Griper Blade: Censorship What Censorship?

Which is worse, censorship or self-censorship? Self-censorship is basically cowardly -- the leaving out of facts or glossing over of truths to satisfy those in power. The truth falls by the wayside, in favor of a 'narrative' more helpful to those in power.

Out and out censorship, on the other hand, represents those in power abusing that power. What you know is what you're able to appreciate -- what you don't know might as well have never happened.

The media has been practicing self-censorship. Despite the whining of right wing pundits that the media is playing up violence in Iraq and downplaying 'the good news,' the Iraq Study Group found that "there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq" and that, in one instance, the incidence of violent attacks for a day was undercounted by 1000%.

And 'good news'? Good news is seldom newsworthy -- 'house doesn't burn down' is never a headline. In the rare instance that the positive would be worth noting, the happy talk would be a jarring contrast to the violence -- "New School Built in Samara; Hundreds Killed by Death Squads in Fallujah." Even if there were a positive report for every negative one, the violence would capture our attention.

Since the media is self-censoring, it's important to note that actual government censorship is going on. The US Geological Survey being clamped down on, with scientists being old that the press office must be "alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature." In other words, no more bad news about the effects of oil drilling. On December 12, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported that 10,600 scientists had signed onto a statement protesting the Bush administration's suppression of science. "Initially signed by 62 leading scientists, the statement now bears the signature of more than 10,000 scientists from all 50 states and several U.S. territories, including 52 Nobel laureates, 62 National Medal of Science winners, 194 members of the National Academies of Science, and science advisors to both Republican and Democratic presidents dating back to Eisenhower," according to UCS.

And the censorship of the press has begun, as well...

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Tags: news | politics | science | media | censorship | Bush propaganda | Iraq | Iran | Flynt Leverett