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LadyEllen -> RE: The media and "secrets" (3/3/2008 2:14:19 AM)
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There have to be lines, quite simply, to avoid endangering national and personal security.
But at the same time our free media is a great thing. Our enemies read it and watch it and listen to it. If we imposed a blanket ban then that would protect us perhaps, but what is better is a policy of information management whereby we have some true stories which may risk a little, and use the media to disperse disinformation too, which seems to hand our enemies all they need but which really gives nothing away and if relied upon by them, would endanger our enemies or at least inhibit or misdirect them.
One thing I am sure of there should also be lines drawn to forbid the sorts of character assassinations which we see in the tabloids and gossip magazines. Quite simply, taking Britney as an example, it is simply not relevant to her career as an (ahem) artist, nor to interest in her (ahem) art, as to what she does off stage. Such reporting does no one any good, including the people who find such reporting interesting. And where it concerns our Sunday tabloids here in the UK, who delight in reporting such stories as "Gay Nazi Vicar Denies Satanic Sex Rituals" and destroying the lives not of celebrities but of ordinary people, there needs to be a ban. I'd like to see the news media publishing news, not tittle tattle for the entertainment of the mindless masses, and certainly not taking a moral stance - aside from the mindless masses who would benefit from working things out themselves, most of us can judge right from wrong from the facts reported. Some will argue that there are laws to protect us from libel - but pursuing a libel case here at least, requires very deep pockets indeed - and sadly, mud sticks regardless.
E
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