Friday, November 12, 2010

Censorship

I won't confuse real censorship with a retailer choosing not to carry an item.

Back in the day, when I worked at a massive bookseller, there was a big discussion about the store carrying a racist hate tract. Unfortunately, the CEO decided that it would be censorship for the store not to carry this spew.

Wrong.

The store is not preventing the author from writing it, the publisher from printing it, the media or public from talking about it, or anyone from buying it wherever they can find it.

It's not censorship to decide what NOT to put on your store shelves, whether real or virtual.

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