Censorship in News, a Vicious Cycle

Protests take place all over America at all hours of the day. If you live here, there’s likely one going on right now in your town; perhaps another –two towns over, so on and so forth.

The right to protest is a core value we hold here in the birthplace of true liberty, and yet it’s something that seems to be often pushed to the side. It appears that, even though protesting injustices is common today in America, there is an ever dwindling percentage of people that truly believe it works.

The reasons for this are complicated, with many factors that go into what a movement or organization can consider a “successful” protest. Even so, as I talked about a few weeks ago in a post about what it means to protect dissent, the right to protest, alongside many of our other core freedoms, is less a right we hold as American citizens, and more of a duty we owe to one another.

This, for once, isn’t an opinion to me. You owe it to me, the same way I owe it to you, to be the change our country needs. We aren’t like other countries in the world, and while I don’t want to hold America on some prestigious pedestal, it's undeniable we are special when it comes to the rights we hold; to be a part of real change to the ideologies and legislations we think are wrong in terms of our government.

So why bring this up today? Well, the answer is simple; because regardless of if I brought this up today, two weeks ago, or two years ago, it still holds the same importance. Today, we live in a new age. It’s not unprecedented for our country, yet this new age is one that goes against everything America is built on; the age of censorship.

Today, journalists are no longer labeled muckrakers, but agents of propaganda. Supposedly, nothing is true anymore, it’s all either fiction or slander, defamation or calumny, at least according to those in power.

Don’t mistake me, there is indeed a lot of “Fake News” that plagues the modern journalism industry. It’s one of the main reasons modern journalists quit positions at major companies. Even so, the Americans who create these falsehoods in the minds of their peers, do so because that’s what impression major news agencies portray.

What I’m getting at is that the real journalism, beyond what we know is fictitious, continually remains hidden beneath the surface. Looking at websites known for raw, unbiased news such as ANTIWAR.com or theamericanconservative.com, we can see hundreds of stories daily that simply don’t appear in major news outlets. Stories that fall within the realms of protest to an extent. Stories that are being wrongfully, and deviously hidden by the American government.

The cycle that precedes these stories being buried by political news is a vicious one that, while not illegal, is a direct effect of our government being against protesting voices; specifically antiwar voices in this case.

What seems to happen is that the government has a certain hold on what stories gain traction in the media, AKA, popular political figures on both sides are often highly regarded by their accompanying right or left news agencies.

These biased news agencies know they have no chance in making money on a story that protests war if even one major political figure in their demographic is pro-war. Therefore, the stories are never picked up, and instead left to independent journalists, thus leading to indirect censorship by those in charge.

The journalism scene today is broken, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed. It’s a corny phrase, but it still holds true: be the change you want to see. 

AI DISCLOSURE: 

This post was researched, written, and edited by William P. Hughes. The prose, the narrative structure, and the conclusions are the author's own work and judgment.

AI tools were used as a supporting resource during preparation, specifically for research assistance, source gathering, and organizational suggestions. The author independently reviewed, verified, and curated all information against the cited sources, and made every final decision about what to include and how to present it. The writing itself was done by the author, not by an AI tool.

The author takes full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the finished work.

Written by William Patrick Hughes.