Is Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, a puppet master of the news media? He would like you to think so. But The Times’s dealings with him reveal a different story. “On the fourth day of the London meeting, Assange slouched into The Guardian office, a day late. Schmitt took his first measure of the man who would be a large presence in our lives. “He’s tall — probably 6-foot-2 or 6-3 — and lanky, with pale skin, gray eyes and a shock of white hair that seizes your attention. He was alert but disheveled. …He smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in days.”