Our converstaions about censorship this past week seem to hold a lot of relevance in the world today. From The Heights to the outside world, censorship seems to be everywhere. My main concern after all of our talks is what determines censorship?
If important stories such as the taxpayer's price-of-living costs for inmates charged of marijuana possesion, and American human trafficing crime aren't published to the public for fear of outrage and protest- then what are they showing us as news?
If the important stories that affect our livelihoods and common culture aren't reported to us openly, then what is the point of a free press? By censoring or pressuring a medium to withhold a story, our media outlets really aren't free at all. In fact, they become increasingly influenced by money and corporate pressure to form an entirely restricted type of news.
The stories we do have access to hold very little cultural or individual importance. An isolated crime or a far away scandal, while entertaining, holds no real relevance to our lives or better understaning the world.
On the other hand, in regards to the race articles in The Heights and The Observer, where should editing and censoring be allowed? Though it was an opinion piece, the girl's controvercial article held some unfortunately phrased views and lacked viable sources. Should The Heights have edited or asked her to revise her entry? Or should they have let it stand as is?
Inflamatory as the article was, I'm glad they kept it. I don't necessarily agree with her or like how she wrote it, but I like that she took a stand on an issue and defended it. I also like that The Heights published it as is- allowing for multiple view points to be heard.
Censorship can be important in the public's understanding of an issue, but I'm afraid of how much of a story is hidden for fear of bad publicity. Censoring key parts of a story or an entire story itself does a great injustice to the people it effects the the people with the power to influence it.
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It really is pretty crazy all these stories they're not publishing, stories that actually contain important information. It really does make you wonder what is it that we're watching on the news? I agree that if stories are going to be censored and information is going to be withheld, that's really not saying a lot for are supposed "free press".
ReplyDeleteWhile I was equally as outraged as many people were by many of the statements made in the controversial articles in the Heights and the Observer, I agree with you, that they should have been published. I believe by publishing these articles it brought to our attention that their is an underlying problem on our campus that people feel so strongly that, "The civil rights movement is over". Even though this is a completely ridiculous statement I think it has brought forth a lot of discussion on the topic of race that was just being swept under the rug before. That is why it is so important to have a free press, so that you can really here everybody's point of view, and then hopefully work through major issues.
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