Censorship #252
By Hank Silverberg
Over the last few weeks, we have heard a great deal about attempts by @ElonMusk, the new owner of #Twitter, to censor the platform.
Under the old ownership of Twitter, conservatives and the alt-right had screamed they were being censored and kicked off Twitter because of their political views. Now moderates and liberals are saying the same thing, and Musk himself is letting his own right-wing slant dominate the forum.
There is no surprise about Musk's politics. Anyone who was paying attention knew long before he bought Twitter that Musk leaned right. You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.
So now once again, this time from the left, we are hearing talk of censorship.
Well, guess what? Musk owns the platform. It's not run or controlled by the government, and he can decide any way he wants who gets to post. The same can be said of Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. (See "dumbest quote of the week" below)
Neither of them is violating the First Amendment (free speech, free press, freedom of
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| (Photo by Jody Silverberg) |
I am not a lawyer, but as a retired journalist I did learn the truth about free speech.
The government, from Congress to the local school board, cannot tell you what you can read or what you can say, but a private company can if they want.
So, stop griping. There are plenty of other places for you to shout about whatever is bugging you. Get mad when your local school board tries to ban a book. You can try the local corner in your neighborhood, a local radio or TV station call-in show, or a variety of other online forums that are available from your neighborhood to the United Nations.
And yes, I have heard the story going around that the Biden campaign and the RNC tried to get the previous owners of Twitter to ban critics or negative stories during the 2020 presidential campaign. First, that is unproven, and second, if it was tried, the effort failed. But a political campaign trying to kill a critical story about their candidate is nothing new. Journalists will tell you that such attempts happen all the time, and almost always fail. (Remember Teddy Kennedy and Chappaquiddick or Gary Hart and Donna Rice?)
Don't let Elon Musk or any other high-tech mogul get on your nerves. It's not worth the worry. They don't control world communication.
Update
Last week and the week before my blog took a closer look at the growing antisemitism in the United States. It is finally getting some attention from both the mainstream media and the government.
This past weekend, Doug Emhoff, Vice President
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He said there needs to be better coordination between the government and the education system to combat falsehoods and misinformation about who Jews are and what Judaism is.
Last week, I reported there was an all-time high in antisemitic incidents n 2021. The Anti-Defamation League says that amounted to 2717 incidents of assault, harassments and vandalism reported in the United States in just that year. And the week before last I reported a survey of hiring managers that found 26% of them were less likely to move forward with a job offer to Jewish applicants.
https://hanksilverberg.blogspot.com/2022/12/are-you-toasting-marshmallows-by-hank.html
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-to-fight-anti-semitism/
I should note that last week's blog, which focused first on this topic, got more hits and views than any blog entry I have done in the last two years.
Splashdown!
The test of the Artimis 1 rocket and the Orion space capsule were apparently a big success. The capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Sunday afternoon, ending a 25-and-a half-day mission of about 1.4 million miles. Ironically, Sunday was also the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 touchdown on the Moon, which was the last manned mission to the lunar surface.
The capsule and other parts of the re-entry structure were recovered by the USS Portland, which was nearby as planned.
There was no crew this time, but the plan is to put a crew on Artimis 3 sometime between 2025 and 2030. Watch the splashdown in the video below.
This space mission actually went past the Moon before entering lunar orbit as part of the planning for an eventual trip to Mars sometime the 2030's using a lunar basecamp.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
You guessed it. This week's dumbest quote came from Elon Musk. Apparently, he didn't like all the praise Dr. Anthony Fauci was getting for his life saving work during the pandemic. Fauci is leaving his job at the NIH at the end of the month. So, Musk tweeted this:
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If you have read my blog before, you know I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Fauci whom I had used as a source for more than a decade when I was reporting the news for a living. Fauci never led me astray on anything. His work on the pandemic probably saved thousands of lives, whereas all Musk does is spread disinformation about Covid-19.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
My book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
HankSilverberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature.)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
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