CENSORSHIP: A Glimmer Of Good News About The Bad News Of Suppression Of Speech
The corporate fascist powers that run the West are feeling a little unsettled. A little nervous. A tad goosey. There is a dawning awareness their power may not be as assured as they have assumed.
By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (8/21/24)
I’m tossing out this quick post because I am really stunned at the escalating rate of censorship and media harassment going on throughout the western empire. From outright bans, to dark threats to the Democratic National Committee hijacking convention press credentials from legitimate independent journalists and passing them off to a cackling flock of silly TikTokers, freedom of press and personal speech is clearly under attack.
And of course there has been the specific targeting by US/Israeli forces in Gaza of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists noted earlier today:
“As of August 21, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 115 journalists and media workers were among the more than 41,000 killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”
A number of those journalists were even targeted in their homes, with their families, their children also killed. Those were no accidents or oversights; glitches in a military operation. They were intentional. Methodical. Criminal. And meant to intimate all.
Popular podcaster Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Judging Freedom podcast is back up on YouTube today after an abrupt one-week ban for no logical or ethical reason. You can see today’s interview with Col. Macgregor with a short comment by the Judge at the end of the segment on the ban. He is more diplomatic toward YouTube than I would ever be:
The right that secures all our other rights
Other bans are from unknown sources for unknown reason, silencing through threat and intimidation, as the brilliant Bassem Yousef apparently has experienced in his decision to step away from X/Twitter.
As Scott Ritter experienced in the US this past June as he was about to board a flight, independent journalist Richard Medhurst was stopped by a gang of security officers upon arrival in Great Britain. Ritter had his passport taken — then two weeks ago, his home raided. Medhusrt was detained for over a dozen hours and given a vague restraining order that, can be clearly seen in the interview with Glenn Greenwald, was designed to make Medhurst unclear of what he can and cannot say.
I spent about half of my professional life as a print journalist and editorial cartoonist. I know from experience what happens when the powers that be are beginning to feel cornered by the press. They do what we are seeing being done now across the faltering Western Empire.
Of the many lies and hypocrises of the United States and the rest of the Western Empire, lofty claims of “freedom of speech” is becoming the most glaring. Without the right of citizens to speak freely, or the press to investigate and question authority, all other rights are neutered. All of them. Dead. And that is why free speech is being targeted officially and in the case of Yousef, unofficially.
A glimmer of light in the dark
All of this is bad news. But there is a glimmer of light in the dark and that is the corrupt, incestous corporate fascist powers that run the West are feeling a little unsettled. A little nervous. A tad goosey. There is a dawning awareness their power may not be as assured as they have arrogantly assumed. Out of weakness they are abusing power.
Instead or responding, they are reacting.
The two are fundamentally different and in that difference is the revelation of uncertainty and even a little fear that they are beginning to lose grip.
Because they are.
I’ll write more on this, but in the meantime study these examples and at every opportunity on every issue of import exercise your right to speak out, especially on behalf of the brutalized and suppressed people like our brothers and sisters being attacked by “our” criminal government in Gaza.
Speak out.
Push back.
Resist.
“Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous and habit-forming. The oftener one surrenders to it the tighter its grip becomes.” — George Orwell
Censorship Threats Escalate In Brazil, US, UK, EU & Beyond: Citizens Jailed For Posts
By Glenn Greenwald
System Update (8/20/24)
30-minute video
DEMS DUCK FROM INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS: Pro-Kamala Content Creators Score DNC Credentials Over Independent Journalists
[Editor’s Note: As part of this commentary on freedom of press, Glenn also does an excellent job of showing there is absolutely no difference between Kamala Harris and ‘Genocide’ Joe’s position on the Gaza genocide. — Mark Taylor]
By Glenn Greenwald
System Update (8/20/24)
31-minute video
Egyptian Comedian Bassem Yousef Steps Off X/Twitter Because Of Threats
Kim Iverson (8/20/24)
12-minute video
Journalist Richard Medhurst Interview On His UK Arrest Under Terrorism Act
[Editor’s Note: Notice how carefully — constrained Richard Medhurst — has to speak. This is a real-life example of the effect of intimidation on journalists being able to do their job — helping to keep us informed about the abuses of empire. — Mark Taylor]
By Glenn Greenwald
System Update (8/21/24)
21-minute video
I hope their power is diminished, and wonder if the fact that 1/3 of people around the world are boycotting Israel is helping to drive this home.
Agreed. The censorship is becoming overt. Used to be undercover repressive but the fascists are getting concerned. Can't even kill large numbers of women and children with profitable US-made munitions anymore. What's the world coming to? Concerned deep-state fascists cheer me up. Not much else does these last couple of years.