On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:20:20 -0700, Blair P. Houghton blair@houghton.net wrote:

Tony Sidaway said:

...

Absolutely. Why is this word so taboo? We all censor.

We all attempt to make the facts reflect the what we think is the truth.

Censorship isn't that. Censorship is attempting to make the body of facts reflect a POV we wish to present as the truth. Censorship is hiding the truth for other reasons. It's a dirty word because it's also political, and generally unconstitutional; the censorship is meant to promote a particularly religious view of a moral issue that should be innocuous in a free society. It's an attack on the freedom of the speaker by a body purporting a higher knowledge of morality.

Not all of us censor. It should be a taboo.

--Not all censorship is religious or moral, as what you wrote above implies. --Governments may censor views that oppose that of the government. --A particular news outlet may censor stories or information that is contrary to its political alignment. --Governments may censor information about troop movements, military technology, etc. --In the US, government documents are often censored in the name of national security. Certainly the identities of "intelligence operatives" are often censored. --The name of a minor involved in a crime is often censored, as is the name of the victim in certain crimes.

Or is your particular definition of censorship actually limited to just those cases of information suppression that are motivated by "a higher knowledge of morality"?

--Rich Holton

en.wikipedia:User:Rholton