On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:20:20 -0700, Blair P. Houghton
<blair(a)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