Censorship “Nazis”
Ugh. I‘ve been sick since Wednesday and didn’t feel like blogging. I should have posted one of the drafts I‘ve got saved up for such an occasion, but by the time I remembered that, I was too lazy. 
Anyway, here’s my reaction to a news tidbit from today.
I like freedom of expression and freedom of access to information. To me, these two related freedoms are fundamental to any society that claims to be “free.” Unfortunately, the spectre of political correctness (and more recently, patriotic correctness) shackles this freedom of speech with restrictions designed to prevent “offence” to groups of people. We see this everyday when we watch television with the profanity beeped out or listen to edited songs on the radio.
Today CBC News reported that a Belgian broadcaster would not be airing a Hitler-themed episode of a cooking show. At first glance, one wonders how a cooking show could have a Hitler-themed episode. If you read the article, however, you’ll get a better idea of what it aims to do: it cooks the favourite dishes of famous people.
I take issue with this statement in particular by Michael Frelich, editor of Antwerp’s Jewish affairs magazine Joods Actueel:
The problem is that Hitler is being featured in a cooking show, without any historical context.
Pardon? Your problem with this cooking show is that they‘re talking about Hitler instead of using their time slot to lecture everyone about all the atrocities Hitler committed or commissioned? Do you really think that anyone watching this show, especially anyone in Belgium, is ignorant of who Hitler is?
It’s a cooking show! It’s not pro-Nazi; it’s not anti-Semitic. All it wanted to do was cook Hitler’s favourite food, and show us some history along with it. What if I was interested in knowing what Hitler liked to eat? Now I’ll never know.
This is the most recent example of an absurd trend of political correctness trumping our freedom of speech. I understand that some people are offended by things I deem unoffensive. Tough luck. Thanks to the plethora of television channels available these days, no one is forcing you to watch a TV show you deem offensive. That being said, if you want to write a letter to the broadcaster because you deem it offensive, go right ahead: I support everyone’s right to free speech, even if they don’t happen to agree with me.
But censorship is an ugly weapon of mass destruction, and it’s one that all too easily backfires on the wielder. You might censor me today, but what’s to stop me from censoring you tomorrow, when our positions are reversed?
How I’ll get through this government
I have discovered how I will get through the next six months. Or year. Or two years. However long it is until Stephen Harper tries to get a majority again. I will watch CBC comedy news shows.
What would I ever do without The Rick Mercer Report or This Hour Has 22 Minutes?!
For my American friends, The Rick Mercer Report is similar to The Colbert Report. Mercer does a lot less in-studio, however, and has more clips where he goes out and meets people, politicians1, goes to schools, and gets naked.2 He has a regular photo challenge on his site where anyone can edit a photo he posts, and he’ll put them up in his gallery.
I don’t know what the American equivalent of This Hour Has 22 Minutes is. You’ve got a cast of news anchors who know no boundaries in “reporting” current events. When I was younger, I grew up on Royal Canadian Air Farce; I didn’t watch This Hour Has 22 Minutes much. However, as Air Farce declined, I started watching 22 Minutes more and more, and now I watch it exclusively. Some of their sketches are quite creative. And they are Canadian, so obviously Canadian. It’s wonderful.
There’s clips (pretty much full episodes broken down by sketch) for both the Mercer Report and 22 Minutes on their respective CBC websites. Not sure if non-Canadians can watch them, but it’s worth a try if you’re interested.
These sort of political commentary shows, in both Canada and America, can do something regular news corporations cannot: they don’t have to impartial! And that makes it so much more fun. Moreover, these comedians can poke and pry into issues that might be too sensitive or not “politically correct” enough for the evening news. Whether or not you agree with these comedians’ perspectives or laugh at their jokes, they do us a great service in a society where freedom of speech is eternally at risk.
