Letter: Censorship is different than refusing to publish terrorism

Posted 3/7/19

Promoting the sensible judgement and evaluation that many newspapers and magazines normally exercise in selecting what to print as “Letters to the Editor” is not censorship . At …

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Letter: Censorship is different than refusing to publish terrorism

Posted

Promoting the sensible judgement and evaluation that many newspapers and magazines normally exercise in selecting what to print as “Letters to the Editor” is not censorship. At least it is not in the wider context of preventing or punishing anyone from sharing their thoughts.  

Respectable publications filter through (or monitor) the influx of letters and choose those that adhere to certain standards and content for a variety of reasons. Assessing the parameters of what is acceptable to be printed is normally reflected by what the publication has indicated through a written statement.

And yet even though that objective may be apparent, editorial judgement is subject to the same human frailties of bias and error we all share. Selections for publication, incongruent with a stated maxim are mistakenly made, but unfortunately not always admitted or corrected.  

Expressing different views is the core of ‘free’ thinking people.  Accepting that there are (or should be) boundaries to what is expressed acknowledges a difference between conversation and violence. Proposing or encouraging violence against a group of people verbally or through print media is not convincing ‘tongue-in-cheek’ irony, political spin or a morally defensible position — it is terrorism, plain and ugly.

Journalistic balance becomes an ill conceived principle and isn’t achieved when responses lack or misconstrue basic facts or code hate in its rhetoric. It only diminishes our understanding of each other when we allow ourself to be ‘gamed’ through the dark art of orchestrating political tensions, resentments and animosities for maximum political gain.

Robbin Smolca
Middletown

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