Reading this story makes me particularly thankful we have a free press. And a good reminder of what happens when that is not the case.
Views by Russian journalists who fled to Latvia.
Published
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RE: “Western financial sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s assault on Ukraine further strained Meduza’s operations. With Visa and Mastercard, Paypal and the SWIFT network blocked for Russians, the news site’s 30,000 subscribers in Russia were unable to pay their monthly fees.”
This statement in the source article stands out for me.
I agree wholeheartedly that state-sponsored censorship in Russia is a really bad thing. Still, it is ironic — is it not? — that U.S. sanctions exacerbated Russian censorship.
That said, I don’t think the press in America is particularly free. Our system may use different techniques to suppress speech, but the suppression of speech is just as real.
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“. . .but the suppression of speech is just as real.”
Could that be any more nonsensical? What comes remotely close in our country to facing 15 years in jail for a report that the authorities don’t like?
But I will play along, what are those “different techniques?”
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RE: “What comes remotely close in our country to facing 15 years in jail for a report that the authorities don’t like?”
Julian Assange could be sentenced to 175 years in a U.S. prison, according to his indictments.
RE: “But I will play along, what are those ‘different techniques?'”
Where to begin? One can point to social media censorship, or college/university speech codes, or unjust political prosecutions (Roger Stone, Jan. 6), or even CIA operations like Mockingbird.
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Trump sued NYT and CNN as president because they wrote critical articles about him. He lost, but talk about abuse of power.
Now that may be as close to persecution as we should ever get concerning media and government. True, the government has tried to squelch some reporters and their contacts over the decades but with little success.
The broad base of our media, with the most powerful one being FOX, still gives us a decent media watchdog as far the the reason for the First Amendment.
We should thank our founders for understanding that free press was paramount to a free republic. And continue to be thankful you can still write or say whatever you want without OMON in black masks shutting you down or worse.
Perfect? No. But there is little excuse for complaints just because your ox wasn’t gored enough.
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RE: “The broad base of our media, with the most powerful one being FOX, still gives us a decent media watchdog as far the the reason for the First Amendment.”
One could make a similar claim about Russian media. Direct state control of Russian media is strong, but criticism of the government does occur.
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…”but criticism of the government does occur.”
And shortly thereafter, the arrest of the critic.
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“One could make a similar claim about Russian media”
That might make sense of Russia had an equivalent to our 1st Amendment. But Russian media is state-controlled. If the state doesn’t like something in their media, people get arrested or fired.
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RE: “And shortly thereafter, the arrest of the critic.”
That happens in the U.S., as well.
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“That happens in the U.S., as well.”
Name one.
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“That happens in the U.S., as well.”
Uh, okay. Cite one example in this century of a press critic of the government being imprisoned for expressing his criticism. Just one.
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Really, really dopey.
Assange has been indicted for serious crimes not for speaking his mind.
You are comparing the policies of social media companies which do not want to spread false and dangerous disinformation to going to jail for reporting the truth? How weak is that?
Unjust political prosecutions? Not that is 1000% ridiculous. Those “political prosecutions” were not about the exercise of free speech. They were about crimes.
Mockingbird is ancient history. The fact you have to dig that deep just demonstrates the level of nonsense that you are offering.
Why do you hate this country so much? Were you maltreated by the government during all those years of working on the taxpayer dime?
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RE: “Why do you hate this country so much?”
Why do you ask stupid questions, then reject the answers?
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You made a serious, very serious charge. To wit, that freedom of the PRESS is suppressed just as much in our country as it is in the fascist dictatorship of Vladimir Putin where prison waits for those reporting the truth. When challenged to defend such a monstrous allegation you came back with nothing actually relevant. Now you whine?
Seriously, why do you hate this country so much?
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RE: “You made a serious, very serious charge. To wit, that freedom of the PRESS is suppressed just as much in our country as it is in the fascist dictatorship of Vladimir Putin where prison waits for those reporting the truth.”
I made no such charge, and I’m not going to waste any more time arguing with your fantasy life.
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“I made no such charge”
Yes, absolutely you did and I quote. . .
“I don’t think the press in America is particularly free. Our system may use different techniques to suppress speech, but the suppression of speech is just as real.”
This seems to be a pattern with you. You post some utter nonsense – apparently without thinking. When someone points out what nonsense it is, you simply deny YOUR OWN WORDS. Maybe while sticking your fingers in your ears, stamping your feet, and chanting “Nyah Nyah Nyah”
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Dr. Semantics is on a roll.
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” One can point to social media censorship, or college/university speech codes, or unjust political prosecutions ”
None of which is “state sponsored”. And Stone was not prosecuted for free speech exercise; he was prosecuted for criminal activity.
Man, the desperation stink is strong today.
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” Our system may use different techniques to suppress speech, “…
I await patiently your coming up with what part of “our system” suppresses speech that is linked directly to government action.
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Look in the mirror.
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Got it. There is no government censorship in this country. There are no arrests of critics of the government. Your entire argument is based in fertilizer.
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I think you are misinformed. I have given examples, but you can find your own with a little work.
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“I think you are misinformed.”
Perhaps it was YOU who was looking in the mirror when you wrote that.
The examples you gave were NOT government censorship.
You want an idea of government censorship, take a look at DeSantis. Changing tax status for Disney for coming out against the (for lack of a better phrase) “Don’t say Gay ” law. Or taking away state tax funding for a public-private partnership between Florida and one of their baseball teams for coming out in favor of gun control measures.
While not direct attacks on the 1st Amendment rights of those two organizations, there is no true censorship BY the government. Nor suppression of the media. If that truly were the case, about half of Fox News talking heads, and all of Brietbart, AON and Newsmax would be imprisoned.
And during the previous administration, it would have been CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo, and many others.
All you continue to do is spread your fertilizing thoughts.
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