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Time Warner and Censorship

October 8, 2006 - 12:20am — Redcardlibrarian

A recent article on the Free-Market News Network asks, IS TIME WARNER PRACTICING CENSORSHIP?

"Time Warner Corp. recently silenced a Bush-bashing comedian who was taping a routine for the Showtime at the Apollo TV program, according to a Radar Online story. Comic Paul Mooney (most recently of Chappelle's Show) "was midway through a taping of the famed Harlem theater's weekly variety show when the plug was abruptly pulled."

Mooney was evidently told that he "had offended unnamed officials from Time Warner."


The easy answer to this is that, no, this is not censorship. Time Warner is not a governmental agency. Nor do they, as far as I know, control enough of the market to effectively silence voices they don't like.

I do find it SHOCKING that a prominent member of the Main Stream Media (MSM) is actually unhappy with a Bush-bashing comic.

Comments

October 8, 2006 - 10:09am — Fang-Face

I say: Yes, this is censorship

Censorship is not censorship only when it is practiced by governemnt. This looks to be a clear and present case of prior restraint based on the content of the message. And that makes it censorship in my books, regardless of the "authority" exercising it.

On a deeper level, one could argue that in a system in which We The People are the government, any suppression of political speech is necessarily a governemnt action. And in this case, it's a safe bet this action was undertaken specifically to further a political benefit to persons in office.

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