Commentary—

If It’s Not Censorship, Then What Is It?

By William A. Collins

Israel,

With some duress;

Has much control,

Of US press.

Poor Greenwich. All that money, all that civility, all that good taste. It hardly seems fair that controversy should rear its mangy head where so much effort goes into making everything nice. Real tiffs there arise mostly with outsiders who surreptitiously try to consume town amenities without (choke!) paying. These brigands sometimes attempt to jog on the local beach or study at a local school. They’re ordinarily apprehended and swiftly banished.

Thus it became a matter of no small moment when an interloper (from California, no less) sought to air a supremely controversial subject at the superb Greenwich Library. Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew, proposed to speak on how the US government and media shamefully support Israel in the Middle East conflict, and how they make sure that countervailing points of view rarely appear in print.

You’ll be startled to hear that some Greenwich folk found this an offensive topic and besieged the poor library board to get the talk cancelled. It worked. Cancelled it was. But only momentarily. Immutable as the tides, a counter reaction arose decrying the censors. Don’t go into librarianship if you want to avoid controversy. Further, don’t try to intimidate librarians just after they beat back the Justice Department over revealing the reading habits of their patrons.

Thus the talk was indeed rescheduled, in an auditorium this time, and drew a far larger crowd than if nothing had been said in the first place. Ah, the fruits of repression. The audience was divided and adamant, as expected, but civil, also as expected. This was, after all, Greenwich. Even the cries of anti-Semitism were muted.

From a columnist’s point of view the incident was frustrating. Yes, censorship was laid bare once again. And yes, a forceful committed speaker was allowed to exercise her talents on a sizable, intelligent (rich) batch of listeners. Even yes, some of the lurid facts about Israeli seizure and occupation of Palestine made a rare appearance in the press.

However, what received no coverage or analysis at all was the rigid unrelenting censorship by media owners of any information critical, or even nonheroic, about Israel or the Zionist movement. Likewise no public medium ever questions the bona fides of the White House when it pretends to serve as an honest broker in the conflict. This despite the fact that our two countries are joined at the hip politically and financially.

The reasons for this special media treatment seem clear enough. No politician dares to alienate Israel’s political supporters, and no newspaper or TV network can afford to alienate its financial supporters. Retribution can be swift and fatal. Advertising and investment can disappear in a flash. Game, set, match.

Our own humble syndicate once published an illuminating piece about some of these issues, written by a credible professor. The ink was scarcely dry before a Zionist watchdog group was on the phone seeking retraction or equal time. But the very concept of Israel needing to seek equal time is enough to take one’s breath away.

 It already controls almost all the press time that there is.

One trouble with such government and press one-sidedness is that it blinds us to the real world in the Middle East. We hear so much propaganda about horrid Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Iraqis, Shiites, Sunnis, and Iranians that we’re ready — nay, eager — to invade and put them in their place. Especially if some of our rightful oil was mindlessly misplaced under their sand. And so, despite the yeoman work of Greenwich’s librarians, censorship remains painfully rampant upon the land.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)