Finding Censorship Where There Is None

[snopes]

'To you zealots and bigots and false patriots who live in fear of discourse. You screamers and banners and burners. ..." These are the opening lines of the official Manifesto of Banned Books Week. This annual "national celebration of the freedom to read" is led by the American Library Association (ALA) and co-sponsored by a number of professional associations and advocacy groups. Events and displays at "hundreds" of libraries and bookstores will "draw attention to the problem of censorship" in the U.S.

As the tone of the Manifesto suggests, the sponsors are more interested in confrontation than celebration. The Banned Books Week Readout in Chicago will feature "wildly successful" and "incredibly popular" authors who will "share their experiences as targets of censors." The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has produced posters, based on a graphic-novel adaptation of "Fahrenheit 451," to help "publicize the hundreds of attacks on books that occur every year in the United States." The ALA has launched an online U.S. "censorship map" to show how pervasive the threat is.

In the common-law tradition, censorship refers specifically to the government's prior restraint on publication. None of the sponsors claim this has happened; the acts they have in mind are perpetrated by private citizens.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...837440304.html

[Christie]

The reason many librarians get worked up on the subject of censorship is because we seem to fight it a lot more than this article would have you believe. Just one example: a private member's bill was introduced here in Ontario last year called Bill 128 that would have forced public libraries to have filters on all their Internet stations. It died on the floor but it has caused a helluva furor in many municipalities. Now there is another bill being put forward with much the same intent. I wonder what the chap who wrote the OP would think of forced filters. Censorship or good sound sense?