On Aug 10, 2006, at 1:42 PM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> [WS:] I do not watch much television, but I wonder if such an
> interview
> would be aired here. That is, the US networks may fell quite
> comfortable
> airing raging right wing lunatics making all kinds of outrageous
> statements,
> but if someone left-of-the center goes beyond voicing timid
> disagreement or
> simply serving as a punching boy for raging rightwingers, he would
> be booed
> off the stage by the host, or altogether yanked from the air, no?
> Methinks
> that private US media are better censored than state owned media
> elsewhere,
> no?
Yup. Years ago, I talked with a producer who did some spots for the MacNeil-Lehrer Report. He'd gotten information that the U.S. let Syria pick up abandoned Iraqi weapons after the first Gulf War, which, if reported, might have made some people very unhappy. The producer couldn't get a US government official to comment on the report on camera. So, MacNeil-Lehrer wouldn't run the sport - becuase they couldn't even get an official denial from the US government. That's how slavish our media are.
Doug