amor mundi

Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Monday, January 19, 2009

Gene Robinson's Invocation -- Despite HBO's Effort at Censorship

Posted by at

2 comments:

jimf said...

> HBO censored openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson's Invocation
> for the event, which means, apparently, that nobody can
> ever see that -- despite the explosive political significance. . .

I guess HBO figures that if anybody wants to see fags on TV
they can watch Queer As Folk on, uh, Showtime. (Or reruns
of Will & Grace, or even older reruns of Bewitched with
Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur.)

Did you catch the flap last summer about NBC allegedly censoring
footage of that gay Olympic diver and gold medalist from Australia?

"NBC did not mention Mitcham’s orientation, nor did they
show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC
has made athletes’ significant others a part of the coverage
in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete
Sanya Richards’ fiancee, a love triangle between French
and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh’s wedding ring debacle."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/mediaculture/96206/
nbc_censors_sexual_orientation_of_openly_gay_gold_medalist_diver/

NBC denied any such intent, of course.

2:15 PM
Anonymous said...

Couldn't it be like it was with presidental campaign ads? (And, unfortunately, this is controversal enough for someone to fake full DMCA letter, let alone less-formal YouTube flag...)

Anyway, whoever did it was wrong. Absolutely, definitely wrong. And if it indeed was HBO... I hope they are so bent on protecting their "property" I hope they do it without discrimination.

Not that I'm anti-copyright, but using it like that is wrong.

Not that the problem of censorship through copyrights is "new" or "digital"... It's more than 150 years old. Still no solution, though. :(

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_(Macaulay)
"... Suppose that the works of Wesley were suppressed. Why, Sir, such a grievance would be enough to shake the foundations of Government. Let gentlemen who are attached to the Church reflect for a moment what their feelings would be if the Book of Common Prayer were not to be reprinted for thirty or forty years, if the price of a Book of Common Prayer were run up to five or ten guineas. And then let them determine whether they will pass a law under which it is possible, under which it is probable, that so intolerable a wrong may be done to some sect consisting perhaps of half a million of persons."

2:43 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)