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Killing the Messenger

from Killing the Messenger by David Rovics

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The album's title track is also the most recent song I've written on the subject of the album's initial trilogy, that of the ongoing persecution and imprisonment of the Australian journalist and Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.

lyrics

When someone blew the whistle back in 2006
It was a matter of a password and a couple of clicks
To safely send files and protect the source
While sharing all of the important bits, of course
With a database that’s searchable, all around the Earth
That exposed the rich and powerful, showed us what they’re worth

Showed us the corrupt ways they run affairs
From Iceland to the Indies to almost everywhere
Making clothes transparent on emperors all round
Everywhere that whistle-blowers are to be found
Wikileaks was too effective, it had to be beaten out
Let there be no doubt

Now they want to kill the messenger, while most of us stand by
Just waiting for this prisoner to die

Daniel Ellsberg blew the whistle on war crimes
He called out for someone to step up this time
With Wikileaks’ assistance when Chelsea Manning did
On US torture and mass murder she blew the lid
And the war on Wikileaks went into overdrive
As the authorities tried hard to make sure it couldn’t survive

With charges plucked from history, the Espionage Act
Is being used against Assange under the extradition pact
Not just Republican war criminals, but Democrats, too
Had it out for him now, for telling what he knew
When the DNC rigged the race
Got Clinton the nomination, put Sanders in his place

Now they’ll call him a foreign agent, say he should be shot
They’ll call him a narcissist, whatever defamation they got
They’ll say he’s not a journalist, unlike the ones in Moscow
Reporting on the criminals that we allow
Reporters to report on – we give them the Nobel
While this Australian is caged and sent to hell

credits

from Killing the Messenger, released March 19, 2023

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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