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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Television coverage and censorship in Canada (in net.columbia??)
Message-ID: <514@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Feb-86 13:09:30 EST
Article-I.D.: kontron.514
Posted: Tue Feb 18 13:09:30 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Feb-86 09:03:19 EST
References: <6396@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
Lines: 63

> Clayton Cramer ( cramer@kontron.UUCP), in a followup to a statement
> (in net.columbia) to the effect that governmental censorship 
> of the media in Canada is equivalent to media censorship in the USSR,
> writes (in net.columbia):
> 
> >What about that guy the Canadian Government sent to prison for publishing
> >the claim that the Holocaust didn't happen?  Two years in prison, I believe
> >was the sentence.  If that isn't political censorship, what is?
> 
> Hmmm. Perhaps. Hate censorship is a better way to put it.
> 

Politics and hate are inseparable (at least the way most politicians 
practice it).

> The individual refered to is doubtless Ernst Zundel, a rabid neo-Nazi
> who lives in Canada but is not a Canadian, and who has stated publicly 
> and repeatedly that

American law recognizes that the right of free speech applies even to
those illegally in our country.  What's Canada afraid of?

> 1. Hitler remains one of his heroes.
> 2. There is an international Jewish conspiracy, etc.
> 3. The Holocaust is a Jewish lie, etc.
> This Zundel has repeatedly published anti-semitic hate literature 
> and supports and is financially supported by 
> a variety of neo-Nazi groups.  He was jailed because actively inciting hatred
> against any identifiable group in Canada is illegal.  
> (Zundel may be deported after his release from prison.)
> 

Just because his beliefs are repugnant doesn't justify throwing someone in
jail for expressing those beliefs.  That's something that totalitarian
governments do.

> It is certainly not clear to this reader why such an example equates the
> censorship of the media in Canada to the USSR.  As other submissions have
> indicated, there is no such equivalence.
> 

2 + 2 == 5

It doesn't matter how many people say it -- it's still not true.  Your
arguments above are arguments in favor of suppressing ANYTHING that is 
generally held to be offensive.  How do differentiate this attitude from
the more extreme form of the idea used by totalitarian governments.

> This IS getting REALLY off topic (this stuff is in net.columbia???).  I have
> posted this to net.politics, as well.  Please send any followups there.
> Thanks.  
> -- 

This started out as someone's inaccurate comparision of the Canadian and
Soviet news media (something *I* certainly wouldn't do) coverage of the
Space Shuttle accident -- there is method to the madness.

> Name:   Richard Snell
> Mail:   Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
>         Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
> UUCP:   {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!snell

Clayton Cramer