CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship • Hacker News Board

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#151

Post by kbenson » Wed, May 08, 2019, 4:58 PM UTC

fucking_tragedy wrote: post #134

mikequinlan wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CBS said "This is the creative solution that we agreed upon with the producers". I have been wondering if the producers insisted that the segment be censored in all regions so that everyone would know about it. Otherwise Americans would never know about the censorship.

You don't fight censorship by doubling down on censorship. It's entirely possible to show the uncensored version in America and raise awareness that the segment was censored in other regions.

It's entirely possible to fight censorship by selectively doubling down on censorship when you know or suspect the effect of that censorship will backfire and have the opposite result.

It's not just about what you do, it's about the outcome you expect and aim for.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#152

Post by taobility » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

kyleblarson wrote: post #79

'Ms. King said that she and her husband initially told CBS that they would quit the show if the song was pulled but that they eventually agreed on inserting a message saying that the company had censored it.' AKA they want to keep their paycheck.

Lots of people saying they would leave US if Trump be voted, but none of them actually doing that. So, that's the reality.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#153

Post by gmueckl » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:04 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #127

wavefunction wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reject your Wikipedia links as authoritative sources on what constitutes a journalist as well as your contention that he's doing anything other than dumping documents (selectively).

If "dumping documents" doesn't qualify as a journalist, should the New York Times return it's Pulitzer for the Pentagon Papers? [1] 1: https://www.pulitzer.org/article/race-publish-pentagon-paper... 2: https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/02/archives/the-times-wins-a...

No, because they read these papers and wrote the story on them. Wikileaks just provided mostly unprocessed data dumps. Explaining the story is a very big part of a journalist's job.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#154

Post by taobility » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:04 PM UTC

uberman wrote: post #44

Before damming CBS you might want to hear their motive. According to them the 90 second segment was removed because "such a sequence would endanger CBS executives on the ground in China" . If that is the true motive, I personally give them a pass. If this is about preserving safety of employees and not about profit, can anyone condemn them? This article written by a friend of one of the performers in the 90 second an…

That's just a safe excuse which can expose on the media. The real reason is for profit.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#155

Post by SkyBelow » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #109

mduerksen wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information to the public. [1] Check. You can argue about whether his style is commendable or not (for codes of conduct see [2]), but that does not change the fact that he is a journalist . [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalist [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standard...

I reject your Wikipedia links as authoritative sources on what constitutes a journalist as well as your contention that he's doing anything other than dumping documents (selectively).

I reject your rejection.

Are you going to provide any alternatives, because if not my rejection overrides yours. I would also point out that outright rejecting something without presenting either an argument or alternative why leads up away from productive discussion.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#156

Post by shijie » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

zouhair wrote: post #147

convivialdingo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism doesn’t work without choice of consumption. If you have a bad or misleading product, eventually people won’t use it. I’m less worried about typical profit-mongering than I am about the corporate owned media however - media has a powerful ability to skew and censor truthful news.

That's a myth of Capitalism, a lot of crappy products are used every day because of marketing, market flooding, patenting, copyright, corruption and so on and so forth.

Not a myth at all; what you just described is generally a result of crony capitalism, in bed with the government.

When a true free market is allowed to operate (which happens all the time in many aspects of our economy), it is the most democratic meritocratic and fair way to exchange goods and services, and accumulate wealth. Pure capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than any other system or system of government in the history of mankind.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#157

Post by duxup » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

taobility wrote: post #148

duxup wrote: post #84

If they're willing to censor news. I wonder how long until China extends its social credit system (or a form of it) to people outside China... and what companies play along?

are you saying US's credit score shouldn't apply to immigrant?

I'm wondering if CBS bows to pressure (real or imagined) from China over a news story, if a US company would do so as far as who they hire or fire when it comes to personnel decisions.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#158

Post by kbenson » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #138

lostgame wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, no, this is about American censorship, not the actual issues in China.

This is a large American media company bowing to pressure from a totalitarian regime. Even Google bowed down after initially taking a stand. So many other's have as well. Same with the silly apology tour multiple companies did over merely including Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate countries from China...in a dropdown menu on their websites: https://www.businessinsider.com/zara-marriott-qantas-apologi... It's almost b…

> Same with the silly apology tour multiple companies did over merely including Taiwan and Hong Kong as a separate country from China...in a dropdown menu on their websites

You say it's silly, but I imagine if we had the internet during the civil war and some European company listed the United States as two separate items for North and South, that could very easily end up being a political issue and politicians might threaten repercussions over it. I don't actually think it's silly, whether I agree with it or not. It is lamentable because I'm not sure there's a "right" way for a company to handle it other than going where the money dictates until it's mostly settled politically (which may never happen).

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#159

Post by shijie » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

chillacy wrote: post #150

CharlesColeman wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe that is what most people would call socialism. When taken at its root idea anyway. No, it could also be the society's moral system. For instance, take a hypothetical capitalist society where the shame and stigma of violating human rights is very strong. A business owner there would likely refuse to violate them even if it's very profitable, because doing so would make him a pariah, no "socialism" required…

It only takes one person desperate enough or psychopathic enough to do it.

I doubt one person’s negative actions could destroy an entire society’s moral foundations wholesale. Not even Hitler or Jesus did that.

Re: CBS censors a ‘Good Fight’ segment whose topic was Chinese censorship

#160

Post by amalcon » Wed, May 08, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

nickysielicki wrote: post #26

I feel like free speech has never been under such attack. Culturally, we don't care about it, we find offensive content more offensive than censorship of offensive content. Politically, they can censor you completely if they want to by hitting you with an NSL. EFF says that happens 60 times a day. The most hard hitting journalist in the west, Julian Assange, was just put in jail. I'm scared about the future. It's not…

Assuming we are taking a US centric view here, I feel just the opposite: that speech has scarcely ever been so free.

It was less than a decade ago that the U.S. military had a policy literally called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". It was only fifty years ago that Martin Luther King Jr. was being investigated by the FBI, for speech that is now broadly considered necessary. About 100 years ago, check out the Sedition Act of 1918. Such a thing would not even pass the smell test today.

Sure, we've had some recent setbacks in some areas. The journey is not in a straight line. The destination is pretty clearly in a place of "more freedom".