Is censorship ever justified? What about showing journalistic restraint when there will be disastrous consequences for the truth coming out? Is there some truth that is not useful? Is it appropriate for conservative communities to suppress news that they don’t want published? Should private institutions be allowed to suppress opinions they don’t like? Where is the line?
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Discuss.
It was interesting to live in Singapore where there is one newspaper, and it’s overseen by the government. One thing I noticed was that it utterly lacked the sensationalism and gossip-mongering of the US and UK papers, partly because they didn’t have to sell papers – there was no competition. They also did quite a lot to control the story about the economy, and as a result, they really did avoid most of the problems with the global economic crisis.
That reminds me of a phrase, “I would rather have messy freedom than peaceful slavery.”
#1 – HawkChick, you can afford to be dispassionate about the Singapore Gov’ts paternalism. It’s true that their culture is orderly and largely w/o the chaos of Western Society. Still, go on NetFlix and view “Demolition Man”…some wit and wisdom according to Dennis Leary 20 years ago (he HAD to have input on the script)…”I’m the enemy, ’cause I like to think; I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I’m the kind of guy likes who likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder – “Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?” I want high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-O all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I’ve SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It’s a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing “I’m an Oscar Meyer Wiener.”
Self-censorship is an oxymoron, it’s called discretion.
Censorship is why we wear clothes, folks.
I see censorship as a long-term concern. At some point (sooner than later given our TV and Internet reduction in attention span) we will forget the ‘other’ opinions. Eventually we will forget there ARE other options.