5 ms·

Does American government censor the press? Or mail?

• sbarre 5y ago
  During the Trump administration, their vindictive treatment of the press and the selective removal of access to the White House by outlets not toeing the line more or less amounted to quasi-censorship in practice.
  • jdrc 5y ago
    Small potatoes compared to the ugliness around the world
    • lkbm 5y ago
      Other governments' behavior isn't a relevant comparison. The discussion isn't "Should the US nationalize Twitter or should China?"
      • jdrc 5y ago
        Ok then, if comparing censorship by the us govt vs private companies it's clear who wins
• onpensionsterm 5y ago
  In living memory, through McCarthyism.
  • zionic 5y ago
    >McCarthyism Isn’t that “ism” largely discredited? He was right, the government/institutions were full of communists. Today they’ve rebranded as socialists, but to my knowledge everything he fought against came to pass. Attaching the -ism label is just a thought-terminating cliche.
    • mardifoufs 5y ago
      It maybe wasn't "full of communists" but you are right that project VENONA has shown that McCarthy wasn't totally wrong either. Institutions were deeply inflitrated at all levels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
      • the_only_law 5y ago
        I wonder what the overlap between those accused by McCarthy and those who were actually spies.
    • Miner49er 5y ago
      Communists should have freedom of speech too?
• krapp 5y ago
  America just had a President who explicitly declared the press to be the enemy of the people. Ignoring the degree to which the American press voluntarily acts as a propaganda platform[0], the US government absolutely does censor the press, by revoking or controlling press credentials, arresting reporters covering protests, harassment, etc[1]. And the US has historically censored the mail, yes, usually during wartime. But the bigger problem is surveillance - the USPS tracks, photographs and logs all paper mail for government surveillance and law enforcement[2]. The USPS also has a 'covert operations' division that monitors social media posts[3]. You could (correctly) claim that this isn't nearly as bad as the surveillance and censorship regimes elsewhere, but it's difficult to see how making that easier by giving the government direct control over a primary means of global communication makes it less likely. [0]https://www.thoughtco.com/how-media-censorship-affects-the-news-you-see-2315162 https://www.thoughtco.com/how-media-censorship-affects-the-n... [1]https://fair.org/home/us-censorship-is-increasingly-official/ https://fair.org/home/us-censorship-is-increasingly-official... [2]https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-ma... [3]https://www.salon.com/2021/04/21/is-the-post-office-spying-on-you-usps-covert-operations-may-monitor-social-media-posts/ https://www.salon.com/2021/04/21/is-the-post-office-spying-o...
• ALittleLight 5y ago
  I guess that depends if you consider WikiLeaks part of the press.