by GraceReid
Tue Jun 14th, 2005 at 06:47:07 AM EST
A few days on dKos ago I ran a diary about censorship of the news in America. A poll attached to the piece asked the readers if they thought there was censorship of the news in America. Three hundred and seventy people voted, and 95% of them said yes, there is. (As to whether Google practices censorship, there was no poll, but I think I can safely say that more of half of the commenters said no, Google does not censor the news in America.) This discussion carried over into the European Tribune. A reader said:
Nope
"I'm going to have to disagree with this one. There is certainly BIAS in the mainstream media in the US, but that's not the same as censorship. Plenty of publishers openly print anti-government material. And the Internet has very broad (perhaps not very deep, though) content. My shortwave radio doesn't detect jamming of stations from other countries.
"What we DO have is a population that doesn't always stop to think about where their information is coming from, and a media industry that is mainly about making money. But it's pretty clear that the U.S. government doesn't actively censor the news--otherwise we wouldn't know about the DSM, for example.
"Perhaps there is a counterexample of a news item that was available in, say, Europe, that was not available in the U.S.?"(asdf)
My answer:
Great Example
"The RAF double bombing campaign of 2002 was reported in the UK on the 29th of May. What date, if ever, was it reported in the US news?"(gr)
At this point, readers, I'd like to insert a poll. Welshman reported to us on DKos on the 29th of May from a story by Michael Smith in Times On Line: "RAF Bombing Raids in 2002 Tried to Goad Saddam Into War." This article has proven enormously important -- it is a critical piece of evidence in the Democratic House Judiciary Hearing on the Downing Street Minutes to be held this Thursday, June 16.
On what date, if ever, was this reported in the US? No cheating. No Googling. I'll give you the answer postehaste.
