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August 2002 |
CENSORSHIP, INC.The Corporate Threat to Free Speech by Lawrence Soley “[Lawrence] Soley demonstrates a
broad knowledge of First Amendment theory, economic history, employment law,
corporate power, organizational communication, and media structure … [He]
lays bare the methods by which corporate officials create information scripts
for the public and strategically control speech … Soley presents
provocative and persuasive arguments to which all students of communication
should be exposed.” “The marketplace of ideas has
become, like so many other markets, an oligopoly. The idea of free expression
has been turned on its head. Those with money and power have the means to put
their messages across, while using the legal system to smother dissident ideas
in the name of "freedom." Lawrence Soley has performed a great
service by documenting this process in his superb book. Censorship, Inc.
is an exciting chronicle....” “Censorship, Inc. is a work
of extraordinary importance. More than any other work in recent times, it
unmasks the true nature of media censorship in the United States
today—that coming from concentrated private wealth—and refutes the
notion that the corporate media system protects democratic values. Accessible
and written with journalistic flair, Censorship, Inc. should be read by
students, activists, and old-fashioned citizens. It is a must-read.” The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a landmark in the defense of free speech against government interference and suppression. This book shows it also acts as a smokescreen behind which a more dangerous and insidious threat to free speech is at work. Soley shows how as corporate power has grown and come to influence the issues on which ordinary Americans should be able to speak out, so new strategies have developed to restrict free speech on issues in which corporations and property-owners have an interest. From the tobacco industry's attempts to prevent information about the effects of smoking on health from becoming public to corporate lawyers advising tire manufacturers not to disclose that their products are causing death on the roads, what are often seen as legitimate business practices constantly narrows our right to free speech. Censorship, Inc. is a comprehensive examination of the vast array of corporate practices which restrict free speech in the United States today. Soley gives a systematic and detailed account of the legal processes that enable corporate censorship to continue or be halted in fields as diverse as advertising and the media, the workplace, community life, and the environment. He also shows how these threats to free speech have been resisted by activism, legal argument, and through legislation. Grounded in extensive research into actual cases, this book is at the same time a challenge to conventional thinking about the nature of censorship and free speech that points the way towards a recovery of essential rights of citizenship. Preface Chapter One: Private Censorship, Corporate Power Section I: Speaking of Labor Section II: Uncivil Actions Section III: Private Property, Public Silence Section IV: The Muted Media Appendix I: California Anti-SLAPP Law (Model Statute) About the Author If you have any technical comments or suggestions, about this web site, please send e-mail to Our Webmaster at mrwebmaster@monthlyreview.org.  |
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