Censorship – The American Version
I came across this article today. To quote from it:
I am an activist with a predilection for supporting progressive causes the world over. From tortured prisoners to under-funded public schools, I’m prepared to walk the walk. So it was with great interest that I read the report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists in The Nation (Sri Lanka) last week. The report, “Ten Most Censored Countries,” did a roll call of serious offenses being perpetrated in North Korea, Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Eritrea, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Syria, and Belarus. Oddly enough, for someone like me who lives in America, the United States was not listed.
Of course, CPJ – an organization whose mission I support – would argue that they were talking about censorship of the press. Well, in my book, censorship takes many forms. After all, what the press covers is driven very often by what is happening. And if only certain events are allowed to happen, and only certain news is approved for printing, if “balance” means that the truth must be watered down by equal space afforded the lies, then my friends we are living in a country where censorship is rife and growing.
This is very true. The media has a lot of influence in the USA, and what they choose to report is what is happening and what is reality to the American people. There are many things that they simply do not report, for obvious reasons, and that the average American will never find out if he doesn’t do some of his own research.
This is a new kind of censorship, one that is much harder to fight against. Why am I saying that? Because of the following quote:
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In other words, with this new kind of censorship, people don’t even realize that their news is being censored. They think what they see on TV and in the newspaper is all that’s happening, all that’s newsworthy, when in fact, there are many important issues that are simply not being reported at all. And when they don’t know what’s actually happening and they feel that they’re getting all there is to get, they won’t try and do anything against it. This issue is right up there with the other ones created by the doublespeak of the American government. One example, ofcourse, is Bush saying that all the wars are necessary to protect America’s freedoms, when in reality, he’s taking more and more freedoms away from the American people.
Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Read one of my previous posts on this problem.
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