Why do you love censorship?

[lustylad]

Originally Posted by Tiny

Books by Orwell, Rushdie, Kundera, and Graham Greene. Thank goodness for liberal democracy and freedom of speech.

Did you hear about Salman Rushdie's new book?

It's called "Buddha, you fat fuck!"

[Turner2099]

Originally Posted by Tiny

Agreed. The courts would have shut down Carr. But do ABC and its owner Disney want another multi-million dollar lawsuit or regulatory discrimination? ABC previously shelled out $16 million on a defamation case against George Stephanopoulus.

We'll never really know about this one. The suit was settled after Trump was elected, so that may have influenced ABC's decision. ABC presumably had a strong case. Trump's attorneys would have had to prove "actual malice" or "reckless disregard for the truth" by misstating a public court record. The judge in the E Jean Carrol case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in a written ruling on July 19, 2023, regarding post-trial motions that the sexual abuse Trump committed was what "many people commonly understand the word 'rape'" to mean. Stephanopoulus made his statement on March 10, 2024.

CBS went through a similar thing with their 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and subsequent editing. Trump sued for $10 billion and subsequently increased the amount to $20 billion. The owner of CBS, Paramount Global, was estimated to be worth $8.4 billion. Paramount settled for "only" $16 million after Trump was elected, enabling the merger between Paramount and Skydance, which needed government approval, specifically from the FCC led by Brendan Carr.

Stephen Colbert called the settlement a bribe and a few days later it was announced that his contract would not be renewed and The Late Show would end. The Late Show was the top rated late night show when this was announced.

Bari Weiss is now the editor-in-chief of CBS News. Her publication, The Free Press, known for its right-leaning "anti-woke" stance, was purchased by Skydance in October 2025, following the merger with Paramount. She controversially killed a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan men deported to CECOT, the El Salvador prison known for torturing prisoners. The Salvadoran government has generally denied these claims, with President Nayib Bukele dismissing torture allegations as false. However, international forensic experts have verified that injuries found on released detainees are consistent with their accounts of abuse.

60 Minutes did air the segment after internal allegations of corporate censorship, but there were Bari Weiss-approved additions to the beginning and ending of the segment. Weiss's reason for initially killing the story was that there were no Trump administration officials on camera for interviews about the deportations. Interestingly, Trump administration officials refused to be interviewed for the story.

ParmamountSkydance has been a big player in the bid to buy Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers owns CNN. Trump hates CNN. Jared Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was initially involved with the Paramount bid with a $200 million investment, but withdrew after additional scrutiny and "changed investment dynamics".

Warner Brothers refused Paramount's bid and accepted Netflix's bid. ParamountSkydance announced a hostile takeover bid. David Ellison told CNBC's Squawk on the Street on a Monday morning that, “We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but I don’t want to speak for him.” Later that afternoon, Trump said he knew nothing about it.

I don't know if this officially counts as censorship, but it does look like a way to strongly influence media.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by lustylad

Did you hear about Salman Rushdie's new book?

It's called "Buddha, you fat fuck!"

ROTFL! If Rushdie said that in Thailand they'd throw him in the pen if a crowd didn't get to him first. But not in the United States of America. Thank goodness for the first amendment.

I read about two pages of the Satanic Verses and couldn't get into it. That title though, "Buddha, you fat fuck," would sell itself.

Originally Posted by Turner2099

We'll never really know about this one. The suit was settled after Trump was elected, so that may have influenced ABC's decision. ABC presumably had a strong case. Trump's attorneys would have had to prove "actual malice" or "reckless disregard for the truth" by misstating a public court record. The judge in the E Jean Carrol case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in a written ruling on July 19, 2023, regarding post-trial motions that the sexual abuse Trump committed was what "many people commonly understand the word 'rape'" to mean. Stephanopoulus made his statement on March 10, 2024.

CBS went through a similar thing with their 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and subsequent editing. Trump sued for $10 billion and subsequently increased the amount to $20 billion. The owner of CBS, Paramount Global, was estimated to be worth $8.4 billion. Paramount settled for "only" $16 million after Trump was elected, enabling the merger between Paramount and Skydance, which needed government approval, specifically from the FCC led by Brendan Carr.

Stephen Colbert called the settlement a bribe and a few days later it was announced that his contract would not be renewed and The Late Show would end. The Late Show was the top rated late night show when this was announced.

Bari Weiss is now the editor-in-chief of CBS News. Her publication, The Free Press, known for its right-leaning "anti-woke" stance, was purchased by Skydance in October 2025, following the merger with Paramount. She controversially killed a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan men deported to CECOT, the El Salvador prison known for torturing prisoners. The Salvadoran government has generally denied these claims, with President Nayib Bukele dismissing torture allegations as false. However, international forensic experts have verified that injuries found on released detainees are consistent with their accounts of abuse.

60 Minutes did air the segment after internal allegations of corporate censorship, but there were Bari Weiss-approved additions to the beginning and ending of the segment. Weiss's reason for initially killing the story was that there were no Trump administration officials on camera for interviews about the deportations. Interestingly, Trump administration officials refused to be interviewed for the story.

