Redact of the Killer Tomatoes
Kevin Drum links to an amusing story in North Carolina's News & Observer about government censorship of "sensitive" materials. The state's Department of Labor recently released to the paper a sheaf of documents a reporter had requested, but many were so thoroughly redacted as to be nigh unintelligble. Except one of the heavily redacted documents was an article that the News & Observer itself had published in 2003—and the author was the same reporter who'd submitted the document request. Among the redacted words: Mexicans, illegally, several workers, landlord, and tomato pickers. The labor department says it "will probably review its policies on what information is private."
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Tomorrow, all adverbs will be redacted. The next day, every word beginning with a vowel.
What, are we communist Cuba now? Why is our government censoring things that aren’t national security issues, i.e. things normally graded as Classified, Top Secret etc.?
Kinda like a government version of Mad-Libs.
We had a “We’re from the government and we’re here to help” moment at my office recently, with the Labor Dept. It was about as productive as their redaction efforts.
They’re jamming. Redacting inocuous stuff to make it harder to figure out what’s worth scrutinizing….
Makes me think of “The Censors” by Luisa Valentina…
Hey, waitaminute! I recognize this! They cribbed this plot from _Catch 22_!
“Sensitive”, eh? I’ve got to worry when state governments start sounding like the Chinese government…
I appreciate the picture along with this post. It saves me from having to read the related material. Talk about going the extra mile! Thanks H&R!
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Said er fornuftig