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Friday, February 25, 2011

Nir Rosen And State Censorship

This story was interesting. A female journalist was assaulted in 3rd world country. Nir Rosen made some "inappropriate" sarcastic comments on Twitter. He was a professor at NYC and was forced to resign. His career is ruined now.

Was it a sexist statement that got him in trouble? No. Here were the Twitter messages.

lara logan had to outdo anderson [Cooper]. where was her buddy mccrystal?

it sort of depends who it happens to. sometimes we have to find the humor in small things.

jesus christ. at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should remember her role as a major war monger.
That doesn't seem sexist. He said "Journalists promote war. They shouldn't be surprised when they're the victims of violence." That is a forbidden statement.

That's a dirty secret of the mainstream media. Journalists promote war and the State. Nir Rosen violated the taboo. An example must be made of him.

This is a very common pattern. It is very offensive. It's wrong to ruin someone's career, just because they did something stupid.

If you're a journalist or celebrity or professor, you have a high-paying low-skill job. You are easily replaceable. There are 10x-100x+ people just as qualified, eager to replace you.

Another predictable pattern is that the now-disgraced journalist apologizes. An apology has zero economic value. Why bother apologizing? His career is over anyway. The apology reinforces the legitimacy of the State and the censorship.

Every "journalist" is continually on-edge. They all know that, if they say the wrong thing, then they're fired and their career is over.

This leads to a very strong culture of self-censorship. There is frequent actual censorship. Someone who deviates is fired and their career is ruined.

Nir Rosen isn't taken to a death camp. By ruining his career, the net effect is almost the same. Nir Rosen's only skill was a "journalist", i.e. shill for the State.

The censorship occurs in the "free market". The handful of people who own the mainstream media corporations wield enormous power. There isn't a real free market in the mainstream media. The Internet is changing the equation somewhat. I can't start my own mainstream TV channel, but I can get a YouTube channel.

Who is Nir Rosen? I never would have heard of him, if not for this scandal. Nobody would have known about his stupid comment, if the State media didn't incessantly hype it. It's a clear precedent. "Say the wrong thing, and we'll ruin your career."

I find this incredibly offensive. It's a clear pattern. A journalist or celebrity says the wrong thing. Their career is ruined.

If you work at a university in "liberal arts", your job is not to be a true independent thinker. You're independent within the constraint of State-approved thinking. Your job is to come up with lies that support the State.

If you're an independent thinker, you get weeded out by the censorship and self-censorship process. That's one big reason no mainstream journalist asks "Is the Federal Reserve immoral? Is the IRS immoral?" Anybody who starts thinking in that direction gets excommunicated.

2 comments:

Ronnie said...

You can even be booted from youtube for anti-state videos and reporting, I'm afraid. Alex Jones had all of his videos removed for a while and was blocked from youtube, but he is back on there now I believe. Nowhere is sacred anymore.

Anonymous said...

steamroller says:
Some years ago, I worked for Ford in Dearborn, and was fired for making the following verbal assault on my boss:
:You are typical of obstructive obfuscation!!! Your job is possible ONLY because you prevent those who bring info to you for decisions, but who would probably make wiser decision than you do; and therefore you are the obstacle to efficient progress and profitability for this company simply because of your job to further erode morale.
needless to report, he wasa bit miffed, as trollsusually are when confronted with actual truth.

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