Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!codonics!bret
From: bret@codonics.COM (Bret Orsburn)
Newsgroups: news.config
Subject: Re: U. of Hawaii uucp mail & Usenet news cutoff
Message-ID: <940@codonics.COM>
Date: 9 Feb 90 02:30:32 GMT
References: <6484@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <303@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
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Organization: Codonics, Inc., Middleburg Heights, OH
Lines: 21

>Hey kids--THIS is censorship--it's government prohibition of the
>free exchange of ideas.

I sympathize with the sentiment, but, intellectually, this statement
is utter nonsense.

A government ceasing to subsidize something is *not* prohibition,
and is *not* censorship.

A lesson to learn here is that a "free speech" that is dependent on
so many institutions, both public and private, and with no concrete
legal guarantees, is not very robust. If we become wholly dependent
on such a medium, our "free speech" can be taken away at any time.

The printing press is not so vulnerable.

-- 
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bret@codonics.com
uunet!codonics!bret
Bret Orsburn