David McRaney  |  Journalist

Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt

It's a sad day when journalism students speak out against free speech. But, I'm not surprised; this is the generation of the audience.

You would think future journalists would abhor the notion of censorship. After all, our mission is to seek out the ugly truth and disrobe it for the world to see, right?

A recent study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight and conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut showed young Americans have little knowledge about the nation's basic freedoms.

According to the study, half of American high school students believe newspapers should only be able to publish government-approved material. About one in five think people shouldn't voice unpopular opinions. Most believed it was illegal to burn the flag.

Many people in college today started watching the news post Sept. 11. They don't read newspapers, and all of their news comes from 24-hour news organizations that are essentially trash. These kids grew up under an administration censoring or spinning everything. They cut their teeth on a world where loose lips sink ships.

In addition to this, commercials and public relations in our culture have reached the pinnacle of their evolution.

I know this is true because I edit the work of a handful of journalism students every week, and the first thing I see in new writers is a tendency to write like their selling the reader something.

They watched so many commercials growing up, listened to so much rhetoric from politicians and corporations and read so little, their brains fall back on the rhythms and style of that kind of writing.

Super Bowl Sunday is as much about the commercials as it is the game. Psychologists hook people to computers and analyze how different portions of their brain react to each advertisement between plays so better, more efficient ads can be constructed.

Years of this created zombie students in my journalism classes willing to being told what to write and what to think.

My advanced reporting class engaged in a rather lame debate yesterday over those cartoons upsetting the extremist Muslim community. It boiled down to a few students telling the instructor they believe people should watch what they say, and media outlets should have stricter rules regarding sex and language on television.

"I don't want my kids seeing that garbage," one girl said.

I think she summed up the problem well. We are moving toward a culture of glassy-eyed submission. Instead of choosing to be a better parent, we want the television to be more polite to us. It's less work.

People my age and younger prefer to watch and listen instead of speak and be seen. You are the most passive group of herd animals since the 1950s, and I distance myself from you as much as possible.

The cartoons we argued about went along with an article about a Danish writer trying to find illustrators for a children's book about Muhammad. Cartoonists didn't want to contribute to the book out of fear of Muslim extremists.

Two of cartoons in question depict Muhammad with a bomb for a head and a group of Muslims arriving in heaven only to be told they are all out of virgins.

It's pretty tame stuff, jibes about religion and terrorism. But, in some sort of self-fulfilling, snake-eating-its-tail reversal of logic, Muslim extremists decided an article about people self-censoring out of fear should be censored, and the artists should be punished.

This is the kind of behavior you get when a culture outlaws satire. If your religion can't take a joke, heads will literally roll.

Both Arthur Kaul and Gene Wiggins, journalism professors of mine at USM, told me in my first semester the First Amendment is not something guaranteed, it is something we must fight for every day. Censorship blights any society. Telling people what they can say or watch or read is the easiest, most direct way to reduce people to automatons. On the other side of the coin, there are always going to be people telling you what you should read, should say, should buy. Your free will is at stake, and I fear you do not care.

Give the slaves bread and circuses and they won't rebel.

I oppose all forms of censorship, and believe anyone who promotes it is a fool. Bleeping out words and fining radio hosts reveal dunces are at the wheel.

One of the last places in our culture to be uncensored is the vast virtual landscape of the internet. And you know what? It does just fine.

Most of it is pornography, a lot of it is entertainment, some of it is news and a small portion of it is intelligent debate. It mimics the collective consciousness of our culture, and without censorship it thrives.

I dread the day when Congress finally gets its claws into the internet, but until then, it glows as an example of what can be established when no boundaries are set. Left alone, the things that don't make money, or are not worth looking at, will die off.

NBC recently canceled "The Book of Daniel" because of pressure from Christian groups. But, it also sucked. So, it would have died as the result of ratings natural selection anyway. It seems to me the only difference between this show and those cartoons are rioting crowds.

If you don't want to be subjected to something offensive, don't watch, read or listen to it. If you don't want your kids subjected to it, then be a better parent. Turn off the television, or teach them your values.

Don't tell me what I can say, and I won't force you to read this column.

Originally published in The Student Printz on February 9, 2006