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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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