Censorship

Heyes

Do you believe we live in a very censor based nation ???

My reason for asking this is because on a number of occasions when over in the states it has really struck me that the U.S is actually a very censored nation, for example all there tv and news programs are highly censored. They would they never be provided with the pictures we recieve of the war in Iraq, they were provided with the same pictures of 9/11 repeatedly and nothing was ever updated or pictures showen of ie: people falling from buildings. Even the pictures we are provided of poorer nations would never be seen on there television and magazines..

All be it i dont like seeing these scenes I would hate for Ireland to become so censored. I would prefer to know whats going on around the world.

Do you think were still an open country or do you feel that everything we see and read is already highly censored ??

gerTheGreat

I think that unfortunately censorship is something that is and always has been prevalent in any and all societies. I especially don't believe that Ireland is any different in this regard. It will alway be the case that certain information will withheld from the public. It may only seem to be a modern occurance but that's because we don't remember what information was repressed 20, 30, etc years ago.

Ruu_Old

I live in the US and have cable tv, all the news channels basically ignore or dont care about whats going on in the world outside America..unless it involves the US Army or something.

Heyes

Ruu wrote:

I live in the US and have cable tv, all the news channels basically ignore or dont care about whats going on in the world outside America..unless it involves the US Army or something.

Thats a perfectly example of what i mean. There appears to be a sense of selfcentered ness or something about what is provided. its like nobody else matters except there own...

Yes i know when something happens to one of our own its masily publicised however i would not like to live in a country that is as censored as they appear to be.

Chucky the tree

Its stems from there whole attitude. They are the worlds biggest superpower, they think things that happens outside of America is of no really importance to them.

Stations like fox are comical though. The O'Reily factor(think its caleld that), best show ever.

casanova_kid

Censorship is what keeps out the damn left wing riff raff out of this country. back in the great days of the 1930's, that's what kept our fatherland's economy booming.

Ruu_Old

I think the photos from the deceased soldiers coming back from Iraq in coffins were banned but they got out anyway, or maybe that it was banned in every country..or at least they tried to.

Sam Vimes

Heyes wrote:

Thats a perfectly example of what i mean. There appears to be a sense of selfcentered ness or something about what is provided. its like nobody else matters except there own...

Yes i know when something happens to one of our own its masily publicised however i would not like to live in a country that is as censored as they appear to be.

outside america? thats the land of wind and ghosts

homah_7ft

Chucky the tree wrote:

Its stems from there whole attitude. They are the worlds biggest superpower, they think things that happens outside of America is of no really importance to them.

I agree with you in the main but that is not to say reportage is perfect in Ireland. When's the last time you saw coverage of the problems in Haiti on Irish televison?

Heyes

Ruu wrote:

I think the photos from the deceased soldiers coming back from Iraq in coffins were banned but they got out anyway, or maybe that it was banned in every country..or at least they tried to.

I think it was only "banned" in america.

casanova_kid

I don't know if America's media is very censored, I just think that alot of the main media outlets like Fox are very conservative.

Chucky the tree

homah_7ft wrote:

I agree with you in the main but that is not to say reportage is perfect in Ireland. When's the last time you saw coverage of the problems in Haiti on Irish televison?

Since when have Ireland had any involvement in Haiti? I dunno maybe we are, but i just dont know.

America is involved in plenty of foreign affairs. Yet the American people know very little about this. I dont expect them to know about every thing about what happens in the world. But they should know about things their country is heavily involved in.

homah_7ft

Chucky the tree wrote:

Since when have Ireland had any involvement in Haiti? I dunno maybe we are, but i just dont know.

Exactly my point. Our media suffers from a parochial myopia. If there is no Irish angle it has to be "Bigger" to be shown.

daveirl

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Chucky the tree

daveirl wrote:

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Detail please. What is the difference between how a murder is reported?

Its strange you mention porn actually. I know alot of hardcore stuffi s legel, yet it is illegal to go topless on a beach isnt it?

KdjaCL

US media gives americans their opinion on everything. Very well done too.



kdjac

stevenmu

Tbh the american media isn't really censored, it's more editorialised. They decide what demographic they want to appeal to most and only show story's and opinions that they think will appeal to them. Believe it or not many americans are smart enough to realise and either pay no attention to mainstream media, or else filter out the bias and opinion to try and get a balanced view. Of course there are idiots who don't, but we've plenty here who don't either, and our media can be just as biased. For example we often see the results of Israeli attacks on Palistinian refugee camps, but we rarely see the result of terrorist attacks in Israel, giving many people here the impression that Palistinians are all innocent angels and Israeli's are all murdering genocidal ba****ds.

Ruu wrote:

I think the photos from the deceased soldiers coming back from Iraq in coffins were banned but they got out anyway, or maybe that it was banned in every country..or at least they tried to.

