City University London

The lolz that grew into a roar.

Get It Try It

LONDON (Rixstep) — Julian Assange is no longer in Sweden. Tonight he turned up in London for a gig at City University London's 'School of Journalism'. The quotes around 'School of Journalism' are there to indicate there's some question about what type of 'school' it really is.

The gig was called 'Too Much Information?' and was chaired by television presenter Jonathan Dimbleby. There were two opposing sides in the 'debate': Julian on the one side and Rupert Murdoch employee David Aaronovitch on the other.

City University had long promised a 'live link' for the event but in the end provided nothing at all. But as the audience were mostly their own students who came with their laptops and smartphones, many people thought they constituted some sort of 'live blog' for the event.

Fortunately that wasn't the case.



Most onlookers at Twitter who were moderately familiar with WikiLeaks and Assange were astounded at the imbecility of the City University journalism students. Many remarked on Assange's hair - something that's been all over the web for the past five weeks. Many took time to comment on the way he held his microphone. At least one of them couldn't even spell his name.

Rupert's attack dog Aaronovitch pulled prepared questions out of a hat for two hours; Assange answered as well as he could; he was asked one question about Sweden, commenting it was 'a complex and interesting country' - a remark that's destined to go into handbooks on diplomacy.

Ten Things People Learned Tonight

1. Julian Assange is no longer in Sweden. This was the most important reason for following the debate: he could have been piped in electronically. (But as things turn out - and given City University's skills in electronics - this was not even remotely possible.)
2. City University London's techies don't know how to set up a live link.
3. Most of the ace City University students hadn't seen a pic of Assange in over a month (if at all).
4. City University journalism students are no reason for optimism - they're worse than what people deal with now.
5. City University journalism students definitely have opinions on how to hold a microphone. (Some even suggested Assange was holding it 'incorrectly' on purpose.)
6. Many of the City University journalism students preferred Assange's older white hair, proving they'd heard of him.
7. At least one of the City University journalism students couldn't spell 'Assange'.
8. Rupert Murdoch evidently starves his journalists for long periods of time to make them more aggressive.
9. Rupert Murdoch truly rules Britain.
   
10. Rupert Murdoch seems to have done something to the water supply at City University London.

Wow, relying on journalists to translate the news for me! I missed this! Gee thanks, City Uni!
 - @GeorgieBC
I would trade 50 journalists for 1 transcriber right now.
 - @Ian_Atkinson
The amount journalists do not understand about personal privacy and public orgs is mind blowing and explains so much.
 - @GeorgieBC
Are we going to the woods to eat bark and berries? We need some good news!
 - @GeorgieBC
Alas for the future of democracy.
 - @skdadl
Depressed +1. Maybe such 'citizens' deserve the governments and media they've got.
 - @lyn_d75
This is the oddest 'live blog' I've ever followed.
 - @skdadl
They haven't read month-old news from the Pentagon either.
 - @skdadl
If people are alive and breathing, they should have the motivation.
 - @lyn_d75

See Also
Twitter: #WikiLeaksAtCity
Rixstep: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Radsoft: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed