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What Gets Redacted

Jesse Walker | 9.2.2004 11:00 AM

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This defies satire.

[Via Liberty & Power.]

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NEXT: Zell's Hell

Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. John "Big Brother" Ashcroft   21 years ago

    Anyone who objects to the Justice Department redacting sensitive information must be supporting terrorism. Don’t you people realize we do this to protect our nation from the Democ… er, terrorists?

  2. thoreau   21 years ago

    I eagerly await posts from various people on this forum explaining how “clearly you have no idea how the law enforcement and intelligence businesses work, and you’re just looking for something to complain about.”

  3. gaius marius   21 years ago

    hey, free country, though. free speech. free expression of ideas. yep.

  4. Ken Shultz   21 years ago

    I knew it!

  5. Salted Pork   21 years ago

    clearly you have no idea how the law enforcement and intelligence businesses work, and you’re just looking for something to complain about

  6. Crusader Rabbit   21 years ago

    Just goes to prove that government of the [. . .], by the [. . .], and for the [. . .] shall not [. . .] from the [. . .].

  7. D-FENS   21 years ago

    I eagerly await posts from various people on this forum explaining how…

    But Thoreau, It’s for the children!

  8. Anon Govt Worker   21 years ago

    Hey, there are plenty of Supreme Court rulings that should be redacted. And when you have the power, what is holding you back from correcting the errors of the past.

    🙂

  9. Trotsky   21 years ago

    Further evidence of the sovietization of these United States.

  10. Rick Barton   21 years ago

    That’s really frightening. The Justice Department is trying to censor a sentiment that it doesn’t like! Perhaps it’s because the objectionable sentiment is emanating from a source as respected as the Supreme Court. But, the more disturbing question is; why would the DOJ find such sentiment objectionable at all when, in fact, it should be appreciating the wisdom? Despite how wrong headed the priorities of the DOJ have become, we are fortunate that our rugged constitution requires that the Court prevail in this situation.

    There are many Republicans that are more principled, and I believe that there is a liberty interest in seeing them hold congress. But, this alarming revelation is yet another reason why I recoil at the fact that Bush shares my political affiliation. And, I know just what to do about it: http://www.badnarik.org/

  11. SR   21 years ago

    The link doesn’t work.

  12. Jesse Walker   21 years ago

    Hmm. Works for me.

    Trying cutting and pasting the URL into your browser:

    http://www.thememoryhole.org/feds/justice_redaction.htm

  13. Ruthless   21 years ago

    Hey, if you get paid to redact, whatcha gonna do?

  14. J   21 years ago

    I’ve got what could very well be an incredibly stupid question, but I’d certainly appreciate it if a more well-informed person could provide an answer (without being too hard on me, of course…) – is there ever a legitimate reason why a Supreme Court decision would be redacted? Are Supreme Court decisions always publicly available when they’re made?
    One reason I ask is that I showed this to a conservative friend and his response was that the tone and descriptions on the Memory Hole page, and the comments here, were overblown, and it could have easily just been a clerical error (he said he’s done editing like this before, and it’s a mindless hassle). But is there a legitimate reason why they would even be looking at a Supreme Court decision with an eye to censoring parts of it?

  15. Phil   21 years ago

    Pentagon Censors ‘Right To Know’ Video

  16. Bob Basil   21 years ago

    This Justice department is the most anti-libertarian one ever, so this redaction is as little a surprise as it is certainly galling.

  17. Doc   21 years ago

    I remember Terry Anderson on 60 Minutes holding up for the camera photocopies of *newspaper articles* about himself requested through a FOIA request that had material redacted.

  18. Gary Gunnels   21 years ago

    thoreau,

    You mean Shannon Love? 🙂

  19. McClain   21 years ago

    Your job is to skim through a lot of text you don’t care about and black out anything that looks “sensitive.”
    How much mental energy are you gonna expend on that task? How easy is it to zip along, slashing away with the ol’ Sharpie, erring on the side of caution and blacking out anything that looks even slightly questionable?
    After all, you’re working for the gov’t: your #1 priority is to Cover Yer Ass.
    Other people can always dig up the stuff you censored later, on their own dime, if it’s already been de-classified or leaked. No skin off your back for not making their jobs easier.
    But if you fuck up, and reveal something you shoulda redacted: well, that’s a whole nother ball game, now isn’t it?
    This is partly an object lesson in Why We Don’t Want the Gov’t Controlling Everything.
    But, also, remember: you DON’T WANT a ruthlessly efficient government.

  20. Jason Ligon   21 years ago

    It seems to be the same sort of analysis that goes on when right wing nannies tell us that Trainspotting glorified drug use. Yeah, looked great to me.

    I wonder if this is what synergy between the FCC and the Justice Dept. looks like.

  21. thoreau   21 years ago

    Gary-

    I’ll never tell!

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