someone painting him as a morally righteous

The first thing @seSvxR3ull7LHaEZFIjM said was: "Assange is a bit of a scumbag" ...

The closest thing to "righteousness" said was: "his efforts for freedom of information should not land him in US torture prisons like many others."

Which, being true, it's absolutely not challenged or contradicted by anything you said in response.

Note that "freedom of information" is totally compatible with "picking and choosing" the manner in which you exercise that freedom. In fact, I'd argue that the freedom of "picking and choosing" what's published without external pressure is fundamentally what the freedom of press is about.

Assagne (like any other journalist) should have the freedom of "picking and choosing" what facts he wants to expose, as long as they are not fabrications. If they are shown to be intentionally fabricated then that's when things would be different... but if he's just informing, a mouthpiece, even if the information is filtered based on an editorial, then that's just journalism. That's a freedom that should be protected, instead of attacking him because he's publishing (or not publishing) this or that.