Of course you only want to talk about some of the guy's deeds. It's easier to make that look like journalistic activity. But compare his handling of the Iraq War Logs to an outfit like the NYT's handling of leaked information. It's completely different.

The only editing a journalist does is redacting information that's irrelevant and/or could get someone hurt. Assange cut the collateral murder video to make it look like a couple cowboys showed up and decided killing civilians was a fun time. When in reality the helicopters were called specifically because the unit was being harassed by an enemy group. They also neglected to get any information from the Army, like the report showing the group did in fact have RPGs. Something a real journalist would make sure to do.

No instead he handled thousands of documents in a manner meant to endanger American soldiers and agents while damaging the reputation of the country. The actions of a spy, of someone seeking the fastest way to get stolen intelligence into the hands of anti coalition forces.

If the espionage act covered actual journalism then Nixon, Reagan, Bush, or Trump, would have already used it that way. They're certainly not friends with the investigative journalists.