The US Condemned Stalin’s Prosecution of Journalists. Now It Uses His Playbook.

Charles Glass · 10 Dec 2023

Charles Glass did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Evan Gershkovich and Julian Assange were imprisoned for doing a journalist’s job of keeping the public informed.

Their wordsTwo of my colleagues — Evan Gershkovich in Moscow and Julian Assange in London — languish in prisons for doing their job: keeping you informed.
Our reading
Russia and the United States are both following Stalin’s playbook for prosecuting journalists.

Their wordsRussia and the U.S., knowingly or not, are following Joseph Stalin’s press playbook.

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