Libyan Iman al-Obeidi barged into a hotel housing foreign journalists in Tripoli today, seeking to publicly draw attention to the government troops who had recently detained and sexually assaulted her. While no independent proof of al-Obeidi’s claims were available, her body exhibited physical injuries consistent with her story.
Libyan government minders tasked with controlling reality as presented to foreign press corps quickly and brutally silenced al-Obeidi, whisking her away in a waiting automobile. You can read more about this heartbreaking story here.
Following al-Obeidi’s abduction, journalists inquired as to her fate. A government spokesman dismissed the incident, saying al-Obeidi was “drunk and possibly mentally challenged.”
In the absence of a legitimate defense, hacks always attack the whistleblower’s mental state.
This incident took be back to August, 2005. Patrick Byrne had just given a presentation that figuratively barged into the middle of Wall Street’s snoozing press corps, seeking to publicly draw attention to a financial assault being experienced by many small public companies at the time.
One of the few employees of a media outlet (I hesitate to call him a “journalist”) who wrote about the presentation was Roddy Boyd, a well-known shill for the very people Byrne had just called out. Boyd crafted one mocking version of his story, but found it failed to meet his handlers’ expectations. So, at their request, he edited his piece to add a line questioning whether Byrne was drunk or suffering mental illness when he gave the presentation.
In the absence of a legitimate defense, hacks always attack the whistleblower’s mental state.
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