In my last post I noted the reporting of Jesse Jackson’s not-so-private remarks made on the set of FoxNews.
One of the things that Americans of all political colors are generally united against is censorship of any kind, primarily due to the cultural significance of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I wondering if my aversion to censorship in Jamaica is a result of this influence.
Interestingly enough, FoxNews bleeped out the Jesse Jackson quote in their recent scoop on what the civil-rights leader said about Sen. Obama; which I think was an attempt to make the quote appear that much more controversial by seeming especially profane. Many other news outlets handled Jackson’s remarks in a similar way, refusing to print the whole quote unedited or to broadcast the words without modification.
Let’s link to a summary of public reaction and the criticism from others in the media about the overall treatment of Jackson’s comments.
And on YouTube, watch this video up to 1:20 to see the mockery which FoxNews comes in for.
5 Comments
July 15, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Look, this is how these black men have been behaving since the Black Civil Rights movement began in the late 1940s. Trying to outdo one another and even offing each other to get to be the Head Dick in Charge is nothing new. There’s been lots of resentment and nasty comments about Barack Obama by Black men of Jackson’s generation, so Jackson’s apology is really for the public; it doesnt change anything behind the scenes.
I can’t wait til you get to the New Yorker flap though. For the record, I think the cartoon is wicked and right on. It just did not belong on the cover because there was no contextual information for you to know that this was not to be taken seriously, even a little bit. Few people seem to recognize that there is a distinction to be made – Cartoon Yes; Cover No. The editors don’t seem to know to accept that their joke failed either. Instead, they are very busy pandering to age-old elitist attitudes that the people who don’t get the joke are simply not sophisticated enough. What a crock of shit! But, that’s what you get when a publication has crowned itself as Divine.
July 17, 2008 at 10:04 am
Did you see Mike Henry’s letter to the Editor, published in today’s Observer and pertaining to a recent Clovis cartoon of him? I’d love to read your thoughts on that.
July 19, 2008 at 2:48 am
@ Verle:
Was composing a comment in response but will just make it a new post.
July 19, 2008 at 3:34 am
[...] the Editor, Sir Jump to Comments Commenter “Verle” on a recent post inquired what I thought of Mike Henry’s letter to the editor at the Observer published on [...]
January 9, 2009 at 11:45 am
[...] – bookmarked by 3 members originally found by sistaspooky1013 on 2008-12-20 Censorship in America http://diatribalist.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/censorship-in-america/ – bookmarked by 1 members [...]