Friday, March 18, 2022

Controversial sources of content can be taken off cable, but if the internet is open, the websites can still be accessed.

On a Facebok thread, there is an article in New York Times by someone who used to work for RT Television; Russia's international TV channel. She was unhappy that it has been blocked by so many cable companies as there is still some useful content on it.

I pointed out that RT is still available on the internet, by going to it's own website.

One thing I like about USA is that we don't have much censorship on the internet, itself. Unlike China, where I hear there is something called "The Great Firewall of China." Suppression of the internet is also a problem in Russia and many other countries these days. I've also heard that even in China, computer savvy locals talk about ways to "climb the firewall," meaning finding a way to surf the web beyond it.

There are some advantages to using the open web versus always relying on large providers, such as cable companies and media sources; even Facebook, that can edit content.

In some cases, editing is needed, versus non professional journalism, such as fake news about the pandemic. Professional media does have an editing role, but it's still good to have internet, itself, available.

I'm a non professional journalist, myself, meaning I don't get paid, but I do try and be mindful of what I put out.

I felt a bit guilty visiting the RT site as I also understand the concept of boycott. At least we (US) are, supposedly, not buying oil from Russia with money that goes, in part, to a war machine.

We are, however, buying oil from Saudi Arabia who recently executed a bunch of people. I saw an article about that on RT, when I surfed to it's website.

I have also seen news about the bad human rights and executions in Saudi Arabia on American media. NPR, BBC (BBC carried on NPR at night), Democracy Now; we do have a variety in news media.

Free flow of ideas remains important to me, but too bad so much of everyone's economy fuels the militaries.

The free flow of information can be useful but the flow of things like money and oil can be problematic.

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