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WORD COUNT
604
MAY 7, 2008
IF
IT’S NOT CENSORSHIP, THEN WHAT IS IT? – by William A. Collins
Israel,
With some duress;
Has much control,
Of U.S. press.
Poor
Greenwich. All that money, all that civility, all that good taste. It
hardly seems fair that controversy should rear its mangy head where so
much effort goes into making everything nice. Real tiffs there arise
mostly with outsiders who surreptitiously try to consume town amenities
without (choke!) paying. These brigands sometimes attempt to jog on the
local beach or study at a local school. They’re ordinarily apprehended
and swiftly banished.
Thus it became a
matter of no small moment when an interloper (from California, no less)
sought to air a supremely controversial subject at the superb Greenwich
Library. Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew, proposed
to speak on how the U.S. government and media shamefully support Israel
in the Middle East conflict, and how they make sure that countervailing
points of view rarely appear in print.
You’ll be startled to
hear that some Greenwich folk found this an offensive topic and besieged
the poor library board to get the talk cancelled. It worked. Cancelled
it was. But only momentarily. Immutable as the tides, a counter
reaction arose decrying the censors. Don’t go into librarianship if you
want to avoid controversy. Further, don’t try to intimidate librarians
just after they beat back the Justice Department over revealing the
reading habits of their patrons.
Thus the talk was
indeed rescheduled, in an auditorium this time, and drew a far larger
crowd than if nothing had been said in the first place. Ah, the fruits
of repression. The audience was divided and adamant, as expected, but
civil, also as expected. This was, after all, Greenwich. Even the
cries of anti-Semitism were muted.
From a columnist’s
point of view the incident was frustrating. Yes, censorship was laid
bare once again. And yes, a forceful committed speaker was allowed to
exercise her talents on a sizeable, intelligent (rich) batch of
listeners. Even yes, some of the lurid facts about Israeli seizure and
occupation of Palestine made a rare appearance in the press.
However, what
received no coverage or analysis at all was the rigid unrelenting
censorship by media owners of any information critical, or even
non-heroic, about Israel or the Zionist movement. Likewise no public
medium ever questions the bona fides of the White House when it pretends
to serve as an honest broker in the conflict. This despite the fact
that our two countries are joined at the hip politically and
financially.
The reasons for this
special media treatment seem clear enough. No politician dares to
alienate Israel’s political supporters, and no newspaper or TV network
can afford to alienate its financial supporters. Retribution can be
swift and fatal. Advertising and investment can disappear in a flash.
Game, set, match.
Our own humble
syndicate once published an illuminating piece about some of these
issues, written by a credible professor. The ink was scarcely dry
before a Zionist watchdog group was on the phone seeking retraction or
equal time. But the very concept of Israel needing to seek equal time
is enough to take one’s breath away. It already controls almost all the
press time that there is.
One trouble with such
government and press one-sidedness is that it blinds us to the real
world in the Middle East. We hear so much propaganda about horrid
Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Iraqis, Shiites, Sunnis, and Iranians that
we’re ready – nay, eager – to invade and put them in their place.
Especially if some of our rightful oil was mindlessly misplaced under
their sand. And so, despite the yeoman work of Greenwich’s librarians,
censorship remains painfully rampant upon the land.
--
Columnist William A.
Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk,
Connecticut. A photo of Bill Collins is available
CLICK HERE
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