> If you listen to WikiLeaks people or the greater associated clique, I think it's clear that they're a politically oriented group. It's not a conventional/general journalistic ethos. More like a party publication.

This is the line of attack that's been used over the last decade to build public support for the US government's campaign against WikiLeaks. This culminated in Pompeo's labeling of Wikileaks as a hostile intelligence agency (as I quoted above).

Assange is facing extradition to the US and 175 years in prison for publishing evidence of US war crimes in Iraq. The US government's case hinges on trying to separate WikiLeaks from journalism. Your argument plays right into that.