MB Civic

Pilger on his film being banned by Lannan, a leading liberal foundation ..

I was about to leave for Santa Fe when I received an email from the Lannan official organizing my visit. The tone was incredulous. “Something has come up,” she wrote. Lannan had called her and ordered all my events to be canceled. “I have no idea what this is all about,” she wrote. .. The manager of The Screen, the Santa Fe cinema that had been rented for the premiere, was called late at night and told to kill all his online promotion for my film .. Theories? There are many, but nothing is proven. For me, it is all reminiscent of the long shadows cast during the cold war. The reaction to the Lannan ban has been illuminating. The brave, like the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were appalled and said so. Similarly, many ordinary Americans called into radio stations and have written to me, recognizing a symptom of far greater suppression. But some exalted liberal voices have been affronted that I dared whisper the word, censorship, about such a beacon of “cultural freedom.” The embarrassment of those who wish to point both ways is palpable. Others have pulled down the shutters and said nothing

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