If you believe in democracy, we need freedom of the press. Support it with your modest amounts—tens and twenties or more if you can afford it—and know that you’re doing something for the world in which your children will live.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - We all know what self-censorship is. On a daily basis we routinely censor ourselves knowing that we should not say certain things to co-workers, friends, or family, just to keep relationships running smoothly (or, often, to keep our job). It’s not, in principle, a bad thing to do even though it’s sometimes just a way to put off unpleasant things until the future.
Where self-censorship is bad, even harmful to democracy is in our news media. As editor of the Airdrie Echo back in the late 70s and early 80s, I experienced it from time to time although it was pretty low key and in terms of harm to Airdrie it was pretty insignificant. I wrote my columns with a leftist-slant, even though I knew that, overall, they were generally not appreciated. Even my extended family, brought up drinking the Alberta Kool-Aide, didn’t often appreciate them.
There was a columnist with the Calgary Herald around that time named Roy Farran whose column was called, “I write as I please”. This was true, but only if you took into account that he had particular conservative biases which coincided with the conservative biases of the newspaper. I could never have written as I pleased for that newspaper.
I am, you could say, the Roy Farran of Salem-News.com. In the same way, here, I write as I please. This could be a topic to explore for this whole column, but I’m leaving that alone for now, as we have here bigger fish to fry.
The famous Canadian-born Harvard economist (confidant to JFK) John Kenneth Galbraith learned to write at Fortune magazine, under the editorship of Henry Luce, the founder of the Time-Life empire. In retrospect, Galbraith said
“Self-censorship at Fortune, I learned, involved a constant calculation as to whether a particular statement—sometimes a sentence or a paragraph—was worth the predictable argument, perhaps with Luce, possibly with some frightened or zealous surrogate. Often one decided that it was not the day for a fight. Or if your conscience was compelling, you couched the favorable reference to Roosevelt or the CIO in such careful language that it would slip by, overlooking the near-certainty that it would slip by all your readers as well.”
Self-censorship is part of almost all the media people today, to your detriment. The only media people not really affected are the true believers, those who don’t know they are self-censoring. This applies largely, although not exclusively, to outlets like Fox News. Fair and Balanced? Perhaps they actually believe it.
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Now, to the point of this story. A fellow named Kirk supplied the following link in his comment to one of the other stories (thank you, Kirk, whoever you are):
Here you’ll see a bit of an interaction in the White House press room between Chip Reid (CBS), Helen Thomas (Hearst) and Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman. Chip is protesting about the White House control of the media. Helen Thomas is backing him up. Gibbs is being completely smooth and disingenuous—smiling and pretending he doesn’t understand the intent of the questions.
We see, here, the slightest of cracks in the control of the media. But it’s really about Reid, Thomas, and the other journalists in the room. Do their bosses (owned and controlled by corporate interests) really want to open things up to a free wheeling style? I think not, because then they are no longer in control of both the process and the outcome. If any of the other journalists in the room (a pretty inert looking bunch in the video) had started clamouring for a more open process, there would have been a chance for change, but it didn’t happen.
I’ve been saying for ten years that the internet will have the potential to change our political processes and perhaps even make real democracy possible. Of course, I’m not the only one saying such a thing. But now we see the actual potential.
An event can happen anywhere in the world. Someone will record it on their cell phone and within minutes it can be uploaded to YouTube. They alert someone like Tim King at Salem-News.com who will write a story about it—maybe just a few paragraphs—and post the link to YouTube. No corporate interest has a say in content or presentation.
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If you believe in democracy, which only exists as a veritable wraith in the world, you should be down on your knees thanking those people who have made this site possible and keep it running.
It’s about the only place in the world that will publish my anti-establishment material (whether you agree with it or not). I’ve been up against the system for more than thirty years. Here in Canada we have the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a pale imitation of the BBC. They have done a few of my critical pieces in the past, but mostly they are scared little producers who might do one thing, but are afraid of anything that might be part of a theme. The CBC is a public entity that is under political control. The conservative governments in Canada hate the CBC and are always cutting their funding. And because of the regular corporate pap they’re fed, much of the Canadian public goes along with it.
If you believe in the potential of democracy, it is in your interest—both personally and as a nation—to support Salem-News.com (and others like us). You have to put some money where your mouth is because while things like this are run on a shoestring, but they’re not free and can be so much better with a little money behind it.
Let me make clear that that this is an unsolicited, unsponsored article. My interest is expanding the outlets for my work and those like me to make the world a better place. Knowledge is power, said Francis Bacon all those centuries ago.
If you believe in democracy, we need freedom of the press. Support it with your modest amounts—tens and twenties or more if you can afford it—and know that you’re doing something for the world in which your children will live.
And now, back to the news.
Daniel Johnson was born near the midpoint of the twentieth century in Calgary, Alberta. In his teens he knew he was going to be a writer, which is why he was one of only a handful of boys in his high school typing class—a skill he knew was going to be necessary. He defines himself as a social reformer, not a left winger, the latter being an ideological label which, he says, is why he is not an ideologue. From 1975 to 1981 he was reporter, photographer, then editor of the weekly Airdrie Echo. For more than ten years after that he worked with Peter C. Newman, Canada’s top business writer (notably a series of books, The Canadian Establishment). Through this period Daniel also did some national radio and TV broadcasting. He gave up journalism in the early 1980s because he had no interest in being a hack writer for the mainstream media and became a software developer and programmer. He retired from computers last year and is now back to doing what he loves—writing and trying to make the world a better place
Give Meaning Back to Independence DaySalem-News.com