ParmamountSkydance has been a big player in the bid to buy Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers owns CNN. Trump hates CNN. Jared Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was initially involved with the Paramount bid with a $200 million investment, but withdrew after additional scrutiny and "changed investment dynamics".

Warner Brothers refused Paramount's bid and accepted Netflix's bid. ParamountSkydance announced a hostile takeover bid. David Ellison told CNBC's Squawk on the Street on a Monday morning that, “We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but I don’t want to speak for him.” Later that afternoon, Trump said he knew nothing about it.

I don't know if this officially counts as censorship, but it does look like a way to strongly influence media.

Trump's just too thin skinned. He should react like the horseless King in Ducbutter's video and just trot on down the road after he's insulted or an unfavorable story or interview comes out. Or argue his case in the press instead of turning to regulators and the courts. Threatening to hold up mergers or sue for billions comes off as overkill and borderline autocratic.

Yes, I think it counts as censorship. Maybe it's not overt. It's more like threatening to RTM people when you start to lose an argument. Instead you should up your game or admit you were wrong. And unfortunately Trump's loathe to admit he's wrong, although he does often backtrack when he realizes he fucked up. Like Greenland or huge tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

[rooster]

Why do I love censorship?

Hmmmmm....

Lemme count the ways....

Well, the first one that comes to mind is that I don't have to put up with any of that stoopid shit about how "vaccines save lives" on any government web sites where I go to learn about experimental cancer treatments for my dying mee-maw....

AND.... we get alla them piles of Robt. E. Lee statues back from the smelter before they melt 'em down and turn 'em into participation trophies for Trans kids in T-ball, or somethin dumb.

I'm sure there's lots more! Thank you for protecting us from dangerous information, Mr. President! And for letting me post ANY GODDAM THING I WANT to Social Media, knowing that you have my back! And Alex Jones's.....

(now WHERE did they put that information on that NIH site?...and the details about the grant funding for the study she was supposed to be eligible for... and those statistics?....it was all just here! Dammit. Why can't I find it?...)

.

[ICU 812]

Censorship is anathema to a free society.

England is about to destroy itself with formally stated censorship their government the would have made Stalin proud. . . . including folks ratting on their neighbors, and co-workers to government established tip lines and web sites.

We approached that during the pandemic hysteria, but thankfully have pulled back.

[Precious_b]

I don't know if it fits the subject here but the only government censorship I go for is when CIA/NSA stuff happens. We are not privy to everything they do and I kinda like that fact. Like the Venezula operation. We don't need to know the details down to the tee.

[eccieuser9500]

Originally Posted by Turner2099

We'll never really know about this one. The suit was settled after Trump was elected, so that may have influenced ABC's decision. ABC presumably had a strong case. Trump's attorneys would have had to prove "actual malice" or "reckless disregard for the truth" by misstating a public court record. The judge in the E Jean Carrol case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in a written ruling on July 19, 2023, regarding post-trial motions that the sexual abuse Trump committed was what "many people commonly understand the word 'rape'" to mean. Stephanopoulus made his statement on March 10, 2024.

CBS went through a similar thing with their 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and subsequent editing. Trump sued for $10 billion and subsequently increased the amount to $20 billion. The owner of CBS, Paramount Global, was estimated to be worth $8.4 billion. Paramount settled for "only" $16 million after Trump was elected, enabling the merger between Paramount and Skydance, which needed government approval, specifically from the FCC led by Brendan Carr.

Stephen Colbert called the settlement a bribe and a few days later it was announced that his contract would not be renewed and The Late Show would end. The Late Show was the top rated late night show when this was announced.

Bari Weiss is now the editor-in-chief of CBS News. Her publication, The Free Press, known for its right-leaning "anti-woke" stance, was purchased by Skydance in October 2025, following the merger with Paramount. She controversially killed a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan men deported to CECOT, the El Salvador prison known for torturing prisoners. The Salvadoran government has generally denied these claims, with President Nayib Bukele dismissing torture allegations as false. However, international forensic experts have verified that injuries found on released detainees are consistent with their accounts of abuse.

60 Minutes did air the segment after internal allegations of corporate censorship, but there were Bari Weiss-approved additions to the beginning and ending of the segment. Weiss's reason for initially killing the story was that there were no Trump administration officials on camera for interviews about the deportations. Interestingly, Trump administration officials refused to be interviewed for the story.

ParmamountSkydance has been a big player in the bid to buy Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers owns CNN. Trump hates CNN. Jared Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was initially involved with the Paramount bid with a $200 million investment, but withdrew after additional scrutiny and "changed investment dynamics".

Warner Brothers refused Paramount's bid and accepted Netflix's bid. ParamountSkydance announced a hostile takeover bid. David Ellison told CNBC's Squawk on the Street on a Monday morning that, “We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but I don’t want to speak for him.” Later that afternoon, Trump said he knew nothing about it.

I don't know if this officially counts as censorship, but it does look like a way to strongly influence media.

Good stuff.

https://www.goodreads.com/