Government censors attack Secrecy News
Here’s a new twist on censorship — a publication wiping a subscriber from its mailing list because the subscriber had the audacity to point out some shoddy reporting.
Welcome to the digital age, where the consolidation of the media — in this case in the hands of the biggest monopoly of all (our own U.S. government) — makes it possible to not only censor the news, but the readers as well.
Here’s the proof, from the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy:
SECRECY NEWS PURGED FROM STATE DEPT HISTORY MAILING LIST
Secrecy News was removed from the distribution list for the U.S. State Department history publication "Foreign Relations of the United States" (FRUS) after we reported on errors in several FRUS volumes on March 24 and 26, 2008.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2008/03/four_frus_volumes.html
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2008/03/more_frus_errors.html
A spokesman for the State Department Historian's Office confirmed that officials had ordered the removal of Secrecy News from the FRUS mailing list in response to our critical coverage.
In an email message to the series editor yesterday, I asked the Historian's Office (HO) to reconsider its action. To do so would serve the best interests of FRUS, I suggested.
"I know that a sizable fraction of my Secrecy News mailing list (which now exceeds 13,500 self-selected subscribers) has an interest in FRUS publications. Many of those subscribers are unlikely to be part of other existing networks of academics and historians through which news of FRUS is disseminated," I wrote.
"I would also willingly publish any criticism of my own writing that HO personnel or HAC [Historical Advisory Committee] members felt was warranted," I added.
The request to reinstate Secrecy News on the FRUS mailing list awaits a decision by the State Department Historian, Dr. Marc J. Susser.
By the way, if you want to make your feelings known to Mr. Susser about this Politburo-brand of censorship, you can contact the Office of the Historian at this e-mail address: history@state.gov.
I for one have a soft spot in my heart for Secrecy News, since it was on the right side of press freedom several years back when the Department of Homeland Security sent it’s thought police to my door in an effort to censor Narco News.
From an item about Secrecy News’ assist to Narco News, penned by Dan Feder at the time:
This case was mentioned in the latest issue of the widely-read newsletter Secrecy News, published by the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. So great was the response that on Tuesday, the rush of new visitors following the Secrecy News link crashed our server briefly.
The brief from Secrecy News reads:
DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PURSUES ONLINE JOURNALIST
After journalist Bill Conroy wrote a story in the online publication Narco News concerning a memo that had been leaked to him from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department sent two agents to his home and to his workplace, where they pressed him to identify his source.
In an apparent attempt at intimidation, they also approached his employer after he declined to cooperate. The encounter was described in "Customs Cops Visit Bill Conroy with an Attack on Press Freedom" by Al Giordano, May 24:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/5/24/222740/305
The original story, "Homeland Security memo reveals terrorism records are being sanitized" by Bill Conroy, April 7, is here:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/7/232329/3516
The story includes a link to the leaked DHS memo, which is unclassified but not authorized for public release.
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