially with $? No.
Assange also receives the bulk of Wikileak's alleged cash set-aside for professional, non-volunteer employees @ $87,000 [USC?]
The sad thing is the U.S. government probably really doesn't care that much about the leaked data. Most of it is stuff their friends and adversaries already know anyway, and leaks are a common way anyway of the government to express it's true attitude through backdoor means. But Bradley Manning is going to be sold down the river.
Posted by: ratbastard | Dec 27, 2010 1:03:30 PM
o
Posted by: o | Dec 27, 2010 3:49:43 PM
Good for assange, the man has to find someway to get money, lol.
Posted by: Steve | Dec 27, 2010 3:59:11 PM
great, they thought they could cower him with lawsuits he couldn't afford. Now that's not a problem. Go Julian
Posted by: Stephen | Dec 27, 2010 5:18:36 PM
@Nanny McBone: Wow, string together a couple fancy words and you sound super smart! Except you don't. How was my comment obsequious (fawning, servile)? To whom? Or do you even know what the word means?
@James: The difference between this and the WaPo's coverage of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate is that those were issues of government treachery and lies at the highest levels. The information released by WikiLeaks has been nothing more than diplomatic communications that surprised no one (but embarrassed a few). I don't care about the "secrets" being exposed, I'm simply annoyed at Assange's self-righteousness for doing, well, not much. Bear in mind the leaks to date have "exposed" information that was available to hundreds of thousands of government workers.
But if he does go forward and manage to release, say, anti-Islamic comments or information about civilian support for US troops, and it gets US soldiers or Afghani civilians killed, what will that have proven or achieved? It will mean that innocent people drawn into horrible situations will have lost their lives because their government is engaged is an unjust war---and every reasonable person already knows that. The leaks are not comparable in scale or scope to Watergate or the Pentagon Papers. Everyone already knows that Afghanistan and Pakistan are thoroughly corrupt, and we're stuck fighting a war that Bush initiated. Anyone who calls me a Republican is an idiot.
As for the Lewinsky scandal, I never thought it should have been reported. It was a last-ditch, hypocritical GOP effort to embarrass Clinton based on a private affair, with an investigation that started years earlier on a real estate deal where Clinton lost money (Whitewater) and the GOP wouldn't let go until they found a way to embarrass him and derail his legislative agenda. Many of the proud GOP leaders of that assault were later found to have been having affairs themselves or even gay sex (Larry Craig).
Assange is a self-promoting publicity hound acting like he's incredibly relevant when he's simply revealed that---wow!---diplomats talk crap about crappy foreign leaders. He's not exactly Daniel Ellsberg.
Posted by: Paul R | Dec 27, 2010 7:24:20 PM
and he looks like a termite
Posted by: ophu | Dec 27, 2010 10:56:40 PM
Andy, Why can't I post to this thread?
Posted by: Dave | Dec 28, 2010 11:41:50 AM
The assumption that Julian Assange has anything to do with the Bradly Manning is false based upon available evidence and could be more evidence that the government plants information in the media to lead its citizens to conclusions not based upon fact to control them. The once piece of information that Bradley Manning "released" was a video on the internet of our military knowingly and without hesitation murdering two API photographers that were clearly carrying only camera and not weapons, nor did they pose any threat at all to U.S. military personnel on the ground.
Posted by: Dave | Dec 28, 2010 11:55:09 AM
What I have posted successfully has been edited not by me but by unknown people or peoples. I see rather lengthy posts that are critical of Assange and other posters personally so it is not the length of my post. It may be key words. Andy, can you explain please?
Posted by: Dave | Dec 28, 2010 12:03:41 PM
Good for him! I'll buy a copy or five.
Posted by: wimsy | Dec 28, 2010 12:05:33 PM
when our Julian publish http://1ftup.blogspot.com/http:/ on the wikileaks he'll gain some respect in my circle of friends. Until then let him enjoy 5 min of fame, he'll pay his stupidity with everything he has. Obviously this is anti-American, anti Obama and I think this time Israel went too far
Posted by: issa | Jan 4, 2011 3:04:37 AM