Afaik the photos themselves are not banned, the media are just not allowed access to where the bodies return to US soil (can't remember which air base, Andrews maybe ?). Therefore they can't photograph the hundreds of bodies being shipped back, and there'd be huge outcry if they started turning up at individual funerals and snapping away.



edit:
It may be a cliche, but in America there really are people who may not agree with what you say, but they'll die defending your right to say it. Contrast that with over here, people may remember an article in the Irish Independant where Willie O'Dea (the guy supposed to be in charge of defending our freedoms btw) was quoted saying that freedom of speech laws needed to be changed, that we don't need as much freedom of speech as we have. Now, how many people remember that part of the article, and how many only remember the fact that above it there was a picture of him holding a gun ?

Hobbes

daveirl wrote:

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No they don't report on things because they know they will be screwed for doing so. For example anyone who has ever asked the president a difficult question generally never gets a chance to talk to the president again.

Anyone brought on TV who questions the government or its actions are attacked on TV.

As for US speech being more free. Thats why they have "Free Speech Zones" that is basically a large cage that is so far away from where you are protesting about it makes no difference.

Just compare how a murder story gets reported here vs the US.

Actually we tend to report it better. For staters here they ensure that the peoples family are informed before they see it as news report. You also don't get muppetry like reporters claiming your family have lived/died when they are wrong.

Also compare what's legal with regard to pornography here vs the US.

Actually pornography is heavily censored in the US. Violence on TV is another story.

Sam Vimes

stevenmu wrote:

For example we often see the results of Israeli attacks on Palistinian refugee camps, but we rarely see the result of terrorist attacks in Israel, giving many people here the impression that Palistinians are all innocent angels and Israeli's are all murdering genocidal ba****ds.

to be fair, the isrealis walked into their houses one day and said "feck off, this is my house now". also they have tanks and nuclear weapons, where the palistineans have rocks. having said that suicide bombing is retarded. i think this is how the thought process goes:

palistinean idiot 1: "ok, so last week we suicide bombed isreali children who had nothing to do with the government that stole our homes and nothing happened except a few more people around the world now hate us and turned against our cause and the isrealis drove a tank into our refugee camp and killed some of us. what should we do now?"

palistinean idiot 2: "I know, how bout a suicide bombing?"

its the definition of stupidity: doing the same thing twice (or many times) and expecting different results. if they just stopped killing people a lot more people would support their cause since they were the ones illegally kicked out of their homes. it reminds me of the ira. they killed people for years and nothing changed. as soon as they lay down their guns they started to get results. as john major said at the time: "what the ira didn't understand was that violence was never going to achieve their aims"

however thats another argument altogether

KdjaC wrote:

US media gives americans their opinion on everything. Very well done too.
kdjac

this is true. if someone hears an opinion often enough they start to think its their own. thats kind of why the media aren't supposed to do that

Chucky the tree wrote:

Its strange you mention porn actually. I know alot of hardcore stuffi s legel, yet it is illegal to go topless on a beach isnt it?

well if someone buys a porn mag, they chose to look at it but i don't want to see saggy 80 year old tits when i go to the beach. perky 20 year old ones are entirely another matter though :cool:

daveirl

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Mossy Monk

news in this country is very tame in what they show. coverage of the problems in Israel for example was very graphic when i saw it in France

stevenmu

The "free speech zones" were there to prevent protesters disrupting the conventions. They have a right to protest, but the parties have a right to hold their conventions unhindered. People were still free to protest all they wanted well away from the conventions, but if they wanted to protest close to them they had to be segregated to ensure the convention could go ahead freely.

It's kind of like when the love ulster parade was going to start and a group of republicans staged a sit down protest in front of it. They had a right to protest the march sure, but they had no right to prevent the march so they were moved.

Hobbes

daveirl wrote:

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Sex related stuff varies from state to state I've found. Whats acceptable in one state is liable to get you jail time in another.

Censoring implies someone from the government has ordered them not to show stuff by law. They haven't.

Read up on PSYOPS, they have a site on the net as well. Also read up on how the government actually alter TV scripts to give messages that they want. Buffy + Angel two such shows that had script rewrites. Then you have cases where Bush invites heads of certain newspapers to ask them to not break stories.

You have terrible rights when it comes to libel for example.

Our libel laws are a world better then the US. US news media can print anything they like for example as long as it cannot be proven there was any malice involved.

Oh and it's not like those 'Free Speech Zones' are everywhere. They were at the RNC and DNC.

They are at every major government event.

daveirl

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stevenmu

Let's not forget our justice minister who wants to put the media under government control

(free registration required)http://www.unison.ie/southern_star/stories.php3?ca=38&si=1577987&issue_id=13788

Minister Michael McDowell has plans for a State Press Council, set up by himself, whose purpose is the creation of a neutered media – the kind politicos have long sought.

Earlier in the year he described Daily Ireland as a Nazi rag and when the editor sued for defamation McDowell again claimed parliamentary privilege – the Pinochet argument.

Three weeks ago he launched a serious attack on RTÉ, demanding that it uphold ‘public order and the authority and morality of the State’. He warned that its criticism of government must not stray into the undermining of the State. (Curiously, RTÉ’s Prime Time had also investigated the Thornton Hill site and it, too, had been critical of McDowell.)

In the same speech he said that newspaper editors should be open to the same scrutiny as a politician and asked why the family of a politician was of more interest in terms of policy and social mores than the family of a newspaper editor.