Cassandra Fairbanks Criticizes Ben Shapiro Over False Claims About WikiLeaks On Joe Rogan

Ben Shapiro appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast yesterday, and made remarks about WikiLeaks being a “Russian front” that have drawn the ire of journalist Cassandra Fairbanks.

“I really wish @joerogan would have someone on who knows what they’re talking about regarding WikiLeaks. Ben Shapiro was spewing nonsense as usual,” Fairbanks tweeted.

The official WikiLeaks account agreed with Fairbanks.

Fairbanks has reported on WikiLeaks extensively, and recently met with its founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange has essentially been under house arrest in the embassy since first receiving asylum in 2012.

Fairbanks had a lot to say about Shapiro after his comments.

“Small man, big mouth,” she tweeted, adding “Ben Shapiro will be Bill Kristol in ten years. Except tiny,” and “Ok I’m done. Sorry. I tend to go off when neocons lie about WikiLeaks.”

“The most common smear against Wikileaks has become to falsely link the publication to Russia,” Fairbanks told Culttture. “On Rogan, Shapiro was talking about the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory, claiming that there were attempts made by Don Jr. to collude with the Kremlin — but that he was ‘waiting for evidence’ before jumping to conclusions. Just moments later he spread the false claim about WikiLeaks being a front for Russia. There is no evidence that WikiLeaks worked with Russia — and Assange himself has said that the leaks did not come from a state actor.”

Fairbanks added, “To refer to the only publisher who has never had to issue a correction or retraction as a ‘Russian front’ is asinine, especially considering how he had previously been mocking the media for their incorrect reporting during Russiagate. WikiLeaks distributes factual information with the documents to back them up. Facts don’t care about that little neocons feelings.”

Update: Ben Shapiro has issued a correction via a retweet of Cassandra Fairbanks.