Letters to the Editor

The list of the governments that have persecuted journalists The Washington Post hails those reporters who face grave danger from the Taliban and the governments of Cuba, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the U.S. Glenn Greenwald [2008-11-21]

• Freedom of the press?

  From the link referring to Scott Horton's footnote:

  I myself was twice warned by PBS producers, in advance of appearances on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, that I could use the word “torture” in the abstract but that I was to refrain from applying it to the administration’s policies. And after an interview with CNN in which I spoke of the administration’s torture policy, I was told by the producer, “That’s okay for CNN International, but we can’t use it on the domestic feed."

  This passage raises some very interesting questions. Given the parallels in the warnings from PBS and CNN, it appears that somehow, these producers are basically censoring the news. On what authority are they doing this? Is corporate management of both organizations requiring it, or is the government forcing these organizations to censor?

  This puts the failure of the media to follow up on the "Pentagon propaganda" issue in an interesting light. Is this another story that has been censored?

  How many other stories have been censored? [Paging Sibel Edmonds. Sibel Edmonds to the white courtesy phone.]

  Will there still be censorship on January 21, 2009?

  -- Jim White
  [Read Jim White's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Friday, November 21, 2008 05:13 AM
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