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Defying the liberal ban, we managed to cablecast part of this film
on AWARE ON THE AIR (7pm Fridays on channels 6 & 99).<br>
<br>
Recursively enough, Pilger's film, "The War You Don't See," is about
the suppression in the US media of accounts of the wars that have
killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of others,
and harmed millions.<br>
<br>
AWARE should look into arranging a showing of "The War You Don't
See," perhaps on campus after Labor Day. <br>
<br>
[This article is at
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2011/07/pilger-foundation-obama-film"><http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2011/07/pilger-foundation-obama-film></a>.]<br>
<br>
<br>
On 7/7/11 7:45 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4E15AA4D.1000905@illinois.edu" type="cite">
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<b>The strange silencing of liberal America</b><br>
John Pilger<br>
Published 07 July 2011<br>
<br>
<i>Obama's greatest achievement is having seduced, co-opted and
silenced much of liberal opinion in the US.<br>
</i><br>
How does political censorship work in liberal societies? When my
film Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia was banned in the
United States in 1980, the broadcaster PBS cut all contact.
Negotiations were ended abruptly; phone calls were not returned.
Something had happened. But what? Year Zero had already alerted
much of the world to Pol Pot's horrors, but it also investigated
the critical role of the Nixon administration in the tyrant's rise
to power and the devastation of Cambodia.<br>
<br>
Six months later, a PBS official told me: "This wasn't censorship.
We're into difficult political days in Washington. Your film would
have given us problems with the Reagan administration. Sorry."<br>
<br>
In Britain, the long war in Northern Ireland spawned a similar,
deniable censorship. The journalist Liz Curtis compiled a list of
more than 50 television films that were never shown or
indefinitely delayed. The word "ban" was rarely used, and those
responsible would invariably insist they believed in free speech.<br>
<br>
The Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, believes in free
speech. The foundation's website says it is "dedicated to cultural
freedom, diversity and creativity". Authors, film-makers and poets
make their way to a sanctum of liberalism bankrolled by the
billionaire Patrick Lannan in the tradition of Rockefeller and
Ford.<br>
<br>
The foundation also awards "grants" to America's liberal media,
such as Free Speech TV, the Foundation for National Progress
(publisher of the magazine Mother Jones), the Nation Institute and
the TV and radio programme Democracy Now!. In Britain, it has been
a supporter of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, of which
I am one of the judges. In 2008, Patrick Lannan backed Barack
Obama's presidential campaign. According to the Santa Fe New
Mexican, he is "devoted" to Obama.<br>
<br>
<b>World of not-knowing</b><br>
On 15 June, I was due in Santa Fe, having been invited to share a
platform with the distinguished American journalist David
Barsamian. The foundation was also to host the US premiere of my
new film, The War You Don't See, which investigates the false
image-making of warmakers, especially Obama.<br>
<br>
I was about to leave for Santa Fe when I received an email from
the Lannan Foundation official organising my visit. The tone was
incredulous. "Something has come up," she wrote. Patrick Lannan
had called her and ordered all my events to be cancelled. "I have
no idea what this is all about," she wrote.<br>
<br>
Baffled, I asked that the premiere of my film be allowed to go
ahead, as the US distribution largely depended on it. She repeated
that "all" my events were cancelled, "and this includes the
screening of your film". On the Lannan Foundation website,
"cancelled" appeared across a picture of me. There was no
explanation. None of my phone calls was returned, nor subsequent
emails answered. A Kafka world of not-knowing descended.<br>
<br>
The silence lasted a week until, under pressure from local media,
the foundation put out a terse statement that too few tickets had
been sold to make my visit "viable", and that "the Foundation
regrets that the reason for the cancellation was not explained to
Mr Pilger or to the public at the time the decision was made".
Doubts were cast by a robust editorial in the Santa Fe New
Mexican. The paper, which has long played a prominent role in
promoting Lannan Foundation events, disclosed that my visit had
been cancelled before the main advertising and previews were
published. A full-page interview with me had to be pulled
hurriedly. "Pilger and Barsamian could have expected closer to a
packed 820-seat Lensic [arts centre]."<br>
<br>
The manager of The Screen, the Santa Fe cinema that had been
rented for the premiere, was called late at night and told to kill
all his online promotion for my film. He was given no explanation,
but took it on himself to reschedule the film for 23 June. It was
a sell-out, with many people turned away. The idea that there was
no public interest was demonstrably not true.<br>
<b><br>
Symptom of suppression</b><br>
Theories? There are many, but nothing is proven. For me, it is all
reminiscent of long shadows cast during the cold war. "Something
is going to surface," said Barsamian. "They can't keep the lid on
this."<br>
<br>
My 15 June talk was to have been about the collusion of American
liberalism in a permanent state of war and in the demise of
cherished freedoms, such as the right to call governments to
account. In the US, as in Britain, serious dissent -- free speech
-- has been substantially criminalised. Obama the black liberal,
the PC exemplar, the marketing dream, is as much a warmonger as
George W Bush. His score is six wars. Never in US presidential
history has the White House prosecuted so many whistleblowers, yet
this truth-telling, this exercise of true citizenship, is at the
heart of America's constitutional First Amendment. Obama's
greatest achievement is having seduced, co-opted and silenced much
of liberal opinion in the US, including the anti-war movement.<br>
<br>
The reaction to the cancellation has been illuminating. The brave,
such as the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were appalled and
said so. Similarly, many ordinary Americans called in to radio
stations and have written to me, recognising a symptom of far
greater suppression. But some exalted liberal voices have been
affronted that I dared whisper the word censorship about such a
beacon of "cultural freedom". The embarrassment of those who wish
to point both ways is palpable. Others have pulled down the
shutters and said nothing. Given their patron's ruthless show of
power, it is understandable. For them, the Russian dissident poet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko once wrote: "When truth is replaced by
silence, the silence is a lie."
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