Check It Out: Should we allow censorship to transform our culture?
By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com
This saying aptly describes today’s version of free speech: “I love free speech. I also love ignore, mute and block.”
Recently I read the book “Slanted” by Sheryl Attkisson, who is an award-winning journalist, who worked at CNN for years, before having her own news outlet called “Full Measure”. She describes her show as old-fashioned news reporting, something that is more and more difficult to find.
Unlike this column, which is an ‘opinion column’, news outlets are given the task of giving people information. However, Attkisson says it’s not easy being a reporter who reports on stories that powerful interests want to shape, controversialize or even hide.
Attkisson admits such reporters may very well be shunned by their colleagues, labeled conspiracy theorists by special interest groups and social media mobs might get people to rally against the reporter and his or her story. Their news bosses, who don’t want to deal with the backlash from powerful people, may choose to replace them with more compliant employees.
Although it doesn’t sound like an appealing job for anyone, Attkisson notes the need for this type of reporter is greater than ever as North Americans are looking for information they can trust.
Attkisson repeats a comment by Mark Levin, author of ‘Unfreedom of the Press’, who noted young journalists are taught to think of themselves as activists. This results in it appearing logical to shape their reporting so as to convince the public to think the “right” way.
The “Slanted” author notes what is taking place is not just a transformation of the news industry, but simultaneously the transformation of politics, society and culture. She sees the same efforts to censor, control and manipulate information in the news industry, also taking place in federal agencies, corporations and organizations.
Even more alarming, those who report wrong doing inside their organizations, are silenced and punished, even though the wrong doing may harm others. However messages that promote the narrative are repeated through every means possible.
Attkisson deduced that eventually information dictators hope to control information to such an extent that censorship will no longer be needed. The next step would be for people to automatically self-censor their thoughts and words, falling in line with what they know is allowed to be said and to be thought.
As an old-fashioned journalist, Attkisson hopes information will continue to be accessible in many forms, and we will be invited to use our brains to form our own conclusions, feel out our positions, and even argue and debate.
Surely such a quest for knowledge and free thought is a much more appealing alternative than repeatedly being told what is the correct way to think and speak, through every platform our culture has to offer.
You can contact me at joanjanzen@yahoo.com