WARNING: CENSORSHIP AT WORK

Lannan Foundation cancels John Pilger appearance/screening

I’ve written a great deal about the choking off of free expression by the powers that be in this country but seldom have I seen it working so nakedly as in the cancellation of an event, here in Santa Fe, by the hidden hands at the Lannan Foundation, no explanation given.

The Lannan was about to sponsor an evening devoted to an interview with the journalist John Pilger by David Barsamian, followed by a screening of Pilger’s film, “The War You Don’t See” at our local art movie house.

I’m pleased to say our local newspaper, the New Mexican, gave the unexplained cancellation a front page story; Pilger says he has been unable to get anyone at the Lannan Foundation to explain the cancellation, and the newspaper has been blocked, as well…

The interlacing of public and private, as Gloria Steinem famously explained, is choking individuals who attempt to speak out and crippling this country.

When I tried to see the trailer to Pilger’s movie, which is listed on his website, I couldn’t—YouTube showed me a message that there is a copyright problem…

This is all too familiar to me after my own struggle, years ago, to see my memoir, “Passion and Prejudice”, into print. There was an intense effort on the part of my family, armed with an array of lawyers, to intimidate me and my publisher; tomes sent to all the newspapers and magazines that then reviewed books—and there were many—influenced subsequent reviews and blackened my reputation.

But I wasn’t writing about foreign conflicts and the lies and distortion the government continues to use to manipulate us into support or at least silence.

I was writing about the kind of family that produces those lies, lies which occur in private, where wealth and power reign, as well as in public. The interlacing of public and private, as Gloria Steinem famously explained, is choking individuals who attempt to speak out and crippling this country.

SO GO AHEAD AND GOOGLE JOHN PILGER AND SEE IF YOU CAN LOOK AT THIS FILM AND LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE…

Read John Pilger’s open letter to Noam Chomsky and the general public regarding this cancellation.