Web filters censor more than smut

4/5/01 Editor, NH:

William Shakespeare, psychologist par excellence, put these words into the mouth of one of his arch villains, Richard the Third: "(I) seem a saint when most I play the devil." And thereby on to Mona Charen and her article: "Kids see smut, liberties secure" (MNH,March 24, 2001). In this article Mona takes to task the ACLU and the American Library Association which object to a law passed Dec. 15, 2000. This law will come into effect 20 April 2001 and mandates (if you want to get federal funding) a "technological protective measure" in other words filters, to block on-line access to material that is obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors. But before you ask Sancta Mona to intercede for you peek underneath her halo. She put it there to hide two little horns. All the filters I have come across not only filter out pornography of which they do a poor job, but they also deny access to http://www.zundelsite.org/. On this site you will find not one smutty word, much less pornography. You will find however the Leuchter Report containing the forensic evidence to the effect that nobody could have been gassed in the "gas chambers" in Auschwitz. The filters are produced by private companies with imput from Jewish organizations. The Anti Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center of L.A. are especially active. Alan Dershowitz, Jewish society lawyer, wrote: "Individual Jews dominate television, film, book publishing, newspapers, magazine advertising, public relations and other opinion shaping businesses" (the Vanishing American Jew, p. 51). This meant we had to see the world through Jewish eyes. The Internet gave us our own eyes back. These filters are again forcing Jewish glasses on our noses.

In the very same article Mona Charen opposes the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. How differently Mona and I look at issues. To Mona the campaign finance reform is the worst of censorship. She equates the giving of money with freedom of speech. I on the other hand look at campaign contributions as legalized bribery according to the saying, "whose money I take whose song I sing." We have not heard a pretty song for a long time. I am not impressed with the McCain-Feingold bill. There is a better way. The TV stations use our airwaves. Simply require them to set blocks of free time aside for campaigns. It won't happen. Our political singers will never bite the hands which feed them.