UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Colman McCarthy Publishes a Paean to NCR As Vehicle of Free Speech, and I Think of Jerry Slevin’s Censorship: “The Upstart NCR Was Itself An Effort at Free Speech”
Today, National Catholic Reporter has published a powerful statement by Colman McCarthy noting that, in its very inception some 50 years ago,
At its core, the upstart NCR was itself an effort at free speech — against the controlled speech found in the pages of diocesan newspapers overseen by local prelates and assorted ecclesiastics who had little understanding, much less regard, for independent journalism.
McCarthy says that the free speech he has most cherished in NCR’s pages has been the letters to the editor, which “create a forum for diversity that can’t fail to energize readers to take their antiphonal turn,” and which allow those contributing to this forum to see themselves “as valued members of a team where if we don’t always see eye to eye we can always speak heart to heart.”
As I read Colman McCarthy’s paean to NCR’s dedication to free speech, how can I possibly avoid thinking (as Alexandra does as well in a comment she has just left in response to the article) of NCR’s choice some weeks ago to ban Jerry Slevin from commenting (and here, here, here, here, and here) in its discussion forum? As Alexandra’s comment notes, while Jerry Slevin reports that he found himself inexplicably shut out from leaving any comments at all at the NCR site — with no explanation on the part of NCR until he and others made a fuss about this — NCR has continued to permit some posters whose comments are repeatedly flagged by others as abusive attacks to keep on commenting at the NCR site.
The disparity between the treatment some people posting at NCR receive, and the treatment handed out to Jerry Slevin and others, is deeply troubling. As I’ve repeatedly noted, the system of censorship at the NCR site is simply not transparent, and there is very little accountability about it to the NCR constituency. How censorship appears to be taking place in the NCR comboxes undercuts NCR’s claim to make a valuable contribution to American Catholic discourse by offering an alternative to the “controlled speech fround in the pages of diocsean newspapers.”
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