These words from Carl Jensen, the director of Project Censored, seem pretty prescient in light of the new
outright repression of press coverage of the Katrina disaster. He is
describing two forms of censorship...
Type A:
In societies perceived as free, we find the information output determined by economic pressures to produce corporate profits, by a systematic distribution of "punishment and reward" to workers in the media, and by a less obvious, but nonetheless effective, control of the means of production of the information industry. The latter is well-documented in Ben Bagdikian's book "The Media Monopoly."
Type B:
In totalitarian societies, we find outright, overt censorship. The state, through its bureaucracy, determines what can or cannot be said or printed and maintains its control of the information flow through a monopoly on the means of production of the information industry. The massive coverup of the Chernobyl disaster by Communist leaders is a classic example of this form of censorship. In late 1991, a parliamentary commission, chaired by Volodymyr Yavorivsky, revealed that in April 1986 Soviet authorities reacted to the Chernobyl nuclear power accident with "a total lie, falsehoods, coverup and concealment" which led to thousands of deaths.
In both cases, the efforts to manipulate and control the flow of information are successful -- whether by overt censorship or by covert censorship. The crucial difference is that the citizens in a totalitarian society are aware that their information is controlled and manipulated and they conduct their lives with that knowledge.
It seems that we had Type A, the corporate form of censorship, up until the Hurricane hit. Nice and self-regulating for the Bushies. But once the press started doing their job, in the face of the sheer, grim reality of the disaster on the ground that they simply could not ignore, it has now become clear that the Bush Administration must revert to Type B, totalitarian censorship.
The question is, will America recognize it?
We need to raise hell about this NOW.
